Why trades in particular
The phone keeps ringing while you do the job.
You’re on the tools, you can’t answer
Hands full, in a loft, under floorboards, on a roof, in a crawlspace. The phone rings and rings and you lose the job. AI answers it for you, every time.
Emergency callouts walk if you don’t pick up
A no-hot-water call at 7pm goes to voicemail and they ring the next plumber on Google. The AI captures the emergency, qualifies urgency, and pings you on WhatsApp instantly.
Quote enquiries lost to voicemail
A homeowner ringing about a rewire is worth £2,000–£10,000 in work. They won’t leave a voicemail. The AI captures the full enquiry while you’re on a job.
Evenings and weekends are still your phone time
Every evening, you answer client calls when you should be off. The AI takes the routine ones so you’re only interrupted for the genuine emergencies.
How it works
Live in three steps.
Forward your number
A simple divert from your existing landline or mobile to HiyaCalls. Works with any UK telecoms provider.
Script for trades
We build a custom call flow around your practice: services, opening hours, urgency rules, named staff, escalation routes.
Get the summary, take the call
Every call answered, every detail captured, every summary in your inbox in seconds.
What it handles
Every call your office gets.
The AI is trained on the real conversations trades have every day.
Emergency callouts
Captures the nature of the emergency (no water, no power, leak, lockout), severity, address, and your service-area check, pings you on WhatsApp or SMS within seconds.
Quote enquiries
Captures the job (full bathroom, rewire, extension, boiler swap), property size, timescale, and any photos the caller offers to send, ready for you to quote.
Scheduling & appointment booking
For routine bookings, annual boiler service, gas safety cert, EICR, the AI books directly into your diary respecting travel time and area.
Materials & parts queries
Customer ringing about a missing fitting, extra material, change of scope, the AI captures it and routes to you without breaking your concentration on a job.
Follow-up after a completed job
Customer calling to confirm work, raise a snag, or ask about additional work, AI handles the routine, escalates the genuine snags.
Area & rate enquiries
Captures postcode and confirms whether you cover it. Gives your standard call-out fee where you’ve sanctioned a published rate. Routes everything else to a callback.
A real example
What lands in your inbox after a typical call.
- Caller name and contact number
- Nature of the job in plain English, emergency or routine
- Property address and your service-area check
- Customer source, where they found you (Google, Checkatrade, recommendation)
- Urgency rating and recommended next step
- Full transcript so you walk in already knowing the situation
Trades FAQ
The questions every practice asks.
- How does it know whether to ping me or just take a message?
- Per the urgency rules we set with you at onboarding. Emergency keywords (gas leak, no power, flood, lockout) trigger an immediate WhatsApp or SMS. Routine calls (quote enquiries, scheduling) get captured and emailed in the standard summary so you can deal with them when you finish the current job.
- Can the AI check whether the caller is in my service area?
- Yes. We programme your service area (postcodes or radius from a base location) into the script. When a caller is out of area, the AI politely lets them know and ends the call without wasting your time.
- Will it handle Gas Safe / NICEIC compliance language correctly?
- The AI uses your scripted language exactly, Gas Safe registration number on request, NICEIC reference, MCS membership for renewables, OFTEC for oil. It doesn’t make claims you haven’t signed off on.
- How does it handle emergency vs non-emergency triage?
- Your principal trade defines the criteria: what counts as an emergency for you. Gas smell? Always. Burst pipe? Always. Boiler down with vulnerable occupant? Often. Cold radiator in summer? Routine. The AI uses your sign-off criteria.
- Can it quote on the call?
- No, quotes always come from you. The AI can give standard published rates (call-out fee, hourly rate, gas safety cert) where you’ve sanctioned them, but never a quote for a job. It captures the detail and sets the expectation that you’ll come back with a price.
- I’m a one-man-band sparky. Is this overkill?
- Often the opposite. One-man-band trades benefit most from AI, you can’t answer the phone in a fuse-box, and every recovered enquiry is real money. A single converted rewire usually covers the service for a year.
- How does it handle out-of-area emergency callers?
- Politely confirms it can’t help, suggests checking Checkatrade or Which? Trusted Trader for someone in their area. Doesn’t waste their time. Doesn’t waste your time.
- Can it deal with abusive or unreasonable callers?
- It stays calm and professional. Captures the situation, ends the call when abuse is sustained, and flags it for you so you can decide whether to engage or block the number.