Websites for trades, built around the enquiry.
Most trade websites are sold on making the phone ring. If you are on the tools all day, more ringing is not obviously the fix. We build the part that comes after: a site that gets you an enquiry worth having, gets it acknowledged while you are still on site, and gets the quote out before the customer has moved on.
Get a Free Enquiry Audit →Tell us how enquiries reach you now and we will tell you where the jobs are going.
The jobs you lose are the ones you never hear about.
Nobody rings back to tell you they went with someone else. So the leak never shows up anywhere you would look for it.
A quote lost on price, you hear about. A caller who got voicemail at nine and had booked someone else by ten past, you never do.
Here is a day that will not look unfamiliar.
- 07:40First job of the day. Phone goes in the pocket.
- 09:15Missed call. No voicemail left.
- 10:02Enquiry through the website: “need a quote for a bathroom, thanks”.
- 11:48Missed call. Same number as 09:15.
- 13:20Lunch in the van. You start ringing folk back.
- 13:22The 09:15 caller has already booked someone else.
- 16:10You ring the bathroom enquiry. Straight to voicemail.
- 19:40You sit down to write the two quotes you promised on Tuesday.
An illustration, not anyone's actual day. Notice that none of it is a website problem in the way that is usually described. The site was fine. What was missing was everything between someone deciding to contact you and you being in a position to quote — including the two calls nobody could answer, which is missed call text back.
The difference between a message and a job.
Same bathroom, same customer, same week. The only thing that changed was what the site asked them.
“Hi, looking for a quote for a bathroom. Thanks.”
- Ring back at lunch. No answer.
- Ring back that evening. Finally speak to them.
- Find out it is a rental, and the landlord decides.
- Find out the suite is already bought and it changes the price.
- Find out it is an hour outside where you work.
- Two days gone and no quote sent.
None of that is the customer being awkward. They answered the question they were asked.
- JobFull bathroom refit, replacing everything
- Property1930s semi, upstairs bathroom
- SupplySuite already bought, sitting in the garage
- TimingFlexible, ideally before October
- AccessOff-street parking, home most days
- AreaWesthill
- PhotosThree attached
- You know whether you want it before you ring.
- Most of it can be priced without leaving the house.
- One call to confirm, not four to find out.
- The quote goes out the same evening.
Seven short questions, asked at the right moment. That is the whole difference.
Illustrations of the same job arriving two ways, not real enquiries. Which questions are worth asking depends entirely on your trade, and asking too many is its own way of losing people. The general version of this — how the questions get chosen, and how far it is worth taking — is enquiry and quote systems.
Most trades already have a website. That is usually the problem.
Hardly anyone in the trades starts from nothing. There is a site from four years ago, or one a relative put together, or one that came bundled with the phone package, and it sits there quietly bringing in nothing. Rebuilding that is the normal job here, not a first build.
It is usually the easier place to start, too. You already know which jobs you want more of and which ones you are tired of quoting for, which is the part that takes longest to work out from scratch. We keep what is doing its job, which is nearly always the photographs of real work, and rebuild the parts losing you enquiries: services buried three taps down, a contact form that asks for nothing worth knowing, and pages that never say which towns you actually turn out to.
Owner-led trades who are busy and still losing work.
Plumbers and heating engineers, electricians, joiners, builders, roofers, landscapers, decorators, tilers, groundworkers and other owner-led trade and home-service businesses across Westhill, Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.
Examples of who this suits, not a client list. The common thread is that you are the one doing the work and the one answering the phone, and those two things get in each other's way. Call 07577 796931 or send us the details.
What trades usually ask first.
I get all my work by word of mouth. Do I need a website?
Maybe not urgently. But a recommendation usually gets checked before anyone rings: your name goes into Google on the way to calling you. What they find either confirms the recommendation or quietly undoes it. That is a different job from generating cold enquiries.
Will a website stop time-wasters?
It can reduce them, and that is the honest limit. Being clear about the work you take on and the areas you cover filters out a proportion of the enquiries that were never going to suit you. Some still get through, because people skim. What changes is the ratio, not the existence of them.
I am on the tools all day. Who answers the enquiries?
You do, still. What changes is how long it takes: an enquiry that arrives with the job, the property and a photo can be dealt with in a couple of minutes at lunch rather than two calls and an evening. The site cannot do the work. It can stop the paperwork around the work eating your evenings.
How do I show that I am Gas Safe or SELECT registered?
With the number, in text, somewhere a customer can actually find it. Some people will check it against the register, which is the whole point of having one. We do not issue, verify or arrange any trade registration or accreditation: they are yours, and you supply the details.
How much does it cost?
It depends on what the site has to do. A straightforward site covering a few services is a different build from one with several service journeys and enquiry handling behind it. We give you a fixed figure once we know what is actually needed, before you commit to anything.
Start with where the jobs are going.
Tell us how enquiries reach you now — phone, form, Facebook, word of mouth — and what happens to them after that. We will come back with where the work is most likely leaking and what we would fix first, whether or not you do it with us.
Get a Free Enquiry Audit →Tell us how the work reaches you.
Your trade, roughly how enquiries arrive at the moment, and the bit that annoys you most. That is enough for a useful first conversation.
- 07577 796931
- lee@westhillai.com
- Westhill, Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire
- We reply within one business day.
Not a trade, but the same problem? If you work from premises or a desk rather than a van, small business web design is the closer fit. Web design covers it more generally, enquiry systems covers the questions worth asking, automation covers the follow-up and SEO covers being found. What each costs is published: website prices and SEO pricing. More about how we work.