SMS for tradesmen?

For those who don't know, I've been involved in renovating my 2 bed flat for quite some time (around 12 months - can you believe it) and at times it's been absolutely soul destroying and other times it's been a great experience.

Over this time I have dealt with what I feel is a huge number of tradesmen for quotes eventual jobs, during jobs, finishing jobs, etc... The one thing that has struck me the most is that on average the were the least reliable people out there.

Now I know in Australia at least, the building trade is enjoying good times - in fact trades are able to pick and choose the jobs they want and don't want and that's great, although I don't quite get it in that they are still a business, and the idea of a business is that it should always try to push upwards and grow, at the very least it insulates itself for when the market isn't as strong without going out of business.

I regularily have conversations with friends (some who are tradies themselves) about if I had a trade business I reckon I would clean up purely through my customer service and one of the tools I would use would be using SMS.

It's so easy it's not funny, just for small things like appointment reminders because they double up as reminders for yourself - when you ge back to the office (whether that's at home or not), set some scheduled messages for the next day confirming when you're going to turn up I guarantee will bring you more business - as long as you turn up on time of course!

Why should they do it? Well, it's cheaper than calling the person to make sure they're home, but further on that like tradies, not everyone is reliable and forget to turn up themselves - so what does that cost you?

A tradesman's money is in their ability to manage time, things like getting lost can cost you money, missed appointments cost even more - phone calls to find out where they are cost them money. With day rates at around $800.00, that's about $100.00 per hour and saving one missed appointment because the owners weren't sure when you were turning up should be enough to warrant getting an SMS service onboard - then anything after that it starts making you money.

Of course we come back to the old arguement that there's so much work out I don't need to do it - and for the younger guys who haven't felt the pain of a resession and don't understand that when interest rates get into the teen's people don't build things, people don't renovate or get that pegola or conservatory knocked up. All of a sudden the only jobs on the table are the disaster struck jobs or the jobs you once knocked back, but instead of having your choice you're up against other guys desperate to maintain your level of earnings and one of the key tools in general that would go a long way is being in the habbit of great service, and that's as easy as using SMS to stay in touch.