The enquiry that came in while you were on a job: WhatsApp-first lead capture for trades

A plumber under a sink cannot answer the phone. An electrician in a roof cannot reply to WhatsApp. A tiler halfway through a floor is not going to stop to send a quote. That is the trade's oldest problem: the hours you are earning are the hours you cannot be reached, and the customer who could not reach you phones the next name on the list.

Much of the work you lose is not lost to a cheaper competitor. It is lost to silence.

What a missed enquiry actually costs

A customer with a burst geyser messages three plumbers. The first to answer gets the job. If you answer at five, you are answering a problem that was solved at eleven. Multiply that by every day on site, and it is a steady leak of work that should be easy to win: urgent, local, referred by someone who already trusts you.

Voicemail does not fix it. Hardly anyone leaves one. An automatic "I'm busy" reply does not fix it either, because it gives the customer nothing to do except wait or move on.

Give them something to do instead of waiting

The fix is to make sure the enquiry has somewhere to land, and the customer has something to do while you finish the job.

That is what a Newbi card does for a trade. It is one link that holds:

• Your card: photo, trade, area and contact details, in a theme that suits the work. Naya, the AI built into Newbi, drafts it from a description of what you do, or from a photo of the paper card you have been handing out for years.
• Your services and a price list, so the customer can see that you do what they need before they even message.
• A booking button, so a customer can pick a time for a call-out or a quote without the back-and-forth.
• A lead capture form, so a customer who cannot get you on WhatsApp leaves their name, number and what they need, and it lands in your dashboard.

Every card has a WhatsApp button, because that is how your customers already reach you. The difference is that WhatsApp is now one option on a page that also works when you cannot answer.

Where the enquiry goes

Every lead through the card lands in your Newbi dashboard, which you can also manage from the Newbi app on iPhone or Android, in the bakkie between jobs. From there you open a WhatsApp chat in one tap, call back, or export the list to a spreadsheet.

If you or your office run a CRM, the Professional plan sends every lead to it by webhook. The enquiry that arrived at eleven is in the pipeline by lunch, with the customer's details and request attached, not a half-remembered voicemail.

Sharing the link on site

Trades meet customers in person more than most businesses, and a paper card handed over at a quote ends up on a dashboard or in a drawer. Newbi gives you four ways to be saved instead:

• A QR code on your vehicle, your invoice and your quote. Any phone camera scans it.
• A direct link, for your WhatsApp Business profile, your Google Business Profile, your Facebook page and your email signature.
• An Apple or Google Wallet pass, so you can show the QR code from your phone in two seconds at the door.
• An NFC card, on any plan, which you tap on the customer's phone to open your card. No app, no typing, nothing to lose. (More on how they work in NFC business cards in South Africa.)

The person you share it with needs nothing installed. The card opens in their browser.

Quotes, deposits and getting paid

A trade's second problem is money. The customer agrees on WhatsApp, you do the job, then you chase. You can ask for a deposit when a customer books a call-out, and the card shows them where to pay you. A deposit before a call-out separates the serious customer from the one who cancels when you are already on the road.

A small habit that changes the week

Set the card up once. Put the link in your WhatsApp Business profile and your Google profile, and the QR code on the vehicle. Then, when you are on a job and the phone buzzes, you do not have to choose between the customer in front of you and the one on the phone. The one on the phone has somewhere to go.

At the end of the day, the dashboard shows who enquired, what they wanted and how to reach them. You call back the ones that are still live, and you stop finding out on Friday about the job you lost on Tuesday.

Getting started

Sign up with an email, with no password. Describe what you do, or photograph your old card, and Naya drafts the card, bio and theme for you to check. Pro, with bookings and wallet passes, is free for 14 days and then R189 a month in South Africa, charged in rand.

Give the next enquiry somewhere to land.