Side by side
The options, compared honestly.
Typical arrangements, not any one company. If an answering service or a receptionist suits you better, use one.
| Voicemail | Answering service | Receptionist | Instant Reply | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it costs | Free | A monthly fee, often plus a charge per call | A wage, plus holiday and sick cover | £299 a month; Founders plan with no setup fee |
| Evenings and weekends | On, but few people leave a message | Depends on the plan you pay for | No | Yes, every missed call |
| How fast the caller hears back | Whenever you get round to it | Answered live | Answered live, in office hours | A text within ten seconds |
| You get the details in writing | No, you listen to a recording | Usually a short message | If they write it down | Yes, a job card by text |
| Speaks as | You, later | Their staff, reading a script | Your staff | Your business name |
| Your number | Unchanged | Usually diverted to them | Unchanged | Unchanged |
Why not just…
Every alternative, and what actually happens.
Voicemail
- Most callers hang up without leaving one
- You have to listen, write it down, ring back
- By the time you call back, they've moved on
- No record of what was said or when
Call centre
- Usually charged per call, so busy weeks cost more
- Scripts that don't sound like you
- Still relies on you calling back later
- Someone in a room, not on the tools
Do nothing
- Most callers never leave a message
- Most never ring back at all
- They're already ringing the next name
- You never know what you lost
Instant Reply
- Text back in 10 seconds, every time
- Written in your words, not a script
- Captures the job, the postcode and the timing
- Flat monthly fee, no per-call charges
Before you buy
The awkward bits, before you have to ask.
We'd rather you walked away now than a month in.
It says it's an assistant
It never pretends to be you. It says you're on a job and it's taking the details. People don't mind a machine answering — they mind nobody answering.
You'd be one of the first
We're new. There's no wall of logos here because there isn't one yet. That's exactly why you don't pay again until it works.
The text comes from a new number
UK landlines can't send texts, so replies go out from a mobile we set up alongside yours. Your published number never changes.
If you answer your phone, don't buy this
Plenty of firms do. If that's you, it's £299 a month for a problem you haven't got. If it catches fewer than 3 enquiries in your first 60 days, you get your monthly fees back.
Questions people ask
Usually the same day. We set Instant Reply up on your number on a 15-minute call: you ring our demo line first and watch the text arrive, then we switch yours on. You pay the first month on the call, and if it catches fewer than 3 enquiries in your first 60 days, we refund every monthly fee.
No. Your number stays exactly as it is — on the van, on Google, on everything you've ever printed. We set your line to pass calls to us only when you're busy, out of hours, or don't pick up. It's the conditional call forwarding your network already offers, usually free.
Any time, free. It's written in your words on day one, and if a line reads wrong you tell us and it's changed the same day. It's your name going out, so it should sound like you.
No. It finds out what the job is, where they are and how urgent it sounds — that's all. It never prices work and never promises a time. Anything that reads like an emergency comes straight to your phone.
They get one short, polite text two days later asking whether they still need the work doing. Only one, only to people who've already replied to us, and never to anyone who texts STOP.
It handles every one at the same time. There's no queue and no per-message charge, so a busy week costs the same as a quiet one.
Do people leave messages? Most don't — they ring the next name on the list, like you would. A text that arrives in ten seconds gets answered because it costs them nothing to reply.
No. Recording means announcing it at the start of every call, which loses the caller. You get the whole text conversation in writing instead.
Usually the next working day after your set-up call. The call takes about 15 minutes: how you talk and what you want asked. Then we build it, you ring your own number to test it, and it goes live. If it isn't live within seven working days of us having everything we need from you, you get the setup fee back.
On the Growth package, the £299 monthly starts on day 31. On the Founders plan it's £299 a month from the start. Either way you're covered by our 60-day guarantee: if it catches fewer than 3 enquiries in your first 60 days as a paying client, we refund every monthly fee you've paid and you can leave, even on the Founders plan. You also get a short monthly note: how many enquiries it caught and what they were.
On the Growth package there's no minimum term — cancel with 30 days' notice by email. The Founders plan has a three-month minimum and then rolls monthly, with the price locked for as long as you stay.
Next step
Live today. On your own number.
Every missed call texted back, every job yours to keep. If it catches fewer than 3 enquiries in your first 60 days, you get every monthly fee back.