For plumbing, heating, electrical and roofing firms
Beside your office, for the calls and lists it can’t get to.
Bookings, calls after hours, quotes to follow up and services coming due. A team of ours can run any of them in your job software, or we can set the work up or advise on it.
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What we do
A call while the office is on another line, a quote still waiting for an answer, a service that has come round again. We can help with each. As a team working beside your office, as a set-up, or as advice.
Beside your office, not in place of it
Your office knows your customers, your people and your diary. The team works in the same job software, picks up what the office can’t get to and leaves a note of everything it did. Nothing has to be typed in twice.
Which parts we take on is up to you
Start with the evenings and weekends, and leave the day as it is. Or hand over the list of quotes and keep the phones yourselves. Or make it one project, writing down what is asked on every call and what can’t wait until morning.
Who gets in touch, and why.
What a customer needs decides how soon it has to happen and what has to be asked first. These are the three kinds of call.
Something has stopped working
At any hour
- No heating or hot water
- A leak, or water coming through a ceiling
- The power has tripped and won’t come back on
- A blocked drain or toilet
- Tiles down after a storm
- “Can someone come out today?”
Work they’re planning
Days or weeks ahead
- “What would a new boiler cost?”
- “Could someone come and look, and give us a price?”
- A yearly service that’s due
- “You sent me a quote. Can I go ahead?”
- A landlord, with a job at a property they let
A job that’s booked, or just done
Once a visit is in the diary
- “What time are they coming?”
- Moving or cancelling a visit
- “Nobody’s turned up”
- “Is the part in yet?”
- “It’s still not right”
- A question about the invoice
What we’d take on.
Some of this arrives on the phone and some is a list in your job software. A team of ours works both, to your rules.
- Calls the office can’t get toAnswered in your name when the office is on another line, at lunch or short-handed. The job is booked in your job software as the right kind of visit, and any call-out charge is explained first.
- Evenings, weekends and emergenciesYour questions are asked, and your own list decides what can’t wait. For those, the team contacts whoever you’ve named, with the address and what is happening. Everything else is booked for the next working day.
- Quotes that have gone quietCustomers who haven’t answered a quote are rung on the schedule you set, after any reminders your software sends. Anyone who wants to go ahead is booked.
- Services and plan visits coming dueWorked from the list your job software keeps. Where it already sends the reminder, the team’s part is the customers who haven’t booked.
- Changes to booked workVisits moved or cancelled when a customer asks. Anyone asking about a visit is told what your diary shows, and a visit where nobody was in is rebooked.
- Website forms, chat and messagesEnquiries that arrive in writing answered, and booked the same way as a call.
Quotes · Sent, and not answered
A new boiler, quoted last month
- Rung once your reminders had gone unanswered
- Wants to go ahead
- Booked
- The first week your diary had room
To whoever priced it
They’d like the radiator in the back bedroom moved while you’re there. That isn’t on the quote.
Booked in your job software, and off the list
Behind the diary
And the things you hadn’t thought to ask for.
The phone is one part of an office’s day. Here are six more that we could set up, run or advise on.
- We set it up
What to ask on every kind of call, written down
The questions for each kind of job, your charges as you want them said, and your list of what can’t wait until morning. One version, for your office and for us.
Processes and knowledge base - We set it up
Training for the people who book your work
Material for your own office staff, covering your kinds of job and your rules. It is written once, and ready for whoever joins next.
Training material - We set it up
What customers ring about, and when they don’t get through
A reason noted on each call, from a short list agreed with you. Beside it, your phone system’s own record of missed calls, where it keeps one.
Reporting - We run it
A standby line for the first cold week
Set up and tested with you ahead of the winter, with your list of what can’t wait agreed beforehand. It is already in place when the cold arrives.
Dedicated helplines - We run it
Reviews and messages answered
What customers write about you online replied to, or drafted for you to approve. Messages and comments on your social pages are answered the same way.
Customer service - We plan it with you
Before the next van goes on the road
A look at how calls, the diary and the follow-up lists are organised today, and what to change as the firm grows.
