You can't answer the phone when your hands are full. But your customers won't wait.
If you're a sole trader or you run a small trade firm, you've probably lost count of the calls you've missed this year. What most tradespeople don't realise is how much those missed calls are costing them.
Research shows UK tradespeople lose an average of £24,000 a year to unanswered calls. And here's the kicker: 85% of callers who don't get through the first time will not try again. They call your competitor. You never know.
There are ways to fix this. Some of them are worse than others. Here's the honest breakdown.
Option 1 — Voicemail
The default answer, and the worst.
The problem: 85% of callers hang up without leaving a message. Most people don't want to talk to a robot voice and then hope you call back at some vague point in the future. They want to speak to someone now. If they can't, they move on.
And the 15% who do leave a message? By the time you finish the job you're on, listen back, and call them, they've already spoken to someone else. Voicemail loses you the caller and also loses you the timing race.
Verdict: don't rely on it. Voicemail is not a strategy.
Option 2 — A family member answers
Some tradespeople get their partner to answer the phone during the day. It sounds fine in theory. In practice it falls apart.
Your partner doesn't know the trade. When someone rings about a fault code on a Vaillant boiler, they can't qualify it. They can't tell you if it's urgent. They end up either taking a shallow message ("someone rang, said his shower's broken") or accidentally saying things that misrepresent you.
Then there's the friction. Your customers are stressed. Your partner is now the receptionist as well as running the house. Small firms have destroyed marriages this way.
Verdict: it works for maybe six months. Then it doesn't.
Option 3 — A human answering service
You can pay a call centre to answer your phones. There are UK-based bureaux that charge around £1 to £2 per call. Or you can hire someone full-time — around £20,000 to £25,000 a year including tax and pension.
Sounds like a solution. Two problems:
- They only work 9–5 Monday to Friday. Your callers don't. 40% of trade calls come in outside working hours.
- They just take a message. They don't know the trade. They can't book, can't qualify, can't reassure the caller that a qualified plumber will call back in an hour. You still do all the callbacks yourself. You've spent money and gained a message-taker.
Verdict: better than voicemail. Expensive for what you get.
Option 4 — AI receptionist (VoxMate)
VoxMate is an AI-powered receptionist built for UK sole traders. Here's what it does:
- Answers every forwarded call in your business name, in a natural British voice
- Says it's covering for you while you're on a job (a lead is 21 times more likely to convert if responded to within 5 minutes — VoxMate keeps the caller warm so you're already ahead when you ring back)
- Captures caller name, number, job type, urgency, and best callback time
- Sends the whole lead to your WhatsApp within 30 seconds of the call ending
- Works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
- Costs £49 per month for 50 calls — less than the value of one job
You forward your calls, you get on with the work, the leads land in the same WhatsApp you're already checking between jobs.
How to set up call forwarding on your phone
Getting VoxMate to answer your unanswered calls is a one-code job. Here are the codes for the major UK networks. You can do this from your keypad — no apps, no settings menus.
Important: VoxMate uses no-answer forwarding (*61), not unconditional forwarding. Your phone rings first for a few seconds. VoxMate only picks up if you don't answer.
To forward missed calls to VoxMate (all networks):
Dial **61*[your VoxMate number]# and press the green call button.
Example: if your VoxMate number is 07476 962567, dial **61*07476962567# then call.
Networks this works on:
- EE
- O2
- Vodafone
- Three
- iD Mobile
- Sky Mobile, Tesco Mobile, giffgaff, SMARTY (they run on the above networks)
To deactivate no-answer forwarding at any time:
Dial ##61# and press call. Forwarding stops immediately. Every call now comes straight to your phone with no VoxMate fallback.
We've got a full guide with per-network detail if you want it: How to set up call forwarding on EE, O2, Vodafone, Three and iD Mobile. And for the definitive ranking of every option available to a tradesperson on the tools, see Best Way to Handle Calls When You're on a Job.
What you'll receive on WhatsApp
Within 30 seconds of a call ending, you get a message like this:
New lead via VoxMate Name: Sarah Brown Number: 07700 900123 Job: Boiler replacement — not working Urgency: Urgent Best callback: This afternoon — Caller needs a boiler replacement in East London. 3-bed house. No heating. Wants a callback this afternoon.
Everything you need to call back and win the job. No app to check. No email to open. Just a WhatsApp message that reads like a note from a good receptionist.
Start free
£1 trial: 30 days of full access for £1, then £49/month. Cancel before day 30 and nothing more is charged.
voxmate.co.uk — first lead delivered before you pay anything.