AI reception for electricians in Milton Keynes
You can't answer the phone from inside a consumer unit
Domestic electrical calls cluster in the early evening, when people get home and something has stopped working. Commercial ones come first thing, when a shop or an office opens and can't trade.
Set up in days · month to month, no lock-in · Milton Keynes, Buckingham, Towcester, Newport Pagnell, Bletchley and Olney
The problem
What it actually looks like for electrical businesses in Milton Keynes.
Enough volume that missing calls is a business model problem rather than a bad afternoon, and enough competition that it shows up in the takings.
- Testing and certification work means long stretches where picking up simply isn't safe or sensible.
- The EICR and landlord-certificate enquiries are the ones that turn into repeat clients, and they're easy to lose to whoever answers first.
- A commercial customer whose tills are down will ring three electricians in four minutes. Whoever picks up gets the job.
None of that is a discipline problem. You can't be on the tools and on the phone at the same time, and no amount of trying harder changes that. It's a coverage problem, and coverage is a thing you can buy.
What we build
What Ellie does for an electrician.
Ellie is one of the Front Desk Team, the AI receptionist we build for electrical businesses. Ellie answers your phone, in your business's name, using what you've told us about how you work.
- Answers instantly, so the customer with no power gets a human-sounding voice instead of a beep.
- Separates the emergency call-out from the quote request from the certificate enquiry, and tells you which is which.
- Books surveys and EICR visits into your calendar with the property type and the number of circuits, if you want that asked.
- Captures whether it's domestic, commercial or landlord work, which is the split that decides your day.
- Sends the caller a text confirmation, so they stop ringing other people.
Nobody wants a robot fumbling a safety question. She's given a short, plain script for anything that sounds like a burning smell or exposed wiring: stop, 999 or the emergency distribution number, and she texts you at the same time.
The evidence
The one number worth knowing.
411 Locals monitored 85 small businesses across 58 industries for 30 days and found that 37.8% of calls were answered by a live person. The same share went to voicemail. Nearly a quarter got nothing at all.
A BT Business study of 1,515 firms put the average value of a single missed call at around £1,200, and found that callers try twice at most before going somewhere else. About a fifth try once.
Those are the two numbers we use, and they're both from named studies you can go and read. We deliberately don't quote the bigger ones that circulate in this industry. The claims about what missed calls cost UK business every year don't trace back to a primary source, and we won't sell you something on a statistic we can't stand behind.
Coverage
Where we cover.
Ellie doesn't care where she is, so the coverage question is really about your patch. Businesses using her around Milton Keynes typically work Buckingham, Towcester, Newport Pagnell, Bletchley and Olney as well, and she takes the postcode at the start of every call, so you know before you ring back whether it's a job you'd travel to.
Fair questions
Questions electricians ask.
Can she handle a call about a burning smell?
She's scripted for it. The caller is told to leave it alone and given the emergency route, and you get a text with the address before the call has finished.
Will she book an EICR?
Yes, if you want her to. She takes the property address, the number of bedrooms or circuits, and whether it's for a sale or a tenancy, then puts it in your diary.
What if I want to keep answering my own calls?
Most electricians run her on no-answer and out of hours only. She's there for the ones you'd otherwise miss, not instead of you.
What does it cost?
Catch is £149 a month plus £250 to set up. Book is £299 a month plus £500. Front Desk+ starts at £450 a month. All prices exclude VAT, and it's month to month, so if she isn't earning her place you stop.
How long does setup take?
Days, not months. We need your service list, your hours, what she may and may not say, and where the bookings go.
Hear her
Try her before you decide.
You don't have to take our word for how she sounds. Ask her something on this page, or leave your number and she'll ring you back so you can hear a real conversation handled.