'Can you price a scaffold for this one?'
A roofer you have worked with sends a photo of a house and a postcode by message to your owner's phone. A builder leaves a voicemail about a chimney scaffold. Someone emails the office asking for a price on an extension. A new customer fills in the website form. All on the same afternoon.
The photo gets buried under the owner's family chat. The voicemail is heard on Friday. The builder goes to someone else and does not mention it. You only notice when you drive past and see another firm's boards on the house.
Why requests fall through
Scaffold work comes mostly from trades who want fast answers, and they contact you however is quickest for them. Each channel is watched by a different person, and there is no single list of what has been asked for.
- Requests go to personal mobiles as well as the office.
- Voicemails wait until someone has time.
- Photos and addresses arrive without a contact name.
- No acknowledgement goes back, so builders ask elsewhere too.
- Nobody can see which requests are still unanswered.
What the missed requests cost
Lost jobs from trades who would have become regular customers. Time wasted doing site visits for jobs that have already been placed elsewhere. And a reputation for being hard to get hold of, which travels quickly among builders and roofers in the same area.
Builders also remember who got back to them. A roofer who asks three scaffolders for a price and only hears from one will often go back to that one next time without asking anyone else, so each missed request can cost a relationship, not just a job.
The request list we build
- A dedicated number that takes texts and messages, a web form, and an email address all feed one request list. Calls taken by staff are entered on the same list.
- Messages sent to personal phones can be forwarded to the number in one tap, so they join the list.
- An AI step reads each request for the address, what the scaffold is for, the contact and any photos, and fills in the request for a person to check.
- Existing customers are recognised, with their account and past jobs shown.
- The builder gets an acknowledgement saying the request is in and what happens next, in your words.
- Each request has a status: new, visit booked, quoted, won, lost or declined. Anything left new for too long is highlighted.
- Lost quotes record a reason where you know it, so you can see patterns.
| Arrives as | Ends up as |
|---|---|
| Photo and postcode by message | Request with address and image |
| Voicemail | Transcript with details filled in |
| Request with attachments | |
| Website form | Request with full details |
| Staff phone call | Request entered at the time |
You decide which jobs to quote. The list makes sure you get the chance to decide.
What it gives you
Every request is in one place. Builders hear back that you have their request, which keeps them from ringing round. Estimators plan visits from a list, grouped by area. And you can see how many requests come in, how many you quote and how many you win, by customer.
Sound familiar?
- Scaffold requests arrive on personal phones.
- Voicemails wait days.
- You have seen another firm's scaffold on a job you were asked to price.
- You cannot say how many requests you missed last month.