Martyn Butler, founder · Updated 25 September 2026 · 6 minute read
Why speed matters
A homeowner with a leaking roof or a kitchen to fit has often asked more than one trade. The first to reply with a sensible answer and a time to visit sets the conversation, and the others are replying to somebody who may already have a visit booked.
Where your leads come from
Most trades get work from several places at once, and each has its own inbox:
- Lead sites such as Checkatrade, MyBuilder and Rated People, each with its own app, messages and rules about how you respond.
- Your own website: a contact form, an email address or a quote request.
- Google: messages and calls from your Business Profile, and reviews that ask a question.
- Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, where people message the way they would message a friend.
- Phone calls and voicemails, usually the ones that arrive while you are up a ladder.
What goes wrong when you are on the tools
None of this is a failing. You cannot answer a message with a grinder in your hand, and you should not be typing while you drive. So enquiries wait for lunchtime in the van or the kitchen table at nine at night, and by then some of them have gone elsewhere.
Quotes go the same way. The survey gets done, the figures sit in your head or on the back of an envelope, and the quote goes out a week later, if at all. Then nobody follows it up, because chasing feels like pestering and there is always a job to finish first.
If you pay for leads, a lead nobody answers is money spent for nothing. Each platform shares and charges for leads in its own way, and the terms change, so check your own.
What a VA does while you work
A VA working your hours watches the inboxes so you do not have to. The work is office work, done from your procedures and your price list:
- Replies to new enquiries quickly, asks the questions you would ask, and books the survey or site visit into your diary.
- Types up quotes from your notes, photos and prices, sends them once you have given the figures, and follows them up until you hear yes or no.
- Books jobs, confirms with the customer the day before, and rearranges around delays.
- Orders the materials you specify and chases deliveries.
- Raises invoices when jobs finish and chases late payment on your timetable.
- Keeps your job software and diary up to date, so the job list lives somewhere other than your head.
- Asks happy customers for reviews on Google and the sites you use.
They do not need to know the trade
Your VA works from your price list and your procedures. Technical questions, prices for anything unusual and decisions about which jobs to take come to you, together, at a time that suits you, rather than one at a time all day.
A first reply that books the visit
The point of a first reply is not to sell. It is to show the customer they have been heard and to get a time in the diary. A good one does four things:
- Uses their name and repeats the job back in a line, so they know somebody read it.
- Asks the few questions you always need: the postcode, a photo or two, how soon, and anything that changes the price.
- Offers two specific times for a visit or a call, rather than asking when suits them.
- Says who they are dealing with and when they will hear next.
Write it once
Write the first reply as a template, with a version for each kind of job you do. With the template and your diary rules in front of them, a VA watching your inboxes can have a reply out within minutes of an enquiry landing during their hours, and it sounds like you every time.
The follow-up routine for quotes
A quote that is never followed up is easy to lose without ever being told no. A fixed routine fixes that, and it suits a VA well, because it never gets busy enough to skip it.
| When | What your VA does | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The same day | Sends the quote, with a short note on what is included and how to say yes | The job is still fresh in the customer's mind |
| After 48 hours | Calls or messages: has it arrived, and are there any questions? | Catches quotes lost in spam, and questions nobody asked |
| After a week | Checks in again, with your next available start date | A real date helps people decide |
| After two weeks | Closes it politely: keep it open, or leave it there? | Gets a clear answer and keeps the list honest |
Log every answer, including no
When a quote is lost, write down why: price, timing, a competitor, or no reply at all. After a few months you will know more about why you win and lose work than any guess can tell you, and you can change the quote or the routine to match.
What stays with you
- Pricing, and any quote you have not approved.
- The survey itself, and anything technical.
- Which jobs you take and which you turn down.
- Complaints and disputes, once your VA has logged the facts.
- Money beyond sending invoices and reminders.
Calls, access and the setup
Phone calls are where trades most want help, and where the setup matters most. A VA can call customers back, confirm bookings and chase payments by phone in your UK hours. How calls reach them depends on your phone setup, so settle that before they start.
Give your VA their own login to each lead site, your job software and your email wherever the software allows, rather than your password. Then access can be changed or removed in one step.
Then write down the rules they need: the areas you cover, the jobs you do and do not do, the days and times you visit, how long a visit takes including travel, and your prices for the standard work.
Measure it
Pick three numbers and look at them each week: how long new enquiries wait for a first reply, how many become a booked visit, and how many quotes are won. You do not need a target on day one. You need to see whether they move.
Where to start
Start with enquiries and quote follow-up, because those are the two places where a busy week costs you work. Add scheduling and invoicing once those run without you.
Our page on virtual assistants for trades and contractors lists the rest of the work a VA takes on. The free VA Action Plan asks about your week and tells you whether a VA would work for you now, which jobs to hand over first, and what it costs next to a UK hire.