Audit plan for Fenbrook Heating and Plumbing.
Prepared by Sharpr Automations for Rob Mercer (owner) and Lisa Hart (office manager). Fenbrook is a 9-person firm with six engineers and an apprentice.
Based on our first call with Rob, about what the problem is costing, and a walkthrough with Lisa and two engineers. We also went through Fenbrook's own records, starting with six weeks of calls from the phone system. Version 1, sent four working days after the walkthrough.
The problem, and how we'll know it's fixed.
New work comes in by phone, and the phone rings while everyone is on a job. Lisa works 8.30 to 3, so in the late afternoon, at weekends and whenever she's already on a call, it goes to voicemail. Most callers don't leave a message. They ring the next firm on the list.
Rob returns what he can in the evening, between install quotes. In his words, invented for this sample: "I'm doing office work at nine at night and still missing people."
The number we'll track: missed calls that get no reply within 15 minutes. Today it's 31 a week. We'd aim at 6 or fewer, which is roughly the calls a text can't reach.
What it costs today.
Fictional figures for Fenbrook.
Each one says where it came from: measured, from your records, or an estimate.
| Figure | Today | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Missed calls | 36 a week | Measured. Phone system export, last six weeks. |
| No reply within 15 minutes | 31 a week | Measured. Same export. |
| No call back the same day | 22 a week | Measured. The export checked against Lisa's call-back book. |
| From landlines or withheld numbers | 6 a week | Measured. Same export. A text can't reach these. |
| Of the 22, new work | about 11 a week | Estimate. 21 of the 40 voicemails left were new work. |
| Average repair or service job | £210 | From your records. Twelve months of invoices, installs left out. |
| New callers who go elsewhere if nobody rings back | 1 in 3 | Estimate, agreed with Rob as cautious. |
| Return visits for a missing part | 7 in six weeks | From your records. Diary entries marked "parts". |
| Install quotes with no answer | 9 of 16 in three months | From your records. The quotes folder, checked against invoices. |
Put together, repair and service work lost to unanswered calls comes to about £770 a week, or roughly £3,300 a month (11 new callers, 1 in 3 going elsewhere, £210 a job). That leaves out installs. One lost install, at your average of £3,100, is worth about a month of it, so this figure is more likely low than high.
The options we looked at.
We rated each option on two things: what fixing it is worth to Fenbrook, using the figures above, and how hard it is to get right, including the change to how people work.
| Rank | Option | Worth to Fenbrook | How hard | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A text back from your own number when a call is missed | High | Low | Fix first | |
| A booking checklist on every call, with no automation | Medium | Low | Start this week | |
| Follow-up on install quotes until the customer answers | Medium | Low | Next, after the first check | |
| Job sheets on the engineers' phones instead of paper | Medium | Medium | Can wait | |
| An AI receptionist for evenings and weekends | High | High | Can wait | |
| A chat assistant on the website | Low | Medium | Don't build | |
| AI-written posts and videos for social media | Low | Low | Don't build |
What to fix first.
The text back. When a call is missed, the caller gets a text from Fenbrook's own number within two minutes: "Sorry we missed you, this is Fenbrook Heating. What do you need help with, and when's a good time to ring you back?" Replies land in the office inbox, where Lisa already works.
It asks nothing new of the engineers, and the phone export shows each week whether it's working. The 6 landline or withheld calls a week stay on Lisa's list, as now.
Start this week, no build needed.
A booking checklist. Seven return visits in six weeks is around ten hours of engineer time, mostly for a part the engineer could have brought. Five questions on each booking call should stop most of them.
- Boiler make and model.
- Roughly how old it is.
- Any error code on the display.
- A photo of the data plate, sent by text.
- Parking and access.
It's a card by the phone and five lines in the diary template. All it needs is a better habit, and it ranks second because it costs nothing.
What can wait.
Quote follow-up comes next, once the text back passes its check. Nine unanswered quotes is about £28,000 of work waiting on a yes or a no. We can't tell how much would have gone ahead, so we've rated its worth medium. It's easy to set up, because each quote already goes out from Rob's email.
Job sheets can wait, and may not need us at all. Lisa spends about four hours a week typing up paper sheets (her estimate). Your job software already has a phone form for this. Switching it on is a change in the settings. There's nothing to build.
The evening and weekend receptionist is worth a lot on paper: a third of missed calls come after 5pm or at weekends (measured). It's also the hardest to get right: it would need to know which jobs are emergencies and which postcodes you cover, and a wrong booking costs more than a missed call. After two months of the text back, we'll see how many after-hours calls still go unanswered, and decide.
What not to build.
A website chat assistant. The phone brings in nearly all new work, and the website form sent six enquiries in six weeks. It would take more looking after than it brings in.
AI posts and videos for social media. Rob asked about these. For this problem, no. They don't move the number, and they'd add a weekly job to someone's list. Worth another look once the phones are sorted.
The go/no-go check for the first build.
The text back would be a pilot: a small first step with one check to pass. Before we build, we measure two more weeks of missed calls, so the starting number is current.
The check, agreed in writing before work starts: we miss 30 test calls on purpose, spread over a weekday, an evening and a Saturday. Each one gets the text from Fenbrook's number within two minutes, and each reply reaches the office inbox with the caller's number. Once Rob and Lisa see it pass, we invoice for that milestone.
After go-live we report that number each week, starting from 31.
Next step.
If you'd like us to build the text back, we book a scope call and send you a price, with the milestones and this check spelled out. It runs on Fenbrook's own phone account. You keep every login and a plain-English runbook. No platform fee to us, no lock-in.
If you'd rather hand it to someone else, this plan has enough detail to brief them. The booking checklist needs nobody and can start on Monday.