AI receptionist for decorators. You are stood in her front room.
Taking somebody else's call in a customer's house, while she is sat there, is not something you do. So it rings out, and you ring back at seven when you are eating. Carrie answers it there and then, takes the rooms, the state they are in and when they want it, and books your look round for an evening you have actually got free.
Your diary of quotes decides next month. It gets filled in the evenings, by somebody who has been up a ladder since eight.
How does an AI receptionist work for a decorator?
An AI receptionist answers while you are working in somebody's house, gets enough about the job to be worth a visit, and puts the look round in your diary rather than in your evening. It is the same receptionist across every trade and local service we work with, asking what suits your work.
Ringing in somebody else's living room
Dust sheets down, cutting in round a ceiling rose, and the lady of the house is two feet away with a cup of tea. Answering is rude and not answering costs you the job.
Carrie asks what decides the price
Which rooms. Are we papering or painting. Is there old paper coming off. Woodwork as well. Ceilings. Is anybody living there while it is done. Any high stairwells.
You get a booked evening, not a list
Two look rounds on Tuesday, twenty minutes apart, both in the same village, both already described. You drive to two houses instead of ringing eleven people back.
Your week, as it is
You are three days into a full house in Cavendish. Nine calls came in across the week and you took two of them, both stood outside on the drive feeling like you were being rude to the customer inside. The other seven you rang back after your tea.
Four answered. Two of those wanted a look round and could only do Thursday, which is the night you had promised your daughter.With her answering it, you never leave the room. All nine are dealt with while you carry on cutting in. Six are real, and by Friday you have four look rounds booked, none of them on Thursday, two of them the same evening within half a mile of each other.
Each one arrives written up: three bedrooms and a landing, old woodchip in one, occupied while the work happens.
You quoted four houses and gave up one evening instead of four.
What decorators ask about it
Mostly about the look round, about whether it can take a job description that is worth anything, and about the deposit question, which everybody asks.
Can it get enough detail to be worth a visit?
It asks the six things that decide whether a job is a day or a fortnight: which rooms, paint or paper, whether anything is coming off first, whether the woodwork is included, ceilings, and whether anybody is living there while it happens.
A stairwell with a high landing is worth knowing about before you turn up with the wrong platform, so she asks about that too.
Can it book my look rounds?
Yes, into your own diary, only offering evenings and times you have actually got free. For this trade that is most of the value: your quoting diary is what decides next month and it is currently filled by you, tired, at nine at night.
She also groups them where she can, so two in one village on one evening rather than two evenings and forty miles.
Who prices the room?
You do, after a look, and she books it. Two identical bedrooms can be a day apart, depending on what is under the paper. So the price you give is one you can stand behind.
People always ask about a deposit. What does it say?
Whatever your answer actually is, in your words. If you take a deposit for materials she says so and says how much. If you do not, she says that.
Every word about your deposit is your word, so the first customer to ask hears the same thing you would have said.
What about the ones who want colour advice?
She writes down what they are thinking about, so you arrive knowing they have mentioned a dark green hallway.
The colour conversation happens in the room with the light on, and it is one of the reasons people book you rather than somebody cheaper.
Does it answer in the evening, when people actually ring?
Yes, and that is when a lot of your enquiries come, because people ring a decorator once the kids are down. It is also the hour a decorator's phone is usually on voicemail, so answering it stands out.
What about the ones who want a price for a whole house sight unseen?
They get taken seriously and written up, with the size and the rooms on it, and she explains that a look comes first.
You get the enquiry either way, and you decide which ones are worth an evening.
I get a lot of landlord and letting agent work.
Those are the easy ones for her: a flat between tenants, a date it has to be finished by, and keys. She takes the property, the agent, the deadline and the access, and it goes in the diary.
Can people send photographs?
Yes, and for this trade it saves visits. A picture of a hallway with the old paper peeling tells you more about the job than five minutes of description, and it stays with the enquiry.
Does my number change?
No. Nothing needs reprinting.
How is it set up?
Twenty minutes: what you take on, whether you do exteriors, how far you travel, what you say about deposits, and which evenings you are prepared to quote on. Then you listen to the first call.
Will an assistant mention us to somebody with a house full of furniture?
Homeowners ask an assistant what having a house decorated is really like before they ring anybody. How long a room is out of use, whether they have to move out, what happens to the carpets. The reply comes back naming firms.
- How you work in an occupied house is the thing they are asking. Covering, dust, which rooms are usable of an evening: on the page, it is what gets quoted back.
- Then they ring, and you are cutting in on a ceiling. Being recommended and being reachable are two different jobs, and she does the second one.
- There is nothing extra to buy for this. Google says its AI answers sit on the same ranking systems as ordinary search, so one page done properly covers both.
Where else does she answer?
The phone is one of seven. A lot of decorating enquiries arrive as a photograph of a room, and that is the same receptionist.
The AI receptionist
All seven channels, and what she covers on each one. See the AI receptionist
A website for your trade
The site that shows rooms rather than projects. See details
Text messages
The ones that come in at nine at night asking if you do this. See details
What else is worth reading?
Every page here answers one question properly rather than skimming five. These are the others, and each one says what it is before you click it.
AI receptionist, dental and medical practices
The queue at half eight, and the ones who ring on a Sunday in pain. She answers every one, and knows exactly what she must not say.
AI receptionist for electricians
You cannot answer with a tester in one hand and the board open. Every call answered, the fault written down, and the job on your phone.
Foothold AI: websites and AI for local service businesses
A website that gets found, a back office that runs the day, and an app for your team. From £295 to set up and £99 a month. Suffolk based, UK wide.
Where we work: Suffolk and north Essex
Twenty towns across Suffolk and north Essex, from Sudbury. Most are twenty or thirty minutes away, and the person who builds your site comes out.
How many evenings went on ringing people back?
Last week. Not the quoting, which is the job. The ringing back, which is not.
Twenty minutes with Chad. Nothing to pay and nothing to sign. The whole receptionist, and all seven channels, are on the AI receptionist page.