A WhatsApp at ten at night, a voicemail at six in the morning
At ten at night, a customer sends a WhatsApp: 'Can you roll the barley next week, and do the stubble cultivations on Bottom Field when you can?' At six the next morning, another leaves a voicemail asking for spraying. A third sends a text to the operator rather than the boss. A fourth emails the office. You are in a tractor for most of the day, and the phone rings while you are drilling.
Most requests get onto the job board. Some do not. A week later a customer rings, annoyed that his rolling has not been done, and you find his message buried in a WhatsApp chat under forty other messages.
Why requests get lost
Farmers use whatever is quickest for them, and contractors are rarely at a desk.
| Channel | Where it lands | Why it gets lost |
|---|---|---|
| Phone call | Boss's mobile, in the cab | Nothing written down |
| Text | Boss's or an operator's phone | Buried among other messages |
| Personal chats and groups | Scrolled past | |
| Voicemail | Boss's mobile | Listened to, then forgotten |
| Office inbox | Waits until someone reads it |
Messages also mix jobs, questions and chat. 'How's harvest going? Could you do Bottom Field when you're passing?' is a request, but it does not look like one.
What a lost request costs
The timing makes it worse. The busiest weeks for requests are the busiest weeks for you: drilling, spraying, silage and harvest all bring a rush of customers wanting the same thing at the same time, and that is exactly when you have least time to read messages carefully.
A lost request is a job not done, a customer let down, and often a customer who goes to another contractor next time. In a business built on reputation and word of mouth, a few of those a season matter.
Time goes on it too. You go through messages in the evening looking for requests, the office rings customers to confirm details, and some requests end up on the board twice.
One list for every work request
What we build is a request list that collects messages from every channel and turns them into jobs for you to confirm.
- A business WhatsApp number, set up through the WhatsApp Business Platform, and a business text number, which customers are asked to use for work requests.
- Voicemails are transcribed automatically. Emails to a work address are read too.
- Each message is read by an AI model to pick out the customer (from the phone number or email), fields, operation and timing. Messages that are chat, not requests, are set aside but not lost.
- Each request appears in a list with the original message beside it, the details picked out, and the fields shown on the customer's map. A person checks and confirms before it becomes a job.
- Confirmed requests go onto the job board. The customer gets a reply that the request is received, if you want to send one.
- Anything not confirmed within a time you set is highlighted, so it cannot sit forgotten.
Nothing about this changes how you talk to customers. You still take calls, and you still reply in your own words. The difference is that every request ends up in one place with a status, rather than in five places with none, and the office can see the same list you do, so whoever is free can confirm a request and reply.
Calls taken in the cab can be added with a quick voice note to the same number, which is transcribed and handled the same way.
A morning with the request list
In the morning you open the request list over breakfast. Last night's WhatsApp is there: rolling barley and stubble cultivations on Bottom Field, with the field highlighted. The voicemail about spraying has been transcribed. An operator's text has been forwarded to the business number. You confirm each, and they go on the board. The customers get a reply.
The customer who would have rung, annoyed, a week later, instead sees his rolling scheduled.
Are your work requests scattered?
- Customers ask for work by call, text, WhatsApp and email.
- Requests are sometimes lost or found late.
- You go through messages in the evening looking for jobs.
- Operators get requests on their own phones.
- Customers have rung to ask why a job was not done.