Enquiries & bookings · 7:43 video
How can trades firms use AI from enquiry to booked job?
Trades firms can use AI to help capture enquiries, prepare replies, gather missing job details and prompt follow-up. With suitable integrations and agreed rules, it can also support survey booking and CRM updates. Map where enquiries currently stop, keep people responsible for exceptions and promises, and measure qualified booked jobs rather than replies alone.
English captions available in the player. Watch on YouTube ↗ · Read the transcript ↓
Check what happens to the leads you already have
The video begins with a familiar problem: enquiries arrive from several places, but responses, quotes or follow-ups are missed. Shaz maps the route from contact to quote to a closed job. For an MD or operations leader, the first task is to find the drop-off: which enquiries are unanswered, which have no next action and which are waiting on the customer?
Decide what AI is allowed to do at each step
The proposed operations layer responds, qualifies, books, follows up and updates the job management system. Those are separate capabilities to test, not benefits that appear just by adding a chatbot. Set the information required for qualification, the appointments that can be offered and when a person must take over. Confirm access to live availability before allowing a system to promise a slot.
Use the 90-day roadmap as a staged pilot
The video suggests mapping processes and setting up a first assistant in days 1–30; improving and checking the workflow in days 31–60; then refining it and considering the next workflow in days 61–90. Treat this as a planning example. Your systems, data quality and team capacity determine a realistic timetable. Expand only when the first workflow works reliably.
Count jobs and useful capacity, not just messages
For a pilot, record enquiry-to-first-response time, qualified enquiries, surveys booked, jobs won and administration per job. Compare results with the baseline and review failed handovers. More automated replies are useful only if customers reach the right next step. Revenue and profit also depend on job value, delivery costs and capacity; the video’s sketch is not a forecast for your business.
Before you decide
Questions from business owners and operations teams
Can this help with enquiries outside office hours?
A suitably configured system can collect information or prepare a response outside office hours. Set clear escalation and availability rules. This guide does not promise that every enquiry will receive an instant or correct response.
Is this only relevant to trades businesses?
No. The same questions apply to service businesses that handle enquiries, qualification, appointments and follow-up. The examples use trades language, but the workflow method is broader.
Do you build and run the system for us?
The current offer is practical AI workshops and workflow training. Your team leaves with an approach and pilot plan. Any implementation or ongoing system operation would need its own agreed scope.
Video transcript
English caption transcript, reviewed for content and grouped by topic. Spoken wording is retained. Examples, estimates and earlier service references reflect the recording; the explanation above describes the current workshop offer.
Read the full transcript 7:43
0:00 Where enquiries get lost
Hi everyone, Shaz here from customerjourneys.ai. So I'm going to show you how I'm working with a number of trades businesses to redesign their operational workflows around AI so that ultimately they can book more quality jobs. Getting enough leads typically with a trades business. Let's just assume this is your bucket and these are your leads. Leads are coming in from Google, Facebook, from the websites, from maybe lead gen. So yes, many businesses do not get enough leads but let's say typically the businesses that I work with, they get plenty of leads. The issue is that these leads are not being dealt with correctly. So you will have no responses as an example. You'll have maybe no quote going out, no follow up. You'll have um maybe they're lost to competitors. So the opportunity really is how do we use AI to help improve each of these steps so that we lose um so that we turn more of these leads into customers.
1:18 The journey from contact to closed job
Typically you'll see a process that looks like this. And if you can improve it any of these or all of these, then you'll generate more profit. So leads will be contacted, will be quoted, will be closed and there will be a job value attached to that. So if you can improve any of these, you're going to get more profit as a result. So how do we do that? Well, leaks happen in all of these areas between each these steps. And this is kind of a typical journey that a trades business might go through. And leads will be dropping off at every stage. So, what AI can help you do is capture, follow up, and keep momentum within uh this workflow so that you generate more profit. And the way that we do achieve that is
2:21 An AI operations layer
we have something known as an AI operations layer. So, if you imagine that AI isn't just a tool, but it's your operations. It sits at the center of your uh typical journey. [clears throat] And leads will come into your AI operations through, as we said earlier, through [clears throat] web, through lead gen, through Google and Facebook, etc., etc. The AI operations job here is to respond, to um qualify, to book, to follow up, and actually take all this information and update your job management system. So, to update your CRM as well. The beauty of this operations this AI operations is also out of hours as well because it can work 24/7. So, none of these leads will ever get left waiting for a response. So, this is obviously an example of AI in action.
3:46 Keep people in control
And the reason this is so powerful is because essentially AI is acting as your assistant. It's actually instantly responding. And we know that the quicker you respond, the more likely you are to qualify and book the lead. Qualify and book. So, the AI is taking on this part of the typical customer journey. You're still in control. Of course, you're still remaining in the loop. But, you're no longer relying on, say, your assistant or yourself to pick up all of these leads and respond to them within minutes, within seconds, and to qualify, book, and follow up. This is being done um by, you know, autonomously, semi-autonomously by the AI. But, the um but there is a human in the loop element, of course, so that you remain in control at each step. Um but, the mechanical piece, the monotonous piece, is taken by AI. And
4:53 The outcomes to test
why does this even matter? Well, ultimately, you could expect a smoother business operation. You could expect more profit because before AI, you know, you're getting maybe this much revenue before when everything was done manually. But, since AI operations layer has come into the piece, into the fold, you are now generating more revenue. And why is that, you know? The chart looks nice, but you know, the the objective objective you should be getting more jobs. Um you should be reducing your admin effort. You should have happier customers, hopefully, because you're more responsive. They may be refer you. You were getting Yeah, so maybe [clears throat] you'd be getting more repeat work because of that. And that equals more profit. Which equals less stress, which is what everyone wants. Right? So, how do you go about doing this? Now, you can reach out to me to help you. Or you can go to customerjourneys.ai and just leave your information. We'll get in touch on the same day.
6:01 A suggested 90-day roadmap
But this is the road map, right? I look at things you typically in a 90-day road map. Uh and the way you'll achieve this is the first 30 days, so 0 to 30, what you want to focus on is mapping your processes, setting up your tools. Um for example, if you don't have AI at the moment, setting up Claude um could be a good starting point, setting up Microsoft Copilot, depending on your internal stack, then launching your um AI assistant, okay? Then you've got to think days 31 to 60. This is now about getting more automation done. So, more automation in your workflow, improvement of the AI, so improving what AI delivers. Um and hopefully um tracking that this is working correctly. And then in your day 61 to 90, um you just continuously optimize, sorry my spelling, and refine what you're doing. And you can then move from one what workflow to a new workflow if you prove it on this first pilot. And plan for the next phase. So, that's typically how you do things. So, this is just scratching the surface of what I'm doing with um some trades businesses. If you're interested, just reach out to me. Um it's either you can email me shaz@customerjourneys.ai, you can directly message me uh through this platform, or you can go to customerjourneys.ai and um fill out a very short um form, and I'll be in touch with you on the same day. Thank you.
