Systems we build and run
Customer messaging from the record
Text messages, WhatsApp and email sent from the job or the case, with the reply landing back on the same record. The whole conversation visible to the team, templates with the details filled in, and consent kept properly.
What it is, and where it fits
Where this kind of system fits
- Trades and field service
- Hire and waste
- Legal and claims
- Property and lettings
- Venues and events
Messaging built into the system means a message is sent from the job or the matter it is about, and the reply comes back to it. Not to one person's handset, not to an inbox somebody is on holiday from. To the record, where everyone who works on it can see it.
It suits any business where customers prefer a text or a WhatsApp to an email, which is most of them now, and where more than one person might need to pick a conversation up. The engineer on the way, the office confirming the booking, the person chasing the paperwork.
A first step is often outbound messages from the record with templates, and the replies read back in. A later step is the shared inbox, automatic messages at the right moments, and the customer able to answer a question or approve something straight from the message.
What it usually grew out of
It usually grows out of a conversation that happened on somebody's own phone.
The customer WhatsApps the engineer who was out last time. The office texts from a shared mobile that lives in a drawer. A confirmation goes by email and the reply comes back by text. Each of those is a good, quick way to talk to a customer, and that's why people do it. The trouble is afterwards, when the question is what was agreed, with whom, and where that message went.
Messaging from the record keeps the quickness and puts the conversation where the work is. Nobody has to copy anything into the system, because it was never anywhere else.
What it does
Sent from the record
A text, a WhatsApp or an email sent from the job, the booking or the matter, by whoever is working on it, with the customer's details and consent already to hand.
Replies land on the same record
The customer answers however they like and it appears on the record it belongs to, in order, with the rest of the conversation. Nothing is copied across by hand.
Templates with the details filled in
Visit booked, on our way, document ready, payment due, work finished. Written once in your words, with the name, the date and the job filled in each time, and a person able to change it before it goes.
Sent at the right moment, automatically
When the visit is booked, when the engineer taps on my way, when the certificate is ready. Set up once, sent without anybody remembering to, and stopped as soon as the customer replies.
A shared inbox for the team
Every conversation in one place, who it is with and what it is about, so somebody else can pick it up when the usual person is out. Delivery and read status shown, and internal notes that the customer never sees.
Consent kept properly
What the customer agreed to, when, and how, recorded against them. Opt-outs respected automatically, and the difference between a message about their job and a marketing message kept straight.
Where it saves time, we build in AI features too: a shared inbox read as messages arrive, each one matched to the customer or job it is about and put in front of the right person, with routine replies drafted for somebody to check and send. More on AI and automation.
Usually built alongside job and works trackers, scheduling and run sheets, case management or forms and e-signatures. The rest are on the services page.
How it gets built, and how it gets run
| Fixed price | Scope, price and dates in writing before anything starts, with what isn't included written as plainly as what is. It doesn't move because the job turned out harder than we thought. |
|---|---|
| Timescale | Messaging added to a system we already run for you is usually a short job. Built into a new system, it goes in with the first version rather than as an afterthought. |
| Onboarding and training | We set the business number up, register it for WhatsApp where you want that, write the first templates with you and show the team how a conversation works from the record. |
| Hosted in the UK | UK infrastructure, backed up nightly to somewhere that isn't the machine running it, kept thirty days, and checked every few minutes that it's up and answering. |
| Running costs | Text messages and WhatsApp conversations are charged by the providers per message. We set it up so you can see what is being sent and what it costs, and nothing is sent that you haven't chosen to send. |
Ask about our free Business Systems Assessment
An hour with whoever runs the day to day. Clear recommendations to act on.
We look at how the work actually runs and what it runs on, then send you a list of what we would change, what each change would do for the business, and what it would take. In person or online, whichever suits you. Nothing to pay, nothing to sign.
- One hour
- In person or online
- Recommendations we talk you through
Honest answers
- Will customers mind WhatsApp from a business?
- In our experience they prefer it, as long as it is about their job and not a sales message. A WhatsApp from a named business, with a photo of the finished work or a link to the certificate, gets read and answered in a way email doesn't. The business sends from its own number, not from anybody's personal one.
- What about consent and opting out?
- Messages about a customer's own job are a normal part of doing the work, and the system records that they gave their number for it. Anything that counts as marketing needs their agreement, which is recorded separately, and a reply of stop or an opt-out is honoured automatically across every channel. We build the record; the rules are yours to apply.
- Can staff still use their own phones?
- They stop needing to. The engineer sends and reads messages for their jobs through the app on their own phone, but from the business number, and the conversation stays with the business if they leave. Nobody has to give a customer their personal number again.
Talk to us
Tell us how you talk to customers now and what you would want kept on the record. That's usually enough for us to say whether we can help.
Ring, 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and Saturday mornings, or use the form below. Pick what you'd like to keep track of, add a line if you want to, and leave a name and a way to reach you.