AI text answering for UK trades. Answered before you read it.
People text a local business now instead of ringing, and then they text the next one because nobody replied. Carrie answers the text, asks what needs doing and where, and puts the job on your phone. From your own number, so nothing looks odd at their end.
She replies as fast at half nine at night as she does at ten in the morning.
How does AI text answering work?
A text arrives at your business number. Carrie replies, gets what she needs, and the job is written up for you. You read it when your hands are free.
Customers text because ringing feels like a fuss
A lot of people will not ring a stranger, especially about money. They text, and then they wait, and if nothing comes back they text somebody else.
Carrie texts back and keeps going
Not one canned line. She answers what they asked, finds out what has gone wrong, where they are and when suits, and tells them when you will be in touch.
You get the job, not a thread to read
Name, number, address, what needs doing, written up. The whole conversation is there underneath it if you want it, but the top line is the job.
What it looks like
Quarter past nine on a Thursday evening. A bloke in Long Melford has been meaning to sort his guttering since the spring and has finally got round to doing something about it, from the sofa, with the telly on. He texts three local firms the same message. Two of them will read it tomorrow morning.
Yours answers in under a minute, asks whether it is the front or the back and whether there is safe access round the side, and tells him you will ring in the morning to sort a day. By the time the other two reply, he has already decided.
What people ask about text answering
Fourteen, and all of them about texts. The first one people ask is whether a text is really worth answering properly, so it is near the top.
What exactly is AI text answering?
Somebody replying properly to the texts your business gets, every time, whatever the hour. Carrie reads what they sent, answers it, asks what she needs to know about the job, and writes the whole thing up for you as a lead.
It is a conversation rather than an automatic reply. If they answer her question, she answers back.
Is a text really worth answering properly?
For a lot of local work it is now the first contact rather than the phone. Somebody who texts is usually early in deciding and comparing firms. The one who answers first is a long way ahead of the ones who answer tomorrow.
Look at your own phone and see how many texts are sat there unanswered. That is the number this one is aimed at.
Which trades and local services is it for?
Any business where the customer would rather type than talk. That is most domestic work, and it is heavily true of salons, dentists, garages, driving instructors and anything people feel a bit awkward ringing about.
It is just as useful for a trade whose customers text photographs of a job, because those come in the same thread and she can ask for one.
Does it text from my own number?
Yes. The number they already have for you is the number that replies, so the thread they already have carries on rather than a second number appearing out of nowhere.
Will it sound like an automated reply?
She is set up with your wording and your way of putting things, and you read every line of it before she says any of it to anybody real.
Who gives the price?
You do. She asks what the job is and where, then tells them a price is coming from you. A number sent by text is in writing, so it is worth waiting until the job is understood.
What if they ask something she does not know?
She says she will get an answer for them, writes the question down with the rest of the job, and it is in front of you when you pick it up. You come back to somebody already knowing what they wanted to ask.
Can I take over the conversation myself?
Yes, any time. It is your number and your thread. The moment you reply, you are in it and she stops. Nothing is locked away behind a system you cannot reach.
What about photographs sent by text?
A picture of the problem saves a long conversation, so it is kept with the job rather than lost in a thread. She can ask for one where it would help, which for a repair is nearly always.
What if it is somebody I already know?
An existing customer texting about an existing job gets the same courtesy: an answer, and their message in front of you. She does not treat everybody as a brand new enquiry.
What about spam texts?
They get nothing back and they do not reach your job list. You are not sifting delivery notices and marketing to find the person who wants a quote.
Does it work outside my hours?
Yes, and that is where most of the value is. A text at nine at night gets an answer at nine at night, saying what you want it to say about when you actually work.
What does it cost to run?
The setup and the monthly are on the price list, in the open. The texts themselves are billed on to you at what they cost us, itemised, and never marked up.
Is my data safe and is it GDPR compliant?
Your customers' details are yours. They sit in your own database on your own project, never pooled with anybody else's, never sold, and never used to sell anything to anybody. If you leave, you take them and we delete our copy.
Everything is encrypted on the way and at rest, and what is collected and why is set out in the privacy notice.
"Do they text?" is a question people now ask an assistant
The answer comes out of what somebody wrote down. A customer who cannot take a call at work, or would simply rather not make one, asks which firm will deal with them by message. One answer comes back, and it is built out of stated facts rather than out of who has the smartest looking website.
- So say it plainly on the page: you take enquiries by text, on this number, and a person sees them.
- Say what you do handle by message, and the size and type of job you want. That gets you matched to the right enquiries as surely as any promise.
- There is no separate ranking to buy your way into. Google's guide says the work behind its AI answers is ordinary search work, which is the whole reason we do not price it as a service.
Where else does she answer?
Texts are one of seven. She answers on every one of them, in the same voice, and it all lands in the same place.
Phone answering
The phone picked up on the first ring when your hands are full.
Where they send you a photograph or a video of the problem.
The enquiry that arrives at midnight with three pictures on it.
Website live chat
Somebody stood on your website deciding whether to ring.
Facebook Messenger
Messages off your Facebook page, answered like the rest.
Instagram messages
The DM that follows somebody seeing a job you posted.
Your Google listing
It sends you calls, not messages. Google switched that button off in 2024.
All seven together
What the AI receptionist is, and what the whole thing covers.
How long do your texts sit there?
Scroll back through last week and look at the gap between them texting and you answering. That gap is the whole of what this fixes.
Twenty minutes with Chad. Nothing to pay and nothing to sign. The whole receptionist, and all seven channels, are on the AI receptionist page.