UK Trades
The phone rings while you're under a sink.
In a trade business the enquiry pipeline is one thing: the phone. And it rings hardest when both hands are busy.
Managed AI Reception from £500 setup + £149/month — the reception product specifically
The problem
Three ways a job walks.
Nobody misses calls out of carelessness. They are missed because the work that pays is happening at the same time — and voicemail is not a system, it is a hope.
On the tools
The phone rings mid-job. Answering properly means stopping; not answering means the caller rings the next name on the list.
Out of hours
Evening and weekend calls are often the urgent ones — the ones people pay a premium for and will not wait on.
Overflow
Two calls at once. One gets answered. The other is a coin toss.
What we set up
It answers while you carry on.
Overflow and out-of-hours calls answered in your business's name, covering the services, hours and area you agree in advance. It captures what the job is and how urgent it is, and sends the details to your team before the caller has put the phone down.
ALF OS, running below — sample data, live to click
Tuesday · Reception answering
The company is running.
ALF Reception is answering calls and turning them into jobs. One decision is ready now. The rest remain ordered behind it.
Calls covered
Overflow · out of hours · second line
ALF Reception
CALL · HANDING OFF
72.0 SEC
No hot water or heating since this morning. The boiler pressure gauge is reading zero, and two young children are in the flat. Noah can take a callback at any time today.
ALF stopped once: creating the next business record needs your approval. Everything the caller said is already captured.
NEEDS YOU · 9
One interruption.
ALF handles the certain work. You handle the judgment.
ALF RECEPTION · NOW
Create Noah Williams’s job now?
Boiler pressure loss at 5 Furnace Row, ZZ99 3AA · Emergency.
Handled without you
Every action carries evidence
- 30 days68 calls answered and structuredcaptured
- Now12 jobs hold a completed outcomedurable
- Open10 open jobs remain in the operating recordwatched
Raw calls stay for 90 days. Customer, job and evidence records remain.
Same day · opened 22 Aug
Boiler pressure keeps dropping
14 Copper Lane, ZZ99 1AA
- Customer
- Marie Lindqvist
- Number
- 07700 900 101
- Status
- Quoted
- Quoted
- £285
Note
Check the expansion vessel before replacing parts.
Next action
Ring Marie with the revised quote
History
- 22 AugJob created
- 22 AugCustomer linked
- 23 AugQuoted £255
- 24 AugQuoted £285
- 24 AugQuoted
- 24 AugNote — Check the expansion vessel before replacing parts.
Raw calls are kept for 90 days. Structured customer and job records remain.
0m 47s · caller rang off
Priya Shah
- Number
- +447700900204
- Job
- not described
- Address
- 43 Meadow Lane, ZZ99 1AR
- Urgency
- not captured
- Callback window
- not captured
- What they said
- not captured
- Call length
- 0m 47s
Raw calls are kept for 90 days. This customer record remains.
Example Plumbing & Heating · day one
Raw calls stay for 90 days. Customer, job and evidence records remain.
This is the ALF OS client app drawn from sample records for Example Plumbing & Heating. The controls act on the sample data: creating a job opens the record built from what the call captured, dismissing takes the next interruption, and the rail switches views.
What is set up, exactly
- Your services, coverage area and hours built in
- Urgency and job detail captured, not just a name
- Tested by you before any call is forwarded
- Your existing number stays yours
From £500 setup + £149/month for the reception product, fully managed.
Beyond the phone
An audit looks wider than calls — how enquiries are captured and routed, what happens to follow-up, which repetitive admin recurs, and what the software you already pay for could be doing. Where the enquiry journey itself is the weak link, a website can be scoped as supporting infrastructure alongside it.
AI Opportunity Audit and Roadmap →Before you buy an audit
A paid audit is not mandatory here. If you already know the missed calls are the problem, go straight to the receptionist and keep the audit fee. The audit is for when something is clearly costing you and the cause is not obvious.