By Aaron McLeish · 8 min read
A heating engineer answered his phone like this: “Yeah, hello, who is this?” There was a pneumatic drill hammering in the background. The sound quality was appalling.
The caller — a customer with a combi boiler that had failed in November — immediately had one thought: this person is not professional. Within thirty seconds, before anyone had even talked about the job, she had already decided she would phone another company instead.
He never got the quote. He never got the job. And he never knew why.
The first impression on the phone is not a nicety. It is a gate. If your team does not pass through that gate properly, the customer never reaches the rest of your business.
In my eyes, this is one of the simplest things to fix in a trades business, yet it is also one of the most often overlooked. Your phone manner is your first handshake. It costs you nothing to do it well. It costs you everything to get it wrong.
What you will learn here
This blog walks you through why that first phone moment matters so much, and what to do about it whether you can answer calls yourself or whether you need to outsource. By the end, you will know exactly what is stopping you from winning more work from your current enquiries, and a practical next step to fix it.
Are plumbers losing money on the first phone call?
Consider this scenario. A plumber runs a team of three. He is busy on jobs most of the time. When a customer rings, he is usually mid-callout. His phone manner at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday when he is halfway through a radiator bleed is nothing like his phone manner would be at 9 a.m. in an office.
He answers quickly, sometimes too quickly. He is distracted. The customer hears background noise, feels rushed, and senses that their call is an interruption rather than an opportunity.
That is not the customer’s fault. That is the business structure. A tradesperson answering phone calls while they are supposed to be on site or on the road is already in conflict. You cannot give the caller proper attention. You are not present for either job.
Here is the thing. A customer ringing for a quote is making a decision in that moment. They may have three or four other numbers on their phone. They are comparing not just price, but impression. The first business that sounds professional, warm, and like they have their act together often wins the call immediately.
Then why do so many trades answer like they have just woken up?
What should you ask yourself about your first impression on the phone?
Let me explain what happens when you get this right.
A plumber I work with has someone answering his phone at their desk. She answers within two rings with the company name, her first name, and a genuine offer to help. “Good morning, Premier Plumbing, this is Sarah speaking. How may I help?”
The customer hears a professional voice. The line is clear. There is no background noise. No sense of urgency or distraction. The person on the phone is genuinely available.
That customer’s first impression is: these people are organised.
When they arrive on site to quote, they have already mentally agreed that this is a professional outfit. The quote has a 40 per cent better chance of being accepted than if the first impression had been scrambled and defensive.
You cannot quantify that precisely. But after ten years of working with trades businesses, I can tell you it is not imagination. The way your phone is answered shapes the entire customer experience that follows.
Here is the problem most trades face. You cannot be on site, on a job, with a customer watching you work, and also be available to answer calls properly. You just cannot. You are split between two commitments, and the phone call loses every time.
The two ways to solve the first impression problem
You have two practical options. Let me run through both.
Option 1: Do the calls yourself, but do them properly
If you answer your own phone, protect time for it. Some trades set aside 9 a.m. to 9.30 a.m. and 4.30 p.m. to 5 p.m. as call times. They divert to voicemail outside those windows. When the call comes in during call times, they answer fully present. Not half-present, distracted by a job. Fully present.
This works if you have a small volume of inbound calls. If you are getting five or six new enquiries a day, you cannot put them all into two thirty-minute windows. It does not scale.
But if you are getting one or two calls a day, and you are currently answering them from the van between jobs, this alone could transform your quote-to-job ratio.
The script is simple. Answer with your name, your company name, and an offer to help. Smile while you do it. The customer hears the smile. Have a notepad ready. Take notes. Do not keep them waiting. Confirm their details. Tell them when you will call back or visit. End politely.
That takes less than three minutes. It feels professional. It is professional.
Option 2: Outsource to a call answering service
If you are getting steady enquiry volume, or if you genuinely cannot step away from work, outsource your phone answering.
A telephone answering company handles your calls. They use your initial enquiry form. They take down all the information. You receive it however you prefer: emailed as a summary, or inputted straight into your system.
The caller never knows they are not talking to someone in your office. They hear a professional voice, a clear line, their call treated as important. Your first impression remains strong.
This costs something, but not much. Most trades I know who use this pay between 30 and 80 pounds per month for a basic service, depending on call volume. Compare that to a single lost quote on a 3,000-pound job, and the maths is obvious.
More than that, they can manage your diary too. If you tell them you are available for quotes between 10 a.m. and noon on Wednesdays, they know not to book you outside that time. No more calling the customer back to reschedule because your diary is chaos.
What actually happens when you get the first impression right
Picture this. A customer has a broken heating system. It is the middle of winter. They are cold, they are stressed, and they are now trying to find someone to fix it urgently.
They ring three numbers.
The first answers like I described earlier: distracted, noisy, rushed. The second goes to voicemail with no message saying when someone will call back. The third answers professionally, takes their details, confirms someone will visit within the afternoon, and thanks them warmly.
Which one do they want in their home?
All three might be equally qualified. All three might charge the same price. But the third one has already won because of how they answered the phone.
That is not about being clever. That is about the customer’s first impression on the phone being shaped by professionalism, not accident.
Practical next steps to improve your first impression
Here is what to do:
1. Record yourself answering your phone. Really record it. Listen back. Does it sound like a business, or like you are answering your mates calling on your personal mobile.
2. If you currently answer calls mid-job, audit your call volume. How many enquiries do you get per week. If it is more than three, outsourcing is worth it. If it is fewer than three, you can probably handle it yourself during protected call times.
3. If you decide to handle it yourself, write down the script you will use and practice it until it feels natural, not robotic.
4. If you decide to outsource, get quotes from two or three call answering companies. Check they can integrate with your CRM or email system. Check they understand trades businesses.
5. In either case, test it. Give a few mates your number and ask them to call you and see what they think of the experience.
The first impression on the phone is not the end of the customer journey. It is the gate. But it is the gate where most trades lose enquiries before they even get to quote them.
Your job is to make sure that gate opens properly.
The takeaway
Losing quotes on the phone costs thousands every year. A professional first impression is free to give. Either answer calls yourself properly or outsource to someone who will. Either way, treat the phone like it is a sale in waiting, because it is. Your first impression on the phone is your first chance to show the customer you are worth their money.
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If you want to master the entire customer journey from first enquiry right through to a signed quote, read “The Quote Handbook”. It covers everything from initial phone impression through to site visit, quotation structure, and closing the sale. You can grab a copy at https://amzn.to/3WzrTkJ.
For help getting your phone answering systems right, or for a chat about how your enquiry process is performing, drop me a line at info@togetherwecount.co.uk or connect with me on LinkedIn at https://linkedin.com/in/aaron-mcleish.
Aaron McLeish, Managing Director.
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