Who it is for / Landscapers and gardeners
Over a mower or a digger, you will not hear the phone. While You Work answers the calls you miss in your business name, finds out what the garden job is, where it is and when, and sends you the details a minute later.
Founding members pay £49 and their line switches on as soon as they finish the set-up form. The first week on a live line is free.
On every call
Urgent jobs
Urgent calls are texted to you straight away, and every call is emailed to you.
Real calls
Garden enquiries are big-ticket and slow to decide, so the first firm to ring back with a survey date usually wins.
The maths
Say you miss 3 calls a week and two in five of those callers would have booked a patio, lawn or fencing job worth about £1,200.
3 calls × 40% × £1,200 = £1,440 a week. × 52 weeks ÷ 12 = £6,240 a month of work going to someone else. An example: put your own numbers into the missed-call calculator.
A garden project is booked on the strength of the first visit. Miss the call and you are not on the shortlist.
Timing
The first warm weekend of spring, bank holidays, and the week after a storm takes fences down. All of it while you are on a site with a mini digger running.
What callers hear
The receptionist asks one thing at a time, checks the number back and never makes up a price. The details reach you by email a minute after the call, and by text straight away when it is urgent.
What reaches you
URGENT. Sue, 07700 900488, CV8 Kenilworth. Fence panel down in the wind, dog can get out.
Receptionist: Hi, you’re through to Green Acre Gardens. Tom is out on a job at the moment, but I can take the details so he can ring you straight back. Calls are recorded so nothing gets missed. What’s your name?
Caller: Hi, it’s Sue. A fence panel has come down in the wind and the dog can get out.
Receptionist: Thanks, Sue. I’m sorry to hear that. I’ll mark this as urgent so Tom sees it first. What’s your postcode?
Caller: CV8, in Kenilworth.
Receptionist: And what’s the best number for Tom to ring you on?
Caller: 07700 900 488.
Receptionist: So that’s 07700 900 488. Is that right?
Caller: Yes, that’s right.
Receptionist: Thanks, Sue. Tom will ring you back as soon as he can, and I’m sending you a text now to confirm.
Set up
A short form made for landscapers:
One code on your mobile sends calls you do not answer within 20 seconds to your While You Work line. Turn it off whenever you like.
Every caller is greeted in your business name. You get the details a minute later, and the caller gets a text saying you will ring back.
Questions
Yes. It takes what the customer wants and where, then tells them you will ring back. You add the areas you cover in the set-up form, and it mentions it if a job looks outside them.
Yes, with the Voice Booking and Pay module. It offers the caller your real free times, books the job and texts them a confirmation, with your deposit link if you take deposits. Without the module it takes the details and tells the caller you will ring back.
£49 a month including VAT for founding members, locked for as long as you stay, with no contract and the first week free once your line is live.
It treats a fallen tree, a fence down next to a road or a flooded garden as urgent if you tell it those count for you, and texts you straight away. Everything else is a normal enquiry by email.
Yes. It asks what the caller wants done and whether it is a one-off or regular, and the message tells you which, so you can prioritise the projects.
More detail: what to charge as a gardener, what a missed call costs, UK call answering prices and how we compare.
Source: Fix Radio survey of more than 220 UK tradespeople, reported by PHAM News, October 2022.
Founding price locked for as long as you stay. No contract. Your line switches on as soon as you finish the set-up form.
Also for plumbers, electricians, builders, roofers, locksmiths, carpenters and every other kind of business.