Lead handling
Missed call and enquiry follow-up, handled automatically
If you are up a ladder, under a sink or on another job, the phone goes unanswered and that enquiry usually goes to whoever answers next. Automatic follow-up closes that gap: a missed call gets an immediate text, every enquiry gets an acknowledgement, and nothing sits in an inbox for three days.
- Missed calls texted back
- Every enquiry acknowledged
- Chased on a schedule
The enquiries you lose are the ones you already paid for
Every enquiry that reaches you has been paid for, in advertising, in search rankings, in the years of reputation that made somebody ring you rather than someone else. Losing one because nobody could answer the phone at half past two is the most expensive kind of waste there is, because the cost was already sunk before the phone rang.
For trades and service businesses this is close to universal. The person best placed to answer is the person holding a tool. By the time the call is returned that evening, the customer has rung two other numbers and booked one of them.
The fix is not a call centre. It is making sure that every missed call and every form submission gets an immediate, human-sounding acknowledgement, and then gets chased if nobody has picked it up.
This is one of the highest-return jobs in AI automation.
What gets automated
Each of these is small on its own. Together they close the gap between an enquiry arriving and somebody dealing with it.
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Missed call text-back
A missed call triggers a text within seconds saying you are on a job and asking what they need. That message alone recovers a meaningful share of calls that would otherwise have gone to a competitor, and it costs almost nothing to run.
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Enquiry acknowledgement
Every form submission gets an immediate reply confirming it arrived and saying when somebody will come back. Silence is what makes people ring somewhere else.
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Follow-up on a schedule
Quotes sent and not answered get a polite chase after a set number of days. Most businesses know they should do this and almost none do it consistently, because it depends on somebody remembering.
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Routing and triage
Enquiries sorted by type, area or urgency and sent to the right person, rather than everything landing in one inbox for somebody to sift through each evening.
Automated, not impersonal
The risk with all of this is sounding like a machine, and a badly written automatic reply is worse than none because it tells the customer they have reached a business that does not care.
So the messages are written in your voice, they say something true and specific, and they set a real expectation rather than promising a response time nobody intends to meet. Where an enquiry needs a person, it goes to a person quickly rather than being managed by a sequence.
The measure of whether this is working is not how many messages went out. It is how many enquiries got a reply within the hour, and how many quotes got followed up. Those are the numbers we would review with you.
Work out what you are actually losing first
Most businesses have never counted their missed calls or measured how long an enquiry waits before somebody answers it. Those two numbers usually make the case on their own.
The free review pulls them together and gives you the findings in writing, along with a fixed quote to fix it. Plenty of the fixes are small.
Get in touch
Talk to us about lead handling
A few lines is enough. We will tell you straight whether we can help, what it would cost and how quickly we can be there. No hard sell, and no follow-up sequence if you decide against it.
- We reply within one working day
- A straight answer, including when it is no
- Free process review available, before any money changes hands
Would rather just ring? 01623 354250, Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm.
Frequently asked questions
If the answer is not here, ask us. You will get a straight one, from someone who does the work.
Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm
What is missed call text-back?
When a call comes in and nobody answers, the system sends the caller a text within seconds explaining you are on a job and asking what they need. It turns a missed call into a conversation you can pick up when you are free, instead of a customer who has already rung somebody else.
Will customers know it is automated?
The messages are written in your voice and say something true rather than pretending to be a person typing. In practice people care far more about getting a fast, straight answer than about whether it was triggered automatically.
How much does this cost to run?
The build is quoted up front and the running cost is mostly message charges, which for a typical small business is modest. We show you the arithmetic based on your actual call and enquiry volume rather than quoting a headline figure.
Does it work with our existing phone and forms?
Usually. It connects to the number and the website you already have rather than requiring you to change either. Where a system will not allow it, we will say so before quoting.
What if we would rather ring people back ourselves?
Then the automation should just make sure nothing is missed and everything is acknowledged, and leave the actual conversations to you. That is a common setup and often the right one.