You cannot answer from inside a roof cavity.
So it goes to voicemail, and the customer rings the next plumber on the list. We answer in your business name, work out whether it is urgent using your rules, and either book it or get you on the phone.
The trade phone problem
The calls come when your hands are full.
Timing
The phone rings exactly when you cannot safely answer it.
Under a house, up a ladder, mid solder, driving between jobs. Answering it badly, with a drill running and no way to write anything down, is often worse than not answering at all.
Urgency
Emergency work does not wait for you to finish.
A burst pipe or a dead switchboard is a now problem. Those callers work down a list until somebody picks up, and the first human voice usually gets the job. They are the highest value calls and the least patient.
Detail
You cannot quote what nobody wrote down.
Suburb, access, owner or tenant, how old the unit is. Without those you are ringing back to ask, which is a second phone call you did not have time for. A message without detail is just homework.
What we do with a trade call
Your definition of urgent, not a generic one.
Water entering the property, no power, gas smell, sewage, no hot water in winter. You write the list, and we never widen it on the night.
On answer
Your business name, within four rings
The caller believes they have reached your office, because in every way that matters to them they have.
First questions
Urgent by your rules, or routine
If it is on your urgent list, your on-call mobile is phoned immediately and followed with an SMS carrying the address and the fault.
Close of call
Booked into your calendar
Or held as a pencilled slot if you would rather confirm it yourself. Call-out fees and minimum charges are stated exactly as you word them, never estimated.
Within the minute
The job in your inbox, fields filled
Suburb, owner or tenant, what has failed, how long, best contact number. Everything you need to quote without ringing back.
Who we answer for
Trades we take calls for.
If your trade is not here the plan works the same way. The only thing that changes is what counts as urgent.
Wet trades and essential services
Plumbers and gasfitters, electricians, air conditioning and refrigeration, locksmiths. The trades where a bad night costs a customer real money.
Building and construction
Builders, carpenters, roofers, concreters, excavation, glaziers, tilers and waterproofers, painters and plasterers.
Property and grounds
Landscapers and turf, pest control, cleaning, pool servicing, arborists and grounds maintenance contractors.
Questions
What tradies ask before forwarding a call.
Will customers know it is not me answering?
We answer in your business name and follow your plan. Most callers assume they have reached your office. We never volunteer that we are a separate business, and we never claim to be standing in your workshop either.
Can you stop ringing me about rubbish?
Yes, and for a lot of tradies that is half the value. Telemarketers, wrong numbers and tyre kickers get filtered out. Your phone rings for urgent work and nothing else, if that is how you want it set.
What if I am on a job and cannot take the urgent call?
Your plan says what happens next: a second number, a nominated mate, or a message with a callback window that we state to the caller so they are not left guessing.
Do you quote prices?
Only figures you have given us in writing, such as a call-out fee or a minimum charge, and only word for word. We never estimate a job, and that limit is written into your plan.
Can you book straight into my calendar?
Usually yes. Tell us what you use during setup and we will confirm what we can write to directly and what comes to you as a structured message instead.
I am a one man band. Is this worth it?
Take your average job value and multiply by the calls that went to voicemail last month. Most sole traders find one recovered job covers it. If your call volume is too low we will tell you on the first call rather than sign you up.
Stop losing jobs to voicemail.
Forty five minutes, no charge, and you keep the written call plan whatever you decide to do next.