Business Phone Systems for Tradespeople: What You Need

What's different about a trades business

The person who answers the phone is usually the person doing the work. Calls arrive while you're mid-job, hands full, or somewhere with poor signal. There's often no office, or an office that's only staffed part of the week.

A missed call in this trade isn't a message in a queue — it's a customer ringing the next name on the list. That's the problem worth solving, and most of it comes down to routing rather than hardware.

One number that works everywhere

Your business number should ring wherever you are: mobile, a handset at the unit, someone else's mobile when you're on a job. With a cloud system the number isn't tied to a socket, so it can reach all of those at once or in sequence.

That also means you stop giving out your personal mobile. Outbound calls show the business number, so customers ring back the number you advertise rather than your private one.

Features that actually earn their keep

• Mobile app call handling — answer the business number on your phone, with the same number on outbound calls
• Keep your existing number — it ports across, so signage and vehicles don't change
• Call forwarding and routing — ring your mobile, then a colleague, then voicemail, in an order you set
• Out-of-hours handling — a clear message and a callback rather than an unanswered ring
• Missed-call alerts — a text or email with the number so it can be rung back

Menus, call queues and reporting suites matter for a call centre. For a five-van outfit they mostly add admin. Keep it to the list above until you have a reason not to.

The switch-off affects trades too

If you have a unit, yard or shop with a landline, it is on the same clock as everyone else. The number goes when the line goes unless it's ported first, and anything else on that line goes with it.

The two items that catch trades out are a dial-up card machine at the counter and an alarm on the premises. Our guide to card machines and EPOS after the switch-off covers what to ask your payment provider, and it's worth doing at the same time as the phones rather than as a second job later.

What we do for trades

We set the routing up around how you actually work — mobile first, a fallback for when you can't answer, and a proper out-of-hours message so nobody hangs up on silence. Your existing number ports across.

Number porting and setup are currently free as part of our switch-off offer. Have a look at our trades page, or send us your number and how many of you there are and we'll come back with a price.