Stop quoting at the kitchen table at 9pm
AI takes the office jobs off a trades business: quotes drafted from a voice note on the drive back, enquiries answered and jobs booked while you are on the tools, and quotes and invoices chased politely until they get an answer. We build these systems for UK trades firms on top of the calendar, phone number and accounts package you already use.
Rather build it yourself? We will show you where to start, free.
What we would build
- 01Voice-note quote engine
- 02Booking machine
- 03The chaser
Where the evenings go
The bottleneck is not the skilled work. It is everything wrapped around it.
Quoting after hours
The job survey happens at 3pm. The quote gets written at 9pm, or at the weekend, or not at all. Slow quotes lose work to whoever quoted first.
Missed enquiries
You cannot answer the phone from under a floor. An enquiry that waits until the evening for a reply has usually already gone to someone else.
Quotes dying in silence
Nobody enjoys chasing, so most quotes get one follow-up or none. That is the cheapest revenue in the business, abandoned.
Being the one who asks for money
Invoice chasing depends on your mood and your memory, and it makes you the awkward one. A polite, consistent reminder ladder does not care about either.
What we would build
What we would build for your firm
Three systems, none of which touch how you do the work on site. They compress the admin wrapped around it.
Voice-note quote engine
Rough scope dictated in the van. A written quote ready before you are home.
- You record a voice note on the drive back: scope, materials, anything unusual.
- The system drafts the quote from your price list, your standard terms and your best past quotes. It sounds like you because it is built from your paperwork.
- You check the numbers and send. The AI never sets your prices: margins, contingency and gut feel about a difficult customer stay with you.
- The same pattern scales to formal tenders. Bidwell, our tender product, monitors five UK procurement portals and drafts complete responses, so you can bid for work you used to skip.
Booking machine
Enquiries answered in seconds and booked into real diary slots while you work.
- Missed calls get an instant text-back. Forms and WhatsApp messages get a reply within seconds, asking what you would ask anyway: postcode, type of job, photos.
- Qualified enquiries are offered real slots from your calendar and book themselves in.
- Confirmations and reminders go out automatically, which is what actually cuts no-shows.
- Technical questions are never answered by the machine. Anything about gas, wiring or structure routes straight to you.
The chaser
Follow-up that runs on a schedule instead of on guilt.
- Day 3: did the quote arrive, any questions. Day 7: a nudge with how long the price holds. Day 14: a final note, then the lead is closed, not haunting you.
- Replies get read: "yes go ahead" books the job, "gone elsewhere" closes the record, anything ambiguous gets flagged to you.
- Invoices get the same ladder on the other side of the job.
- A review request goes out a day or two after completion, while the customer is still pleased. Recent Google reviews beat most paid advertising for a local trade.
Do it yourself
You could build this yourselves. Here is how to start.
You can prove the voice-note quote engine this week, on real jobs, without buying anything beyond an AI subscription.
The guides are free and they do not hold anything back. If you get partway and want it finished fast, or built properly first time, that is the other reason this page exists.
How the free route works- 01After your next survey, record a voice note on the drive back: scope, materials, anything odd. Paste the transcript, your price list and a good past quote into an AI chat and ask for a draft in your usual format.
- 02Check every number before it goes anywhere. The AI never sets your prices; that rule starts on day one.
- 03Switch on missed-call text-back on your business number. It is the cheapest fix on this page.
- 04Put your diary behind a booking link so enquiries can pick a slot while you are on the tools.
- 05Write the three follow-up messages once (day 3, day 7, day 14) and send them for every quote. When sending them gets boring, that is the automation.
Straight answers
Questions we get from this industry
- Do I need new software?
- No, and be wary of anyone who says otherwise. You keep your accounts tool, your calendar and your phone number. We connect your enquiry sources into one place, wire your diary into the booking flow, and add the AI layer that drafts, replies, books and chases on top.
- Can the AI send quotes on its own?
- No. Drafts yes, autonomous quoting never. A wrong number in writing is a commitment, so every quote gets your eyes before it goes anywhere.
- What about customer details and GDPR?
- Names, addresses and job details are personal data. We use business-grade tools with proper data terms and we know where the data goes. Pasting customer details into a free consumer chatbot is the thing to avoid, and the thing we design out.
- Will a chatbot bluff about gas safety or wiring regs?
- Not one we build. Automated replies are constrained to scheduling and information-gathering. Anything technical routes to a human, because an assistant that invents an answer about gas regulations is a liability, not a feature.
- I am a one-person firm. Is this overkill?
- The opposite: you feel the admin hardest because there is nobody to delegate it to. Start with one workflow, usually quoting, prove it on two weeks of real jobs, and each step pays for the next. None of it requires changing how you do the work customers pay for.
Which evening job do you want rid of first?
Tell us about the business and the job that eats your evenings. Thirty minutes, plain English, and a straight answer on what we would build first.
Or email dc@operosus.com and tell us what is eating your week.