AI Receptionist for Growing Trade Businesses Tradie

Why growing businesses struggle:

You've outgrown being a solo tradie. You have 5-15 people, doing $800k-1.5M/year.

But you're stuck between two bad options:

Option 1: Overworked office admin

• They do quotes, invoices, supplier orders, AND phones
• Calls get missed or customers wait on hold
• Looks unprofessional to commercial clients

Option 2: Hire full-time receptionist

• $55k salary + $6k super + leave = $61k/year
• But you're not quite at revenue to justify it
• Plus they only work 38 hours/week (you need 24/7 coverage)

CallTradie bridges this gap:

• ✅ Professional phone presence for commercial clients
• ✅ 24/7 coverage (not just business hours)
• ✅ Costs $2,400-4,800/year (not $61k)
• ✅ Frees office admin to focus on complex work
• ✅ Scales with you until you're ready for full headcount

1. Office admin overwhelmed by call volume Your office person is doing quotes, invoices, supplier orders, AND answering phones. They're drowning. Calls get missed. Customers wait on hold.

2. Need professional phone presence for commercial clients Bidding on commercial work. Client calls, gets voicemail or harried receptionist. Looks unprofessional. Lose the $50k contract.

3. Hiring receptionist costs $55k+ but you're not quite there yet You're doing $800k-1.5M/year. Ready to hire someone at $55k + super + leave... but not quite yet. CallTradie bridges the gap.

CallTradie workflow for growing tradie businesses:

Tier 1 Calls (AI handles automatically):

• "I need a quote for [standard service]" → AI collects details, books estimate appointment
• "I want to schedule a service" → AI checks team calendar, books with next available
• Spam/telemarketers → AI politely dismisses, doesn't bother your team

Tier 2 Calls (Routes to office admin):

• "I need a quote for commercial project" → Transfers to office admin for complex quote
• "Question about my invoice" → Routes to accounts person
• "I want to change my appointment" → Admin handles rescheduling

Tier 3 Calls (Routes to management):

• "I want to discuss a large contract" → Transfers to owner/manager
• "Complaint about service" → Escalates to supervisor
• "Emergency requiring site visit" → On-call foreman

Result: Professional triage. Office admin saves 10-15 hours/week. Customers get instant service.

Growing business pricing reality:

CallTradie costs:

• $0.50–$1.00 per minute
• Typical growing business: 200-500 calls/month
• Average call: 5 minutes
• Monthly cost: $500–$2,500/year
• Annual cost: $6,000–$30,000

Compare to hiring a receptionist:

Bridge strategy: Use CallTradie until you hit $2M revenue, then hire receptionist + keep CallTradie for after-hours.

Growing business case study:

TradePro Services - 12 Staff, Melbourne

• $1.2M/year revenue
• Office admin drowning in calls
• Considering hiring $55k receptionist
• Tried CallTradie first

Results after 90 days:

• ✅ Office admin saved 12 hours/week (was phone-answering)
• ✅ Professional presence for commercial clients
• ✅ 24/7 coverage (was losing after-hours calls)
• ✅ 30+ extra jobs/month from after-hours
• ✅ Revenue increase: $18,000/month
• ✅ CallTradie cost: $1,200/month
• ✅ Net gain: $16,800/month
• ✅ Annual savings vs receptionist: $61k - $14.4k = $46.6k

"We're not ready for full-time receptionist headcount, but CallTradie makes us look like we are. Commercial clients love the professional service." — Owner

Decision: Will hire receptionist when hit $2M revenue, but keep CallTradie for after-hours coverage.

Setup tailored for growing trade businesses:

Step 1: Set up business profile Company name, services, commercial vs residential pricing

Step 2: Configure call routing Quotes → office admin, emergencies → on-call supervisor, bookings → AI auto-books

Step 3: Integrate systems ServiceM8/Simpro + CRM for full workflow automation

Step 4: Professional greeting Custom greeting for your business (not generic)

Step 5: Train team Show office staff how AI handles tier-1, they handle tier-2

Total time: 5-10 minutes What you need: Job management software, 30 minutes for full configuration