Sorting the emergency from the quote
Two calls come in while you’re under a house. One is worth $1,200 tonight and one is a tyre-kicker. Whoever answers has to know the difference…
Field notes
Answering the phone, for a living.
What we learn from calls that trade businesses would otherwise have missed — missed-call maths, quoting, booking, the job software, and the rules about recording a call in Australia. Written to be useful on a work site, not to rank for a keyword.
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What a receptionist actually costs an Australian trade business
The award rate is the smallest part of it. Here is the full number for 2026-27, with the sources, including the workers comp rule almost nobody…
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What an AI receptionist can’t do
Everyone selling these things lists what they do. The limits are more useful, and they are the part you should be asking about before you buy…
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Should you answer the phone after hours?
The after-hours call is the best-paying and worst-timed job in the trade. Here is a way to decide which ones you take, before the phone rings…
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Voicemail, an answering service, or an AI: what actually happens to the call
Four ways a trade business handles a call it can’t take, and what the caller experiences in each. The differences are not what most people assume.
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Your job software is only as current as your phone
ServiceM8, simPRO, Fergus, AroFlo and Tradify are all good at managing work that is already in them. None of them can capture the job that came…
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Can you record a phone call in Australia?
The answer depends on which state you are standing in. A plain-English guide to call recording law for trade businesses, state by state, and the one…
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What a missed call actually costs you
Most trades know they miss calls. Very few have put a number on it. Here is the arithmetic, with your own figures, and the three places…