The problem with "just ring me"
Most trades start with the phone diverted to their mobile and no rules at all. That means the 11pm price-shopper wakes you, and the genuine burst pipe reaches you at the same time as your dinner guests. Owners describe both ends of this: missing real emergencies while on another job, and being woken by someone asking whether you do free quotes.
Writing the rules down fixes both. It also makes an AI receptionist, an answering service or a new apprentice on the phone behave the same way you would.
What counts as a real emergency
The test most trades use: is someone in danger, is damage getting worse by the hour, or is a property left unsecured? That usually comes down to the same short list per trade, which is what the builder above starts you with.
- Danger: gas, live electrics, smoke, water near power, carbon monoxide symptoms. Safety instruction first, then 111, then you.
- Getting worse: flooding, an active roof leak, sewage inside, a failed cylinder.
- Security: a break-in, a broken lock, a door or window that won't close.
- Vulnerable people: no heat or hot water for someone elderly or unwell, medical equipment without power, a child locked in a car.
Everything else, including "how much do you charge" and "can someone come Thursday", is a message.
The safety line comes before the booking
For trades, the first thirty seconds of an emergency call matter more than the booking. Turn the water off at the toby. Don't touch switches, get out and ring 111. Kill the power at the isolator. Those instructions need to be in your rules word for word, because whoever answers your phone at 2am shouldn't be improvising them.
What to do with the other pile
The non-urgent calls are where the money is, and they're the ones most often lost. Three things make the difference:
- Take real details: name, number, address, and what's actually wrong. A message saying "call John about a leak" costs you a phone call to find out anything useful.
- Text the caller back straight away so they know they've been heard and stop ringing around.
- Ring them first thing. A lead left until the afternoon is often already booked with someone else.
Legal calling hours, if you ring people back
Calling a new lead back is not the same as answering your phone. In New Zealand the widely used window is Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and Saturday 9am to 5pm, with Sundays and public holidays off, and Australia has mandatory hours. If someone enquires at 11pm, text them then and call inside the window. That's how speed-to-lead is set up.
Then test it
Whoever ends up answering, ring your own number and describe your worst-case job. If you don't get the safety instruction and a callback within minutes, your rules aren't working yet. The 14-call test covers the rest, and the trades pages show how each trade's calls are handled.