"Did you come by?"
The most frequent question of the season. She reads the site's status: what the contract schedules, the last confirmed visit, and the next expected one — without inventing an arrival time.
Grounds maintenance and irrigation
When a customer asks whether the crew has visited, your receptionist finds the site and the last confirmed service. She also distinguishes scheduled maintenance, an irrigation request and an extra for your approval, without reporting a visit that has not been recorded.
$39 CAD / month · 50 Standard calls · 1 local number
The right site, recorded visit and extra to approve
The crew lead receives a visit-confirmation request on the right site, and the office receives an extra to price. Nobody bills a trim the customer believed was included.
Read the full conversation
Thursday, 5:50 p.m., in July. The crew lead is finishing his route. A customer under a maintenance contract calls, mildly annoyed.
ReceptionistEntretien Vachon, good afternoon. Let me take your name and a callback number first, in case we get cut off.
CallerDanielle Ouimet, 450 555-0128. You were supposed to come today and my lawn has not been cut.
ReceptionistLet me look at your contract. Your site is on this week's schedule, and the last confirmed visit was last Thursday. Your sector's route was pushed by Tuesday's rain; I cannot give you a time, but I am logging your call and having the next visit confirmed.
CallerAll right. And while I have you, my cedar hedge could use a trim.
ReceptionistHedge trimming is not among the tasks in your contract. I am opening a separate request with the approximate length; you will get a price to approve before anything is done.
For the requests you receive
A request for an extra
An additional trim, mulch, a bed to redo, a dead shrub. She checks what the contract covers, opens a separate request for the rest, and waits for your agreement before anything happens.
Irrigation
Spring start-up, fall shutdown, a zone that stopped watering, a broken head. She records the zone and the equipment involved, and places the visit in the windows you keep for irrigation service.
Other requests you can delegate
A commercial multi-site account
A manager with several properties, consolidated billing but proof of visit per site. She identifies the exact site before opening anything — a property client rarely names the right one first.
What she does for you, in grounds maintenance and irrigation
“Did you come by?” is the most frequent call in this trade. She answers it from the contract, without inventing a time.
When someone asks whether the crew came by
She takes the name and callback number before looking at the contract.
The season’s most frequent question starts there.
She reads the site’s status from the contract — what is scheduled, the last confirmed visit.
She fabricates nothing: if proof of visit has not been recorded yet, she says so and has it confirmed.
She states the next expected visit, without promising an arrival time.
A route depends on the weather, the access and the crews’ capacity — not on a time your crew lead will have to walk back.
When it is a request for an extra
She checks what the contract covers before promising anything.
That is the rule that keeps an extra from being billed when the customer believed it was included.
She opens a separate request for anything outside the contract, and waits for your agreement before it is touched.
A hedge trim, mulch, a bed to redo — it becomes a price to approve, not a surprise on the invoice.
When it is irrigation
She records the irrigation zone or the equipment involved — start-up, shutdown, a broken head.
The context that prepares a useful visit, without guessing the source of the problem.
She places the visit in the windows you keep for irrigation service.
Spring start-up, fall shutdown — two predictable peaks in the year.
When it is a commercial multi-site account
She identifies the exact site before opening anything.
A property client rarely names the right site first.
She attaches the issue or the extra to the right property, without blending two buildings from the same manager.
Consolidated billing does not remove proof of visit specific to each site.
What else you can hand to her
Each of these options is added separately, when it is useful to you.
- Add-on
She tracks what is due, completed and up for renewal, per site.
That is what lets a route status be answered without calling the crew lead. Contracts and recurring service
- Add-on
An approved extra becomes a job assigned to a crew, with its proof of visit.
Included in Dispatch and field work, instead of a sticky note on a whiteboard. Dispatch and field work
When your customers write, and if you already use software
- Channel
She clarifies the irrigation zone or the gate access by text, without touching the contract.
Optional SMS channel: the conversation continues without a new call.
- Software
She relies on LMN or QuickBooks for your contracts’ billing schedules, when you already use them.
Contracts and schedules are documented on the product side. The visit event and interface access still have to be verified. LMN
- Software
She links the maintenance site to its file in Jobber, once writing is confirmed on your account.
