A handyman's guide to getting out of phone tag

Why phone tag hits handymen hardest

How many phone calls does it take to book a two-hour job? Count them next time. Their call at ten, which you miss because you're hanging a door. Your callback at half past twelve, which gets their voicemail. Their second try at two, when you're up a ladder. By Thursday they've hired somebody else to fix the gate, and neither of you did anything wrong.

Phone tag ends when the first call gets everything. If the caller's whole list, their address and their free days are written down before you ever speak to them, and they know where to send photos, your callback stops being a fact-finding mission and becomes a yes or a no. That's what a handyman answering service should be set up to do. Ours is an AI line, but the six steps below work with a person answering too.

It matters more for you than for other trades because the jobs are small. A plumber can spend twenty minutes on the phone over a water heater. You can't spend twenty minutes on a towel bar.

1. Get the whole list on the first call

Callers lead with one thing. "I need a door fixed." There's always more, and it comes out on the doorstep, when you've allowed an hour and they've got five hours of jobs saved up.

So the line asks what else is on the list, and keeps asking until there's nothing left. For each item it gets what it is, where it is and what it's made of. A TV mount needs the wall type and the screen size. A sticking door needs interior or exterior. It also asks whether they already have the part, because "replace a faucet" means one thing if the new faucet is sitting in a box and another if you're buying it.

Give it the list of what you don't take on as well. If you don't do electrical or gas work, it says so politely and saves everybody a trip.

2. Say the minimum charge out loud

Whatever your rule is (a two-hour minimum, a flat first-hour price, a trip charge outside town), put it in the instructions and let the line say it. It quotes only from the rules you've written, and only if you allow it. Say yours is $85 an hour with a two-hour minimum, materials extra. That's the sentence the caller hears.

Some people will hang up. Good. More of them do something useful, which is remember the three other things that need doing, so the visit is worth it for both of you. What the line won't do is guess how long a list will take or put a total on it. That's your judgment, and it never invents a price.

3. Give them somewhere to send photos

A photo of the bottom of a door frame tells you in two seconds if the job is planing a door or replacing rotten wood. Those are very different Thursdays.

Put your own email address or mobile number in the instructions as the place for photos. The assistant gives it out on the call and asks for a picture of each job. Don't use the line's own email address for this. It keeps and forwards the text of an email, so a typed list or a link comes through, but pictures don't. There's more on that in using your line's email address.

4. Offer windows, not exact times

Your day is made of jobs that overrun. Promise ten o'clock and you'll be apologizing by quarter past. So give the line windows to offer: Tuesday or Thursday, mornings from eight to twelve or afternoons from twelve to four.

It takes the caller's first and second choice, asks whether someone will be home, and notes parking, pets and anything awkward about getting in. It doesn't confirm the slot, because it can't see your week. You do that, or your own assistant does if you've given it access to your calendar.

5. Make your callback a yes or a no

Here's what you read at lunch, as an example. Caller is Mrs Okafor, address on Linden Avenue, ten minutes from Thursday's job. Four items: front door sticking at the top corner, two towel bars to hang on tile, a gate latch that won't catch, and the tub needs caulking again. She has the towel bars. She's sending photos of the door and the latch to the address you gave. Told her the two-hour minimum, she's fine with it. Prefers Thursday afternoon, then Tuesday morning. Home both days.

Your call to her takes ninety seconds. "Thursday, between one and four. I'll bring a latch." Nothing left to ask. There are recorded calls on the demo page if you'd like to hear how the questions sound.

6. Let it make the return call when you can't

Even a ninety-second call can miss. She's at work, you're driving. So hand it off. Call your own line and say: call Mrs Okafor, confirm Thursday between one and four, and ask whether the front door is wood or fiberglass.

The line makes the call, says who it's calling for, says it's an AI if she asks, and writes down her answer. If she doesn't pick up, the note tells you so, and you can send it back later in the day.

To catch calls in the first place, forward only the ones you miss. The codes are short: *71 and then the line's number on Verizon, or *61*1, the number and # on AT&T and T-Mobile. The voicemail page has the steps.

Strictly speaking it's still phone tag after all this. You're just not the one running.

Common questions

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