Consultancy
Booking isn’t picking a slot
What “today” means depends on who is asking.
The answer turns on the trade, the hour and whose customer it is. The team finds out which from the questions you’d ask, and follows the rule you’ve set. These are examples.
Three callers to three firms, the same question
“Can someone come out today?”
A heating firm · a customer on a service plan
No heating since this morning
- Found in your job software, with the plan they pay for
- Your plan gives its members the next free visit
How it ended
Booked into the next free visit
Under the plan, so there is no call-out charge to explain.
A plumbing firm · a new customer, late at night
Water coming through the kitchen ceiling
- Talked through your steps for a leak. The water still won’t stop
- On your list, that can’t wait
- Your out-of-hours charge explained, and agreed
How it ended
Your on-call plumber rung
With the address and what is happening. The job is in your software for the morning.
A roofing firm · the morning after a storm
Tiles off above the back bedroom
- Asked whether water is coming in. It isn’t
- Your rule is a visit to look before any price is given
How it ended
A visit booked, to look and quote
The customer is sending photos to the address you gave.
The question is the same each time. What happens next is yours to decide beforehand, and the team works to it.
The team behind it.
Your customers deal with your firm throughout. The team works in your job software, beside your office.
A team we hire and lead
Trained on your questions and your rules before they take a call. Each team has a team lead whose job is coaching.
How we workWhere the work runs from
One of our three locations, in the Philippines, Portugal or Ireland. The hours you need covered and the kind of work decide which, and we settle it with you first.
Where we workYour customers’ details
Each person needs a login or a seat of their own in your job software, which is yours to give. Access is only to what the work needs.
Security and data protection
Questions, answered.
The things trades firms are likely to ask first.
Can the team book straight into our job software?
Yes. The team works in the job software you already use. Each person needs a login or a seat of their own, because we don’t work from a shared password. Those are yours to give. Your kinds of job, and what has to be asked for each, are written down as rules. The team books to them. Who goes to each job stays your decision.
Our office answers most calls. Can the team take only the ones it misses?
Yes. Calls can come across only when nobody in the office picks up, or only during the hours you choose. Your office carries on answering whenever it’s free. How calls are passed across depends on your phone system, and we’d work that out with you.
Who decides whether our on-call person is rung at night?
Your own list does. You set out what can’t wait until morning, and the questions that tell one kind of call from another. The team asks those questions and follows the list. If you don’t have one written down, we’ll help you write it. Anything that can wait is booked for the next working day. You get a note of every call.
Does the team quote prices?
Only the ones you’ve written down. That might be a call-out charge or the price of a yearly service, said the way you want it said. Work that someone has to see first is booked as a visit to look. The team doesn’t work out a price on the phone.
Can the team take a deposit or a call-out charge?
The team never hears or sees a card number. How a customer pays depends on what you already have. It might be on the day, by an invoice afterwards, or through a link your job software sends. We’d work out the route with you.
Will the team know enough about plumbing, heating or electrics?
They’re trained on the work you hand over. That means what to ask for each kind of job, what your rules say to do next and where to log it. They aren’t tradespeople and don’t act as one. A technical question goes to your own people, with the detail already taken.
How does following up our quotes work?
The list is yours, and it comes from your job software. The team rings the customers who haven’t answered, on the schedule you set. Where your software already sends reminders, the calls start once those have run out. A customer who wants to go ahead is booked. A question about the price or the work goes back to whoever quoted. When a customer says no, the team notes what they said and doesn’t ring again.
What happens in our busiest week, such as the first cold snap of winter?
A busy season you can see coming is planned with you ahead of time. That can include a standby line, set up and tested with you before the winter, with your list of what can’t wait already agreed. When the calls come, the ones on that list are dealt with first. Everything else is booked into your diary in the order you’ve set.Dedicated helplines
What if the work I need help with isn’t listed here?
Tell us about it. This page covers the work trades firms are most likely to need, not everything we do. If the work follows a process and happens on the phone, in an inbox or in your job software, there’s a good chance we can take it on. If it isn’t one for us, we’ll say so.Tell us about your business
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