AI receptionist for one-van trades
When you’re up a ladder or under a sink, Fourth Watch answers in a British voice, takes the job down and texts it to you. Reply 1 and it’s yours. Nothing books without you.
Missed call · 07700 900846 · 10:41
The real text. Tap a reply.
From missed call to job
01 / 04
People don’t leave messages for trades. They ring the next number on the list. Fourth Watch picks up when you can’t, so the call you missed is still your job.
How it works
You forward your number when you can’t pick up. Everything after that happens without you, until the text arrives.
First, a call comes in.
Unknown caller
You’re under a sink. It would ring out. Fourth Watch picks up instead.
Reply 1 and it’s yours. Nothing is booked either way.
What you get
Short enough to read with one hand on a ladder. The who, the where, how urgent, and what they said.
Missed while you were on a roof. A landlord rang about a rewire on a two-bed flat in Chorlton. No rush, wants a quote this week. Didn’t want to book, just asked you to call back. Number saved.
Four calls caught. Three you’d have missed.
Your rules
Set the things that matter. The text it would send you changes as you do.
Don’t reply and nothing happens. The job just waits for you.
When should it answer?
Every call, or only the ones you’d otherwise miss: after hours, or when you’re already on the line.
It knows it’s the UK.
A British voice, and the right words and numbers: 999 not 911, the stopcock, the consumer unit. Turn it off to hear the difference.
Nothing books without you.
Every job comes as a text first. Reply 1 to take it, 2 to pass, 3 for the number. Your diary stays yours.
The maths
People don’t leave messages for trades. They ring the next number. Answering costs pennies; the job it saves pays for the year.
free to start. No card, nothing to set up yourself.
is roughly what one four-minute answered call costs us.
every call picked up. 4am the same as 4pm.
Pricing
One van, one price. 15 days free, no card, month to month after that.
Front Desk
£79a month
Founding price £49, locked for life for the first twenty.
Front Desk Plus
£169a month
Everything in Front Desk, plus it books into your diary while the caller’s still on the line, keeps customer records and chases quotes.
Questions
Plumbers, electricians, heating engineers, builders, locksmiths and anyone else in the trades who works alone and can’t answer the phone mid-job.
That’s the main point. When your line is busy or rings out, Fourth Watch picks up instead of the caller hitting voicemail and ringing the next name in the search results.
It’s a British voice that talks like a person taking a message: what’s wrong, where, and the best number. Callers are told up front they’re speaking to an AI receptionist.
No. You forward your existing number to Fourth Watch when you can’t pick up. Callers ring the number they already have for you.
Nothing happens. The job waits. It never books, promises or quotes anything in your name unless you reply 1.
It answers at 4am the same as 4pm. You wake up to the job as a text, not a missed call you can’t place.
The call and the details are the caller’s personal data, handled under UK data protection and never sold. The privacy notice says exactly what we keep.
People don’t leave messages for trades. An answerphone catches a beep; Fourth Watch catches the job.
Any time, month to month. The 15-day trial takes no card, so there’s nothing to cancel if it’s not for you.
15 days free. No card. Set up in an afternoon.
This is the private Launch HQ. Only the owner’s Google account can open it, and only with a two-step code.
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Question for the solo lads: how many calls do you reckon you miss a week while you're on a job? I've been digging into this problem — talked to a bunch of one-van operators — and the pattern is brutal: the customer rings three numbers and books whoever picks up. Answering services want £150+/mo and the AI booking bots want access to your calendar, which nobody I talked to would give them. So I'm building the version where nothing books until YOU reply to a text — the AI answers, qualifies the job against your rates and area, and texts you a summary. Reply 1 to book, 2 to pass. I put together a page for this and I'd genuinely rather hear "this is dumb because X" from people who live it than launch blind. [YOUR LINK]
Missed calls are quietly the biggest leak in solo home services. One customer I read about said she's shocked when a tradesperson calls back — that's the bar. The maths is ugly: a missed call is often a £300 job, and it costs about 25p for an AI to answer a 4-minute call. But every AI receptionist I looked at is built for firms with a front office, and the ones that auto-book scare off owners who don't want a bot touching their diary. I'm working on one built for one-van operators: it answers, qualifies against your rates and service area, then texts you — nothing books without your reply. Put together a page for it and I'd rather get roasted here than find out the hard way. Honest feedback welcome. [YOUR LINK]
A solo plumber is wrist-deep under a sink. Phone rings. Voicemail. The caller dials the next name on Checkatrade and a £300 job walks. AI can answer that call for about 25p — but tradespeople won't hand a bot their diary, and they're right. So I'm building an AI receptionist where nothing books until the owner replies to a text. Put together a page for it — tell me what I'm missing: [YOUR LINK]
Hey — I'm building a tool for solo tradespeople that answers your calls when your hands are full, then texts you the job so nothing books without your OK. I put together a page for it and would genuinely value two minutes of your take before I build further: [YOUR LINK]
Thanks for putting your name down — you're on the founding list for Fourth Watch. Here's exactly what happens next, so nothing is a mystery. We're onboarding founding users in small batches over the next few weeks. When your batch opens, you'll get one email with your setup link and your free 15 days. No card, no commitment, nothing to do until then. Setup is about fifteen minutes, one time: your service area, your hours, and your rate ranges. After that, every call you can't grab gets answered, qualified against those rates, and texted to you — and nothing books until you reply. One small thing so we don't lose touch: add this address to your contacts, so your setup link lands in your inbox and not your spam folder. Talk soon.
A quick thought for between jobs. Here's the part that stings: when a homeowner has water coming through the ceiling, they don't leave a voicemail and wait. They call the next three numbers on Google and book whoever picks up first. One of them told a researcher she's genuinely surprised when a contractor calls her back at all. So the job you lost last week probably wasn't lost on price, or reviews, or the quality of your work. It was lost because your hands were full for ninety seconds. That's the whole reason I'm building Fourth Watch — not to book jobs for you, just to make sure the phone gets answered and you get the summary. I'd like to hear your version of it: what kind of call do you hate to miss the most? Reply and tell me — I read every one.
The most common thing people ask me about Fourth Watch is some version of: won't my callers just hang up when they realize it isn't me? Fair question, so here's the honest answer and the plan. It doesn't answer like a robot reading a script. It answers like a sharp dispatcher — it names your business, hears the problem out, and gives real answers about your rates and your availability. On a real call, a homeowner with a leaking water heater got a price range and a possible window in under a minute — and every caller ends with a human outcome: you, calling or texting back within minutes. The plan is simple. We onboard founding users in small batches, you run it on the calls you'd have missed anyway, you keep your number and your calendar, and the first 15 days are free. If that's still worth a try, just reply "in" and I'll make sure you're in the first batch.
Front Desk. 15 days free, no card.