How it works, step by step
- A customer rings the business number on your Google profile, your listing or your van.
- It rings your own mobile, exactly like any other call.
- You answer it, or you cannot because you are working.
- If you cannot, the caller gets a text from your business number within seconds, saying who you are and that you will be in touch.
- They can reply to it, and the call and the reply are waiting for you when you look.
Nothing is installed on your phone and nothing changes about how you answer. It only acts on the calls you miss.
Why it runs on a business number, not your mobile
Rather than changing anything on your own mobile, you advertise a business number that rings it. That is what lets the system see a missed call and reply in your business name, and it has two side benefits: you can tell work calls from personal ones at a glance, and your personal number comes off the internet.
The catch is simple and worth knowing before you start: calls made straight to your personal mobile are not texted back. New customers ring the number on your listings, so put the business number there.
What to look for before you pay for one
- The text goes out in your business name, from the number they rang, so it reads as you and not a stranger.
- Replies come back to you, in one place, not lost on a system you never open.
- It works without an app on your phone and without you changing how you answer.
- You can switch it off.
- It does not pretend to be a person or book work for you. A customer who thinks they have booked, and then has not, is worse than one who waited.
Is an automatic text allowed?
A missed-call text is a reply to someone who has just rung you, not a cold marketing message, so keep it to what it is: who you are and when you will be back to them. Sales lines and offers do not belong in it.
Straight answers
- How fast does the text go?
- Within seconds of the call ending unanswered, which is the point: before they have rung the next name on the list.
- What does the customer see?
- A normal text from your business number, with your business name in it. Nothing that looks like a system or a bot.
- Can the customer reply?
- Yes. With Slate every call and text to the office line lands on your job board, so a reply is waiting for you with the missed call it belongs to.
- Does it work on my existing mobile number?
- It works on the business number you advertise. Your mobile keeps working as normal, but calls made straight to it are not texted back.
- What does Slate 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.
Slate OS gives you an office line that rings your mobile and texts back every call you miss, within seconds, in your business name. Quotes, invoices and chasing happen from your phone.