What a cheap answering app does well
Answering and voicemail apps for small firms are cheap and quick to set up. Most give a missed caller a recorded greeting, turn their voicemail into text, and some send a short text saying you will be in touch. If all that was ever missing was a polite message, one of these, or a good voicemail greeting of your own, will do.
Where it stops
The message is the end of what it does. The caller's reply, if they send one, usually arrives as a text among your others. You ring back, agree the job, then write it down somewhere, quote it from somewhere else, invoice it from a third place and chase the money from your bank app. The answering app saved the call; the job is still on bits of paper.
And a recording only works on people who will leave a message. In the YouGov survey for Answer4u, only 6% of UK adults said they would.
Side by side
- A call you miss
- A cheap answering appA greeting or voicemail; on some, a short text
- Slate OSA text from your firm within seconds, asking what the job is and where
- Their reply
- A cheap answering appA text among your others
- Slate OSOn your phone with the missed call, as a job
- Then
- A cheap answering appUp to you, in whatever you use
- Slate OSQuote, invoice and card payment from the same job, on your phone
- Getting paid
- A cheap answering appNot its job
- Slate OSA card link on the invoice, or your bank details; the job marks itself paid with Stripe
- Price
- A cheap answering appA low monthly fee
- Slate OS£249 a month, the line, calls and texts included
| A cheap answering app | Slate OS | |
|---|---|---|
| A call you miss | A greeting or voicemail; on some, a short text | A text from your firm within seconds, asking what the job is and where |
| Their reply | A text among your others | On your phone with the missed call, as a job |
| Then | Up to you, in whatever you use | Quote, invoice and card payment from the same job, on your phone |
| Getting paid | Not its job | A card link on the invoice, or your bank details; the job marks itself paid with Stripe |
| Price | A low monthly fee | £249 a month, the line, calls and texts included |
When an app is enough
If your jobs already run smoothly in something else and you only want a polite message, an app is fine. If the missed call is where the job starts going wrong, and the paperwork is where it ends up in a mess, Slate runs it from the missed call to the payment, from your phone.
Straight answers
- Is a voicemail greeting enough?
- For the few who leave a message, yes. In the YouGov survey for Answer4u, 6% of UK adults said they would leave a voicemail rather than wait. The rest are the ones a text holds.
- Do I have to use the job tools?
- No. Use them if you want, or just let the text-back run. They are there when the reply turns into a job.
- What does Slate OS cost?
- £249 a month, one plan. The first 25 firms pay £199 a month for as long as they stay. You get 14 days free from the day you start, and if you are not happy within 14 days of your first payment, you message us and we refund it in full.
Sources
Slate OS gives you an office line that rings your own mobile. When you can’t pick up, the caller gets a text in your firm’s name within seconds, and the job lands on your phone. Quotes, invoices and a diary come with it, for when you want them.