Field notes · For electricians · · 4 minute read

The phone, answered: Helloforward for electricians

Helloforward is an answering agent for your business line. It is built on AI, it talks like a person, and it does the office work: answers, books, texts back, leaves a note. Here it is on an electrician's phone, using an invented company called Bright Current Electric.

A call comes in with your hands in a panel

Rachel wants a 240 volt line for an EV charger. Your phone rings, you do not pick up, and the line does. It asks whether the garage is attached and where the panel is, books Amir for a site visit on Thursday at 10, and texts her the time.

Home, while a call is on. The number, the running clock, and the notes waiting for you underneath.
Home, while a call is on. The number, the running clock, and the notes waiting for you underneath.
The transcript, a minute later. Attached garage, panel in the basement, 200 amp. Amir knows before he leaves the shop.
The transcript, a minute later. Attached garage, panel in the basement, 200 amp. Amir knows before he leaves the shop.

It knows your work, and it writes it down

It answers from what you told it once: residential or commercial, the areas you cover, whether you touch aluminum wiring, what is urgent. Then it fills in the columns you asked for.

  • “Half the kitchen lost power and the breaker won’t reset.”

    No burning smell, so: leave it off, and straight through to Jordan, because that is the rule you set.

  • “ਕੀ ਤੁਸੀਂ ਸਰੀ ਵਿੱਚ ਪੈਨਲ ਅਪਗ੍ਰੇਡ ਕਰਦੇ ਹੋ?”

    Answered in Punjabi, gave the range you set, booked an estimate for Monday.

  • “It’s the Willowbrook strata, we want hallway LEDs quoted.”

    Fixture count taken, two mornings offered for a walk-through, note left for you.

The call log on a desk. Name, number, the job, a summary. Search finds a name, an address, or anything said.
The call log on a desk. Name, number, the job, a summary. Search finds a name, an address, or anything said.

Texts, handled the same way

A text to your line gets the same care. Bookings get a confirmation, questions get answers, and when you want to step in you type in the same thread.

Every conversation on the line.
Every conversation on the line.
The strata picked Wednesday. Jordan answered himself, promising sample fixtures, in the same thread.
The strata picked Wednesday. Jordan answered himself, promising sample fixtures, in the same thread.

Ring your own line, and it works for you

The line knows your number. Call it from the truck and it becomes your assistant: what came in this morning, mark Elm Avenue done, remind me to pick up 12-2. Texting your line does the same.

Jordan, calling his own line. Two calls read back, one job marked done, one reminder set.
Jordan, calling his own line. Two calls read back, one job marked done, one reminder set.
The note it made from a call. Where it came from, who it is about, one tap to close it.
The note it made from a call. Where it came from, who it is about, one tap to close it.

An assistant between the calls

Every business gets an assistant of its own. Ask it in plain words: confirm tomorrow's visits, did the strata ever pick a day, confirm it. It reads the calendar and the call log, so it already knows.

Tomorrow confirmed, one tentative made firm. The Willowbrook walk-through goes from pencilled to booked, and Denise gets a text.
Tomorrow confirmed, one tentative made firm. The Willowbrook walk-through goes from pencilled to booked, and Denise gets a text.

Apprentice, journeyman, you

Add team members and callers can be booked with whoever covers that area. Each person has their own calendar lane and their own assistant. Ten dollars a month a head. Bookings sync both ways with Google Calendar if you use it.

The week, by person. Amir's pot-light day in blue, Jordan's estimates in orange, the tentative walk-through dotted.
The week, by person. Amir's pot-light day in blue, Jordan's estimates in orange, the tentative walk-through dotted.
The team. Who the agent can book for, who signs in, who has an assistant.
The team. Who the agent can book for, who signs in, who has an assistant.

Setting it up

I

Forward your line

Keep your number and forward the calls you do not answer. Your phone rings first, then Helloforward. Or take a new local number.

II

Describe the business

Hours, area, the work you take, what is urgent, your call-out if you quote one. A few minutes, once.

III

Call it yourself

Ring your line and pretend to be a customer. Adjust anything from the app.

Carrier codes for forwarding are in this note. Bright Current Electric and everyone in these screens are invented; the screens are the real product.

The next call is taken care of.

Set up in minutes. First month free, no card needed.

Start your free month

Or hear it answer first. It runs a demo plumbing company; yours would answer for your business.

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