Part of Front Desk, for trades and builders

Your customer hears you're running late before they ring you.

Included in Front Desk, $119 a month

When today's job slips on your board, Office Voice rings the customer with the new time. When you're on your way, say so on your own line and it rings them for you. It says it is an AI first.

Start the 30-day free trial

$29 to set up your number, which comes off your first bill. Runs on Office Voice. Hear Front Desk take a call.

Who it is for

A trade or builder whose day moves around, with jobs booked in ServiceM8 or Simpro. The customer who rang twice to ask where you are is the one this is for.

Two ways a call starts

You drag the job later on your board. Office Voice checks today’s jobs every ten minutes. A job that has moved later by 15 minutes or more gets a call with the new time. Nobody has to remember to ring.

You say it on your own line. “Tell my two o’clock I’m running half an hour late.” Or “let the Smith Street job know I’m on my way.” It reads back who and what, waits for your yes, then rings them.

If both happen for the same change, the customer gets one call.

Today's job, after the call

Customer toldSample
Customer
[Name], [mobile]
Booked
2:30pm, moved to 3:30pm on the board
They heard
"We're running a bit behind today, so we're now due at 3:30."
Outcome
3:30 still suitsNo change

Example, not a client record. If 3:30 didn't suit, the booking is moved or cancelled on the call, or the customer gets a callback.

What the call does

  1. 1Notices when today's job moves later on your board, by 15 minutes or more
  2. 2Says it is an AI and that the call is recorded, before anything else
  3. 3Gives the new time exactly as the job holds it. Never "about an hour"
  4. 4Asks whether the new time still suits, and moves or cancels the booking if it doesn't
  5. 5Apologises once to an upset customer and books a callback from a person, because you are out on the job
  6. 6Rings once per change. A second slip the same day gets a second call
  7. 7Stays inside calling hours in the customer's own state, and off do-not-contact numbers

Ask any vendor which of the 7 their agent does.

What it will not do

  • Guess an arrival time. If the job doesn't hold one, the customer hears that you're on the way, and no time.
  • Move the job on your board by itself. It tells the customer what the board says.
  • Ring about a job moved to another day. That is a reschedule, and it needs a person.
  • Offer a discount or promise it won't happen again. That is your call.
  • Ring about a finished job. Your after-the-job call already does that.

What it costs

Booked After Hours

$119per month

Running-late calls are part of Front Desk, with your phone answered on the same account. 30-day free trial. $29 to set up your number, which comes off your first bill. Cancel when you like.

Included

  • A call when today's job moves later on your board
  • Running-late and on-the-way calls when you ask on your own line
  • The booking moved or cancelled on the call when the new time doesn't suit
  • A recording and a record of every call, on the job
  • Your phone answered by Front Desk, the same account

Not included

  • Telephony, billed at the carrier's rate with no markup
  • Moving your jobs on the board. That stays with you
  • Text-message sequences. It is a call
Start the 30-day free trialEvery price on one page

The rules an Australian call has to follow

  • Every call opens with “this is an AI, and the call is recorded” before anything else.
  • It only rings your own customers about their own booking today.
  • Calls stay inside calling hours in the customer's own state, and that state's public holidays.
  • A customer who asks not to be called again is taken off the list on the call.

How we build, not legal advice. The long version is in AI receptionists for trades.

Or build it, or have us build it

Build it on your own system, in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. The Microsoft 365 plan sets out the lists and flows: an updates list that sends one message per change, with the time read from your job system. On Google Workspace, the same rules run from a sheet.

Rather not build it? Pick a time and we build it for you on your own job system and your own Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, held to the same pass test.

Send the message when the record changes, once per change, with the time the job holds. The Client Desk standard is free, with a pass test. It also covers the daytime phone. For the whole office admin role, desk and money together, read the Virtual Admin standard.

The same account answers your phone: call answering for trades.

Technical? The build standard is open. Take it.