Weeping tile and foundation
The core of the trade, and the most sensitive. She records the type of work, the known depth, the plans or soil study available, the access around the house and the previous work, then books the site visit.
Excavation and drainage
Your next excavation enquiry records the site, equipment access, available plans and the status of utility locating. Your receptionist gathers those details to prepare the site visit, keeping a request to excavate separate from a confirmed start date.
$39 CAD / month · 50 Standard calls · 1 local number
A site to assess, with prerequisites in view
The estimator receives the request with the partial access, the shed to work around, the locate still to request and the spring water context. The visit is there to assess, and nobody promised an impossible date.
Read the full conversation
Monday, 11:40 a.m., in May. The operator is in his excavator. A homeowner calls to have his weeping tile replaced.
ReceptionistExcavation Gagné, good morning. Let me take your name and a callback number first, in case we get cut off.
CallerRéjean Pelletier, 450 555-0175. My basement takes on water every spring, and I am told it is the drain.
ReceptionistCan machinery get around the house — passage width, fence, obstacles? And has the underground utility locate already been requested for your lot?
CallerOne side is wide, the other is blocked by a shed. No, I have not requested anything, I did not know.
ReceptionistThat is normal, and it is free. I am noting that it still has to be done — no digging date is set before it, and it takes a few business days. I will book a site visit to assess the access and the soil; the work date comes after, and it will also depend on the weather.
For the requests you receive
Driveway, slab, grading
Earthworks, a driveway to redo, a slab to prepare. She captures the surface, the soil as declared, the spoil to haul away and the access — three truckloads of dirt out of an enclosed yard is a different job.
Weather delays and scheduling
A job pushed by rain, a customer wanting to know when it resumes. She offers a new window and repeats that excavation depends on ground conditions — without inventing a date to please anyone.
Other requests you can delegate
Septic installation
A technical variant of its own, with its own rules and permits. She opens it as a separate request rather than drowning it in a general excavation queue.
What happens to the request
You describe your jobs and your machines
The work you take, your service area, what you want to know before driving out, who receives large projects, and what your receptionist does not say. All of it changes from the app.
She checks the access and the locate
Name and callback number first. Then the kind of project, the address with the postal code, residential or commercial, the machinery access — width, fence, obstacles — the status of the locate request, and the target date.
A site visit, with its prerequisites written down
You get a written request where the access and the locate status are spelled out. A large project or a tight schedule triggers an alert under your rule.
What the Trades and maintenance base covers
A receptionist who answers for you, in both languages, and sends you a written request. No setup fee, and you keep your number.
- Calls answered in French and in English, following the caller
- Name and callback number taken first, so nothing is lost if the line drops
- The work asked for, the place and the wanted timing, written into your request
- An immediate alert when the situation matches your urgency rule
- A written summary after every call, readable in the app, and the option to ask her what happened
She confirms no digging date until the underground utility locate has been done.
Decisions that stay with you
- She gives no firm price and no ballpark: volume, access, soil and rock are seen on the ground.
- She assesses neither soil type, nor rock, nor contamination over the phone.
- She offers a window, not an arrival time: excavation depends on the weather and can be pushed.
- She does not confirm that a municipal permit is unnecessary — that is validated in the file.
Ask your receptionist, too
This is included in your base plan. She answers using the calls, requests and business information you are allowed to access.
Talk to your receptionistA question you can ask
Which excavation visits still need equipment-access details?
She reads stated access widths and missing enquiry details. She does not verify ground conditions or utilities.
What else you can hand to her
Beyond the base plan. Each one is added on purpose, separately from the base. None is switched on unless you choose it.
When your customers prefer to write
You can add a channel so she can continue the conversation with your customers. Any action she takes follows the same rules and the options you have chosen.
Optional customer channel
Your email inbox
Keep emails about plans, access and available studies with the excavation visit request.
The transactional messages provided by your base plan and your own questions to the receptionist remain included.
Keeping your current software?
Check the actions supported, connection requirements and how to work when your software cannot perform the requested action.
Selection and change-order workflows are documented in the product; they do not establish third-party interface access.
A generic category: the product has to be named and an owner identified. Reading costs, resources and statuses is still to be established.
Two things decide the job, and neither is the price
In excavation, two things decide whether a job is possible and at what cost: what is in the ground, and whether the machines can get to it. Everything else — volume, hours, hauling — is calculated afterwards. A lump sum given without seeing the soil or the access is the documented risk in this trade, and it gets paid for on site.
Your receptionist asks the two questions nobody thinks to ask on the phone. Can machinery reach the lot — width, fence, obstacles? And has the underground utility locate request already been made for the site? In Quebec that locate is free and required before any digging, and it takes a few business days.
She also frames the weather on the first call. Excavation work gets pushed: rain, frost, saturated ground. She offers a window and warns that a reschedule is possible — not a hard time your operator will have to walk back.
In the same section
The other lines of work in this section run on the same engine, with their own requests and their own rules.
Trades & maintenanceExcavation and drainage — your questions
What is this locate business?
Before any digging in Quebec, a request to locate underground infrastructure has to be made. It is free and generally takes a few business days. Your receptionist systematically records whether it has been requested, and confirms no digging date until it has.
Weather pushes my jobs.
Then she says so up front. She offers a window and warns that a reschedule is possible depending on ground conditions. When a job moves, she offers a new window instead of leaving the customer to call three times.
Can she tell me whether there is rock?
No, and nobody can over the phone. Soil type, rock and any contamination are assessed on the ground. She records what the customer declares, presenting it as a declaration.
And municipal permits?
She records the question, she does not settle it. She does not confirm that a permit is unnecessary: your manager validates the permits and the qualifications before the machine moves.
Can she give a price to dig?
No. The excavation preset rules out firm prices and ballparks alike: the amount depends on the volume, the access, the soil type and whether there is rock. She captures the project and books the site visit.
Your rules, before the first call
Start your free trial with your email. Your website can help prepare your business information, but it is optional. Confirm the facts, choose a first task and test your receptionist. You can try options too, starting with the ones you need.
Keep my phone numberExcavation and drainage