The job you lost while you were up a ladder: a tradie’s guide to never missing work

You’re halfway up a ladder with both hands in a ceiling. Your phone buzzes in your pocket, stops, and buzzes again. By the time you climb down, there’s no voicemail. That caller has already rung the next electrician on Google.

For plumbers, electricians, builders, cleaners and anyone else who works with their hands, the phone is the business. It’s also the hardest thing to answer, because the moments you’re busiest are exactly the moments you can’t pick up.

This is a practical guide to fixing that without hiring a receptionist.

1. Get a business number that isn’t your personal mobile

Your personal mobile on the side of the ute works, until you want a day off, add an apprentice, or stop getting quote requests at 9pm on a Sunday.

A Colvy business number fixes that:

• Choose your number. A local landline (02, 03, 07 or 08) or an 04 mobile. Pick a mobile if you want customers to be able to text it.
• Answer it anywhere. In the Colvy app on your phone, or in a browser at the office.
• Ring the whole team at once. Everyone who’s available rings, and whoever answers first takes the call. Anyone already on a call is skipped.
• Pass calls on. Transfer a call to a colleague, and have a quick word with them before you hand it over.

It’s A$15 a month per number with no lock-in. You verify your ID and address online, and it’s usually live within minutes.

Get a business number online

2. Text back every call you miss

This one feature pays for everything else. When a call goes unanswered, Colvy can send the caller a text straight away:

Now the job is a conversation, not a missed call. The customer has told you what’s wrong before you’ve even climbed down.

You choose whether it sends every time or only after hours, and you write the wording. It’s sensible about who it texts: at most once every 12 hours per caller, and never to hidden numbers, landlines, 13/1300 numbers, overseas numbers, or anyone who has opted out.

The caller who gets a text in thirty seconds rarely bothers ringing the next tradie on the list.

3. Never write call notes again

Here’s the other half of the phone problem: the calls you do answer. You take the details while driving, promise to “text a quote tonight”, and by tonight you’ve forgotten half of it.

Answered calls on your Colvy number are recorded, transcribed and summarised on the customer’s conversation, with follow-up tasks pulled out for you:

4. “Can you send me a photo?”

Half of quoting is seeing the problem. But photos texted from a customer’s phone arrive tiny, and videos get crushed to mush.

Send an upload link instead. The customer taps it, picks photos or videos from their camera roll, and the files land in the conversation at full quality:

You’ll also see when the link was opened, and on which kind of device, so you know whether to chase.

5. Follow up quotes without feeling pushy

You sent the quote. They said “looks good, I’ll let you know”. And then nothing. Most tradies don’t follow up because it feels awkward, or because they forget.

Colvy can do it for you. Send the quote or invoice as a payment link from the chat. If it isn’t paid, the Sales Agent drafts a polite follow-up after a few days (three by default, or anywhere from two to seven):

Drafts wait for you to approve, unless you choose to let them send. It only follows up on quotes up to three weeks old, never more than once a month per customer, and only in sending hours.

6. Turn finished jobs into reviews

Google reviews are how new customers choose between tradies. After a job, hit Ask for a review in the chat and the customer gets a link to your Google profile. Or switch on automatic review requests for completed bookings and orders.

When reviews come in, the Reputation Agent drafts replies in your voice. It can send the 4–5 star replies by itself if you allow it, and anything critical goes to you with a task attached.

Before and after

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