AI for trades
AI for Tradespeople and Trade Businesses
AI agents can take the office work off a trade business: answering enquiries while you're on site, getting supplier prices, building quotes, booking visits and sending invoices. I know because I run a multi-brand trade business on them, and I set the same thing up for other trades.
Written by someone who runs a trade business
I'm not coming at this from an office full of laptops. I own and run a multi-brand trade business, and my own agents handle the day-to-day. They read and sort enquiries across several inboxes, ask customers qualifying questions, request supplier quotes, build customer quotes, ring customers to book appointments, keep the job board current, post to social media, send invoices and file receipts.
Everything I set up for other trades has run in my own business first.
The trade problem
Trade businesses have a particular problem. The people who know how to price and run the jobs are the same people out doing them. So the office work happens in the van, at lunch, or late in the evening. Enquiries wait. Quotes go out late. The customer who wanted an answer today rings someone else.
Taking on office staff is one answer, but it's a big step for a small firm, and the work is often the same few tasks over and over. That repeat work is exactly what agents are good at.
What it looks like in different trades
Builders
Lots of enquiries that need questions answered before you can price: what the job is, what's there now, access, timescales. Agents gather that and chase merchants for prices, so you're quoting from facts, not a rushed phone call.
Plumbers and heating engineers
Urgent and routine work mixed together in one inbox. Agents spot the urgent ones and get them to you fast, while routine jobs get asked the right questions and booked into the diary.
Electricians
Jobs where photos make all the difference: the fuse board, the cable route, where a charger will go. Agents ask for the photos up front, so the visit or the quote is right first time.
Flooring
Room sizes, what's coming up and what's going down. Agents ask for it, request material prices from your suppliers, and build the quote ready for you to check.
Glazing
Sizes, styles and supplier lead times. Agents collect the details from the customer, request prices and lead times, and keep the customer updated so they don't go cold while they wait.
A real example from my own business
From my own business
A typical enquiry in my business never needs anyone at a desk until there's a decision to make. The agent reads it, asks the customer the questions we'd ask, gets supplier prices and builds the quote. Once the quote is approved, an agent rings the customer to book the visit and the job board updates. When the job is done, the invoice goes out.
What we need from you
- How you take enquiries now, and the questions you always ask.
- Your suppliers and how you price.
- Your diary and how you like visits booked.
- A sense of what eats the most time. That's where we start.
Agents work with the inboxes, prices and diary you already have. If you can explain the job to an apprentice, you can explain it to me.
Common worries
If you're a one-person business, every hour saved comes straight back to you. That's often where it makes the biggest difference.
They still will. The agent handles the back-and-forth. You're still the one who turns up and does the job.
Bookings follow your rules: your areas, your hours, and the time each type of job takes.
Spend your day on the tools, not the inbox.
Book a free call. We'll look at where your time goes and whether an agent can take it off you. Pricing follows the call, and there's no obligation.