You are up a ladder with a full brush. That is your best customer ringing.
Decorating runs on repeat customers and word of mouth, which makes an unanswered phone expensive in a way that never shows up anywhere you can see it. Adminmate answers, finds out what the job actually involves, and books it.
Sound familiar?
- Brush in one hand, ladder under you, and the phone going in a pocket you cannot reach.
- Nobody mentions the woodchip that has to come off until the morning you arrive.
- Exterior work all lands in the same three months and you cannot answer any of it.
- The customer you did last year rings somebody else, because they could not get hold of you.
Hear it answer as a decorator
- AdminmateHello, Deakin Decorating, this is Jo's assistant. How can I help?
- CallerI'd like a price for painting two bedrooms.
- AdminmateOf course. Are they papered at the moment, or already painted?
- CallerOne's painted. The other's got woodchip on it, which I hate.
- AdminmateNoted, and woodchip does add to it, so it is much better Jo knows now than on the day. Ceilings and woodwork as well, or walls only?
- CallerEverything, please. And the doors.
- AdminmateRight. Any filling or repairs you already know about?
- CallerThere's a crack over the window in the back room.
- AdminmateGood to know. Jo will want ten minutes to look at the woodchip and that crack before he prices it, rather than quote now and change it later. He could call in Tuesday evening. Does that suit?
- CallerTuesday's fine.
Woodchip, woodwork, doors and a crack all on the record, a look booked for Tuesday, and Jo never came off the ladder.
This is an example call, not a recording of one. Our public demo line opens with our first customers, and we would rather show you the script than print a number that rings out.
What it does for decorators
- Asks about paper, woodchip and prep, which is where a decorating quote goes wrong.
- Answers through the exterior season, when three months of work arrives in about three weeks.
- Knows the customers you did last year, so a repeat call is never a cold one.
- Gets the small jobs invoiced instead of leaving them on the seat of the van.
What the missed ones cost you
A single room is around £350, a full house inside £2,800, an exterior £3,500. Through the summer the missed number goes up and so does the value.
Assuming one in three of those calls would have turned into work.
Adminmate is £1,188 a year. It only has to win you one job a month to pay for itself several times over.
Stop missing them.Questions decorators ask
Can it quote without seeing the room?
It can draft from your rate card for straightforward work where the sizes and the condition are clear. Where there is paper to strip or prep nobody has mentioned, it books you a look instead, because a quote given blind is the one you end up eating.
Will it recognise somebody I have worked for before?
Yes. Their whole history sits on their record: every job, every quote, every invoice and the conversation with it. A repeat customer never has to explain who they are or what you did last time.
What about colour and materials?
It takes what they tell it and puts it on the job. It does not advise on colour or specify products in your name, because that is your reputation and it is not the assistant's to spend.
£99 a month. About £3.30 a day.
Less than a coffee and a bacon roll on site. Two plans, both printed in full with the limits in the open, and no tier that makes you ring to find out the price.
Ready to stop missing work?
Meet the employee you can finally afford.
£99 a month. Cancel any time.