You cannot answer a phone with both hands inside a boiler, and the person ringing you does not wait. They ring the next number on the list about ninety seconds later. This is the one feature that stops that happening, and it is the reason most owners notice a difference in the first fortnight.
01The mechanism What actually happens.
- The call comes in and you cannot take it You are up a ladder, under a sink, driving, or on the other line. Nothing changes about how you work. This runs whether you notice the call or not.
- A text goes out within seconds Not a voicemail nobody listens to. A text, from your business number, while the customer still has the phone in their hand and has not yet dialled the next firm.
- They reply, and it waits for you Most people answer a text faster than they answer anything else. Their reply lands in your inbox with their number attached, so the job is still there when you come down off the roof.
- You pick it up when you can An hour later, at the end of the day, whenever. The point is that the enquiry survived the twenty minutes you could not answer, instead of going to whoever picked up second.
02The problem Why a missed call is worse than it sounds.
A missed call is not a customer who will try again later. It is a customer who is already dialling somebody else. That is the whole thing, and it is why this matters more for a trade than for almost any other business.
You are not sitting at a desk. Half your working day is spent somewhere you physically cannot answer a phone, and the other half you are talking to the customer in front of you. Meanwhile every enquiry that reaches you is a person who wants to give you money today.
Voicemail does not fix it. Almost nobody leaves one, and of the people who do, plenty have already rung two other firms before you hear it.
03The wording What the text actually says.
Short, human, and obviously from a person rather than a system. Something close to: "Sorry I missed you. I'm on a job. Tell me what you need and I'll come back to you shortly."
Three things make the difference. It says why you did not answer, so it does not read as a brush-off. It asks a question, so there is something to reply to. And it sets an expectation you can actually meet, which matters more than promising a fast one.
What it must not be is a marketing message. The moment it reads like an automated campaign, the customer stops replying and starts deleting.
04The price What it costs.
Nothing on its own. It is part of the package, not an add-on. £297 a month covers this, the website, the review funnel, lead follow-up, one inbox and the business number. The full list is on the pricing page.
Worth doing the sum for your own trade. If your average job is two hundred pounds and this saves you two a month that you would otherwise have lost, it has paid for itself and most of the rest of the package with it.
05The awkward ones Common questions.
01 Does it text people who are not customers?
It texts whoever rang, which does mean the occasional supplier or a wrong number gets a polite message. That is the trade-off for never missing a real one. You can exclude specific numbers if one keeps triggering it.
02 What if I ring them straight back anyway?
Then they have had a text and a call, which is not a problem. The text is a safety net for the times you cannot get to it, not a replacement for ringing back. Most owners find they still ring back. They just stop losing the ones they'd have forgotten.
03 Can I change what it says?
Yes, and you should. The default is deliberately plain, but your wording in your voice always does better. We set it on the call and you can change it any time after.
04 Does it work outside my hours?
Yes, and that is often where it earns the most. A 9pm call gets a text saying when you will be in touch, which holds the job overnight instead of losing it to whoever answers at 9pm.
05 Do I need a separate phone for this?
No. It runs on the business number that comes with the package, and that number can ring your existing mobile. Nothing to carry and nothing to install.
What else is included is here.
If you want to see it working before you decide anything, I can show you on a call. Twenty minutes, and we'll work out roughly how many calls you're currently missing: the answer is usually higher than people expect. Book a call. Tell me what's going on.