Features
Missed-call capture: what happens in the first 60 seconds
The moment your phone rings out, JobLock takes over the conversation instead of sending the caller to voicemail.
JobLock editorial · 7 min read
Voicemail is where trade leads go to die. JobLock replaces it with a text conversation that starts before the caller has time to dial the next number on the search results page.
Second 0 to 20: your line forwards, JobLock answers
Call forwarding on your mobile sends any unanswered call to your JobLock number. Nothing changes for the caller — they dial the same number they have always dialled, off your van, your card or your Google listing.
When the call is not picked up, the call is released immediately rather than pushed to a long recorded message. Customers with water coming through a ceiling do not sit through greetings, and every second spent on a recording is a second they could spend ringing your competitor.
- Works with every UK mobile network — the forwarding code is set once, in about two minutes.
- Your own number stays the number customers see and save.
- Calls you do answer are untouched: JobLock only ever handles the ones you miss.
Second 20 to 40: the text lands
Within seconds of the call ending, an SMS arrives on the caller's phone in your business name. It apologises for the missed call, explains you are on a job, and gives them one link.
The wording is yours. You can leave the default in place or write your own version in the dashboard, including your name, your trading hours or a line about the areas you cover. The message is the part of the system a customer actually reads, so it is worth ten minutes of your time once.
Second 40 to 120: the customer qualifies themselves
The link opens a short form built around your trade: what has happened, where they are, how urgent it feels, and space for a couple of photos.
Most customers finish it in under two minutes, because they are motivated — they still have water on the floor or no power in the kitchen. That motivation is the thing you lose when a lead goes cold for forty minutes, and it is exactly what the form captures while it is at its peak.
- Trade-specific questions: boiler error codes for heating, lock type for locksmiths, drain location for drainage.
- Your own custom questions are appended to every form.
- Photos are requested at the moment the customer is most willing to take them.
The next time you look at your phone: a job, not a missed call
By the time you climb out from under a sink, the lead is on your dashboard as a dispatch card: name, number, postcode, urgency, the answers they gave and the photos they sent, with a written brief on top.
You ring back already knowing what the job is, what it probably needs and whether it should jump the queue. The conversation starts at booking rather than at "so what seems to be the problem?".
What it changes over a month
The maths is unglamorous. Most sole traders miss between five and fifteen calls a week while working, and a large share of those callers never ring back — they simply hire whoever answered next.
Recovering even a third of them changes the month. You are not buying more advertising or a bigger van; you are keeping enquiries you had already paid to generate.
Common questions
- Do I need a new phone number?
- No. You keep your own number and forward unanswered calls to your JobLock line, so every advert, van and business card you already own stays correct.
- What if I pick up the call?
- Nothing happens. JobLock only ever acts on calls that ring out unanswered, so answered calls never trigger a text.
- How quickly does the text go out?
- Within seconds of the call ending. Speed is the whole point: the reply needs to arrive while the customer still has the problem in front of them.
Stop losing jobs while you're working.
JobLock answers every missed call, qualifies the job and hands you a ready-to-quote card.
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