You’re on the tools.
That’s exactly when the big jobs call.
Trade work is won on trust and lost in the gaps: the call you cannot take with both hands busy, the quote that sits silent for a fortnight, and the customer whose job you finished who never heard from you again. Three leaks, mapped, with the sums to size them in your own numbers.
Building and trade firms lose work in three places: calls that ring out while the team is on the tools, quotes sent and never chased, and finished customers never contacted again about the next job. An AI receptionist answers every call and captures the job details; automated follow-up chases open quotes and brings past customers back.
Rather talk to a person first?
Leak 1: the call you cannot stop for.
You are up a ladder, behind a brush, or running a saw. You cannot take that call. The customer rings three firms for quotes and books whoever picks up first, and being the better tradesperson never gets tested.
Leak 2: the quote that goes quiet.
A full job is thousands of pounds, so people sit on it and compare. Most trades send the price and wait, because chasing feels like pestering. The firm that rings on day two owns that silence, and usually owns the job.
Leak 3: the job you never went back for.
You finished the extension, the hallway, or the garden. That customer still has other rooms, other projects, other work. They liked your finish and would have had you back, but nobody ever asked. Your finished-jobs list is the warmest pipeline you own and almost nobody works it.
What the jobs you never went back for are worth. In your numbers.
Placeholder figures, deliberately. Swap in your own; the sum is the point.
Not new leads, not ad spend. Work from people who already know your finish and already trust you in their house or business.
Three ways to fix it. Two of them aren’t us.
Answer it yourself, properly
Set aside two slots a day, at the tea break and at five, to return every missed call and chase every open quote. Costs nothing. It works, right up until a big job runs long and the discipline goes, which is precisely when the enquiries are heaviest.
Hire a call-answering service
A human answers as your firm and emails you a message. Straightforward, and the person on the line is real. You pay per call, they queue at busy moments, and they take a message rather than qualify the job, so you still ring everyone back.
An AI receptionist on your number
Answers every call at once, day or night, asks the same qualifying questions every time (which rooms, what job, when) and texts you the details. Costs more to set up than nothing and less per call than a person. It cannot look at a job and price it.
Our recommendation: If you miss fewer than a couple of calls a week, do the first one and spend nothing, genuinely. Past that, the honest maths favours the receptionist: it is the only option that never queues, never forgets to ask, and works at seven in the evening when homeowners actually ring. Start there, add quote follow-up once you trust what it sends you.
We count before we build: a fortnight of missed calls, your open quotes, and your finished-jobs list from the last year. Then we plug the biggest leak first. Pricing follows the problem: a one-time setup fee plus a monthly fee for optimisation and support, with options to choose between, never a take-it-or-leave-it.
We build these for trades and publish the honest version: our electrician receptionist went live in 48 hours and we wrote up everything that broke on the way. Same build, trade-specific questions swapped in: the job, the area, access, timing. No building or trade client live yet, so you would be the case study, on terms that reflect that.
Everything we have worked out about this.
Worth doing whether you call us or not.
- Set a missed-call auto-text today: “On the tools. Text me the details and a photo and I’ll call you back this evening.” Free, five minutes, and the photo puts you ahead of the two firms that just rang out.
- Open your last twelve months of finished jobs and pick the ten best clients. Text each one: “Hope the job still looks good. Any other projects on the list this year?” That is the whole script.
- Diarise a day-two call on every quote you send from now on. Not an email, a call. It is the single highest-return habit in the trade.
How do builders and trades stop losing work to missed calls?
What does a missed call cost a building or trade business?
Take your average job and multiply by the share of enquiries you convert. A £4,000 extension converting one in four makes each missed call worth about £1,000 in expected work. Two a week is roughly £100,000 a year of enquiries going to whoever answered.
Can an AI receptionist quote for trade work?
No, and it should not. Trade work is priced off a look at the job: the state of the walls, the access, the prep required. The receptionist finds out what the job is, what trade it needs, and when, then texts you the details so you can price it properly.
What does it actually ask a caller?
Whatever you tell it to. Typically: what the job is, which trade it needs, interior or exterior, roughly how big, whether the property is occupied, and when they want it done. Same questions every time, which is more than most of us manage with both hands busy.
Will it put off high-end customers?
A fair worry when the work is premium. The comparison is not the assistant against you answering. It is the assistant against ringing out. A homeowner who gets a professional answer, sensible questions and a call back that evening reads that as an organised firm.
Does it work for commercial work too?
Yes. The questions change (access, out-of-hours, site rules) but the shape is the same. You decide what it asks and what counts as urgent.
Do I need to change my number?
No. Your number stays as it is and calls divert only when you do not answer, so the phone in your pocket always rings first.
Asked before booking. Answered straight.
My work comes from word of mouth. I don’t need this.
Word of mouth is exactly why it matters: a recommendation is someone ringing you specifically, and a ring-out wastes a referral you cannot get back. Nobody who was told “use this builder, he’s brilliant” rings twice. They ask the friend for another name.
Trade work is seasonal. I don’t want to pay through a quiet winter.
Fair, and this is a conversation about your numbers rather than a rate card. Many trades fill winter with interior work, which is when the phone matters most. Bring your seasonal pattern and we will size the year honestly, including whether it is worth doing at all.
I’d rather my customers got me, not a machine.
They still do, on every call you can take: nothing diverts while your phone is ringing in your pocket. This only picks up what would otherwise have gone to voicemail, and it never pretends to be you. If asked, it says it is an assistant.