The client, request and quote model is documented. Writing each object still has to be proven on a real account. Jobber
What she does not do, in grounds maintenance
- She promises no arrival time: a route depends on the weather, the access and the crews’ capacity.
- She does not decide that a request is covered when the contract does not say so.
- She approves no extra: the request reaches you and waits for your agreement.
- She changes no visit frequency and no product usage — those are your team’s decisions.
- She acknowledges no alleged damage: the claim goes to the manager, with no admission.
- She does not blend two properties from the same multi-site manager.
What you can ask her yourself
She answers from the calls, requests and business information you are allowed to access. A question about an option only applies once you have switched it on.
The questionWhich irrigation requests come from existing contract customers?
She uses the contract and site already identified in your records. She does not decide whether work is covered.
What is the status of the last confirmed visit for a given site?
She reads the last recorded visit and the reported issue, without inventing an unconfirmed event.
Which services are due this week, under my contracts?
Add-onWith Contracts and recurring service: what is due, completed and up for renewal, per site. Without the option, she does not track contracts.
Which extras have been assigned to a crew, and which are still pending?
Add-onWith Dispatch and field work: who accepted each approved extra. Without the option, she passes the request on without tracking its assignment.
What happens to the request
You load your contracts and your rules
The sites, the frequencies, the included tasks, what counts as an extra, the time restrictions and the gate access. She reads those entitlements: she does not guess them, and she does not change them.
She answers the status, or opens an extra
Name and callback number first. Then the site, what is being asked, and whether the contract covers it. A reported issue — damage, a dry zone, a locked gate — is recorded with the site name.
Extras become requests, not surprises
You receive extra requests to approve, and issues attached to the right site. Changing a frequency and using a given product stay decisions for your operations team.
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 does not decide that a request is covered when the contract does not say so.
Decisions that stay with you
- She promises no arrival time: a route depends on the weather, the access and the crews' capacity.
- She approves no extra: the request reaches you and waits for your agreement.
- She changes no visit frequency and no product usage — those are your team's decisions.
- She acknowledges no alleged damage: the claim goes to the manager, with no admission.
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 irrigation requests come from existing contract customers?
She uses the contract and site already identified in your records. She does not decide whether work is covered.
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.
Contracts and recurring service already includes dispatch for jobs covered by those contracts. The Dispatch and field work option is only added for separate jobs outside that scope.
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
Customer text conversations
Clarify the irrigation zone or gate access by text; changing the contract remains separate.
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.
Contracts and billing schedules are documented on the product side; the visit event and interface access are not verified.
Client, request and quote model documented; writing each object still has to be proven on a real account before it is announced.
Contracts, routes, and a lot of status questions
Grounds maintenance is not sold like a project. It is periodic contracts, routes, sites and extras. The phone is mostly used for two things: finding out whether the crew came by, and asking for something that may not be in the contract. Taking those calls yourself, between two properties, is time that does not get billed.
Your receptionist answers from the contract. She knows which site, which frequency, which tasks are scheduled, and when the last visit was confirmed. So she can say what is planned and when the next visit is expected, instead of promising a time nobody can hold.
And when the request falls outside the contract — one more hedge, an irrigation zone to open, a shrub to replace — she opens it as a separate extra request that waits for your approval. The documented risk in this trade is exactly the opposite: billing an extra the customer believed was included.
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 & maintenanceLandscaping and seasonal maintenance
Grounds maintenance and irrigation — your questions
Can she say whether the crew came by?
She reads the status your system holds: the last confirmed visit and the next one scheduled in the contract. She fabricates nothing. If the proof of visit has not been recorded yet, she says so and has it confirmed.
How does she avoid billing an extra people thought was included?
She checks what the contract covers first. Anything outside it becomes a separate request, with a price to approve before the work. That is the documented risk in this trade, and this is the rule that closes it.
I have commercial accounts with several properties.
Then the site identifier comes first. She asks which site right at the start, attaches the issue or the extra to the right property, and does not blend two buildings from the same manager.
What if a customer says we damaged something?
She takes the statement, the photos and the site, and passes it to the manager. She acknowledges no liability over the phone: a claim is handled by a person, with the file in front of them.
Can she promise an arrival time?
No, and that is deliberate. A route depends on rain, access and crew capacity. She states what the contract schedules, not a time your crew lead will have to walk back.
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 numberGrounds maintenance and irrigation