AI receptionist for electricians. You have got the board open.
Supply isolated, tester in one hand, somebody standing behind you asking how long. Carrie takes the call instead, asks what tripped and whether it goes again on a reset, and has the job written up before you have got the cover back on.
A lot of your work is dated rather than urgent, so most of what she does is fill the diary rather than fetch you.
How does an AI receptionist work for an electrician?
An AI receptionist answers while you are working live, asks the fault-finding questions that decide what you put in the van, and books the dated work straight into a diary you can see. It is the same receptionist across every trade and local service we work with, asking the questions that suit the job.
The phone goes mid-test
You are three quarters through a schedule of results with the supply off. Answering means stopping, and stopping means starting that circuit again from the beginning.
Carrie asks what you would ask
What went off, the whole house or one part. Did it go again when you reset it. What were you using at the time. Is it an RCD or a fuse. Four answers and you know whether it is tonight or Thursday.
The certificate work books itself
An EICR or a landlord certificate has a date, not an urgency. She takes the property, the landlord, the tenant and the access, and puts it in the diary while you are still on the job.
A Wednesday you already know
Consumer unit change in Sudbury, booked months ago, and the house has no power all day, which is the point. Your phone rang eight times. You answered none of them because you were live-testing for most of it, and by the time you sat in the van at four there were eight numbers and one voicemail from your mum.
You rang them all back that evening from your kitchen. Two had already got somebody. One wanted an EICR on a rental and could not remember which property. One was a wrong number. You spent forty minutes of your own evening to recover about half of it.
With her answering, the same eight are all dealt with by four o'clock. Three EICRs in the diary with the addresses and the tenants' numbers, one EV charger enquiry with the make of car and where the box is, one tripping RCD that goes again on reset and is flagged for tonight, and three that were not for you at all. Your evening is your evening.
What electricians ask about it
Mostly about whether it can take a fault description that is any use, and about the certificate work, which is where the diary actually gets filled.
Can it take a fault description that is worth anything?
It asks the questions in the order you would. Whole house or part of it. Did it trip again on a reset. What was switched on. Is it an RCD, an RCBO or a rewireable fuse. Is anything burnt or smelling.
That is not diagnosis, it is triage, and it is the difference between arriving knowing roughly where to start and arriving to be told "it just went off".
What happens when somebody describes something dangerous?
She stops asking and gets you. Burning, a smell, or water near a board all go straight to a qualified person.
Every judgement about whether a circuit is safe stays with you, on every call. Nobody is told to put it back on and nobody is talked through opening anything, because that is your name on the certificate.
Most of my work is EICRs. Does it actually help with those?
That is where it earns its keep for this trade. There is nothing urgent about an EICR, which is exactly why it gets lost: somebody rings, you cannot answer, and they ring the next name because any electrician will do for a certificate.
She takes the property address, the landlord, whether there is a tenant, when the last certificate was and what access is like, and it goes in the diary rather than on a list you mean to ring back.
Half my problem is arranging access with tenants.
She does that half as well: gets the tenant's number off the landlord, contacts them, and offers the slots you have actually got. It is the job nobody wants and it is rarely one phone call.
What about EV chargers? The enquiries are all different.
They are, and there are about five things you need before you can say anything sensible: what the car is, where the box would go, how far that is from the board, whether there is off-street parking, and whether the supply is single phase. She asks all five.
Does it answer out of hours?
Yes, at any hour, and for this trade that matters less than it does for a plumber but it is not nothing. A tripping circuit at nine at night is a real call, and somebody who gets an answer at nine will still be yours on Thursday.
Who prices the job?
You do, once you have seen it, and she gets the details down first. Two consumer unit changes in the same street can be a day apart in work depending on what is behind the plaster.
So the number you give is one you can stand behind on the day. The caller still gets a straight answer about what happens next.
What about the calls that are somebody selling me something?
They are answered, dealt with and not passed on. You see them written up if you want to look and otherwise you never hear about them, which is a surprising amount of a working week back.
I already have an answering service. What is different?
She asks your questions and writes up the job. So when you ring back you already know what is wrong, and you are just saying when you can come.
Does my number change?
No. Nothing on the van, the website or your Google listing needs touching.
How is it set up?
With you, over about twenty minutes. What you want asked about a fault, what counts as tonight, which certificates you do, and how far you travel. Then it goes live and you listen to the first one.
Will an assistant name us when somebody needs a certificate?
Landlords and homeowners ask an assistant what paperwork they need before they ring an electrician. An EICR, a minor works certificate, a notification. The reply explains it and often names somebody who issues it.
- Name the certificates you issue, in the words people use for them. A page that says EICR, and says what one costs and how long it takes, is a page that gets quoted.
- Your registration number should open the register that issued it. It is the one claim a customer can check while standing there, and a number nobody can click is only a claim.
- Then the phone goes while your hands are on a board. She answers it, gets the address and the property, and the enquiry is on your screen instead of in a call log.
Where else does she answer?
The phone is one of seven. Landlords and letting agents almost always email rather than ring, 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 takes the enquiry, built for electrical work. See details
Email answering
The enquiry that arrives at midnight with three pictures on it. 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 for garages and MOT centres
It is the same four questions all day and you are under a car. She answers what an MOT costs and when you can take it, without you moving.
AI receptionist for glaziers
A window goes through on a Saturday and they need boarding up today. She answers, gets the size and the address, and tells you what it needs.
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 certificates went elsewhere?
Nobody waits for a specific electrician to do an EICR. They wait for somebody to pick up.
Twenty minutes with Chad. Nothing to pay and nothing to sign. The whole receptionist, and all seven channels, are on the AI receptionist page.