Missed-Call Text Back for Trades: What to Send and Who Reads the Reply

When the text should fire, and when it should stay quiet

A basic text-back rule fires on every missed call. That sounds right until you look at what it catches: spam, a caller who already booked, someone who was just told you don't cover their area. Each of them gets a text that makes the shop look like it wasn't listening.

Right On Call sends the recovery text in two cases: the caller hung up or went silent before anything was settled, or they asked to be called back. A caller who booked gets a confirmation instead. A caller who heard that the calendar was full, that they're outside the service area, or who went through the safety script already got a clear answer on the call, so they don't get a second one by text. Calls marked as spam get nothing.

What the text should say

Keep it short, make it obviously from the shop, and give one next step. Ours reads: "[Your shop]: sorry we got cut off! If you still need help, call us back at [your number] or reply here with what you need. Reply STOP to opt out."

A caller who asked for a callback gets a different text: the request is in, someone will call back shortly, and here is the number if it can't wait.

My view is that the text should ask what they need rather than run triage over SMS. The call already started the triage. What's missing is usually the one thing the caller didn't get to say before the line dropped.

Which number it goes to, and when

The text goes to the number the caller gave during the call. If they hung up before giving one, it goes to the caller ID. It's sent from the local number included in your plan.

By default it goes out right away. If an instant text feels too robotic for your customers, you can set a delay of up to 30 minutes.

Where the reply goes

A text back only helps if someone reads the reply. One that sits in an inbox nobody watches is a nicer voicemail.

When a caller replies with what they need, the reply reaches the same agent that answers the phone. It can check the area, offer real open times, and book one by text, under the same rules as a call. If the customer asks for a person, or the conversation runs long or fails, it stops and texts your on-call number, which for most shops means whoever has the phone that night.

A reply with a photo is attached to the job and forwarded to the on-call number, with a short read of what the photo shows: the likely appliance and brand, any model number or error code in view, and the visible problem.

Picking it up from the dashboard

Every call that ended without a booking stays on the dashboard with the name, address, job, and any time the caller agreed to, marked Not confirmed. Nothing holds the slot until you book it.

From there you can text the customer, one at a time, starting from a draft written from their last call. If they reply YES, the call is marked booked. Every text shows whether it was queued, sent, delivered, or failed. A failed text isn't re-sent automatically, so a bad number shows up as a failure instead of a customer who went quiet.

• STOP always works. A customer who texts STOP gets no more texts, and START opts them back in.
• Every text carries the opt-out line, including the ones you write from the dashboard.
• The AI doesn't call anyone back. Recovery is a text, and the callback comes from a person.