Paving and concrete
A driveway to redo, a slab, a walkway. She records the zones, the provisional measurements, the state of what is there and the goal, and notes that preparation and product set the return-to-use time.
Paving, concrete, masonry, fences and decks
A driveway, masonry wall and deck require different details. Your receptionist identifies the work, records provisional dimensions, the existing surface and access, then prepares the visit. When customers ask about using the finished work, she follows only your instructions.
$39 CAD / month · 50 Standard calls · 1 local number
For the requests you receive
Masonry
A wall, a facing, repointing. The existing substrate and the access drive the quote: she captures both, with photos, before the inspector drives out.
Fences and decks
A layout, components, a height, a property line. She records the linear feet or the surface, the material and the finish, and any neighbouring or municipal constraints the caller raises.
Other requests you can delegate
Maintenance and sealing
Joint sand, a sealer, a spot repair. These are shorter jobs that can be planned: she places them on the calendar in the windows you keep for maintenance.
A distinct request for each outdoor project
The office sends the exact instruction for the product poured at that customer's house, and the estimator receives a deck request with dimensions labelled approximate, the material and two photos. Two files, one call.
Read the full conversation
Friday, 1:20 p.m., in June. The crew is pouring a slab. A woman calls about a deck and, in passing, asks about the driveway poured the week before.
ReceptionistOuvrages Simard, good afternoon. Let me take your name and a callback number first, in case we get cut off.
CallerManon Girard, 819 555-0134. I would like a deck out back. And you poured my driveway: can I park on it?
ReceptionistFor the driveway, I will give you the instruction your crew chief wrote for that product, not a general rule — I will find it in your file and confirm it to you by text.
CallerGood. For the deck, I am thinking about twelve feet by sixteen, in treated wood.
ReceptionistI am recording the dimensions as approximate, the material wanted, and I will ask you for two photos of the back with the property line visible. The inspector will confirm the layout and the base on site.
What she does for you, in paving, concrete, masonry, fences and decks
Five sub-trades that share a book, not a recipe. She identifies which one from the call, and gives the instruction YOU wrote for your product, not a rule found somewhere else.
When the call starts, before the sub-trade is even known
She takes the name and callback number before knowing whether it is a driveway, a wall or a fence.
The very first reflex, so nothing is lost if the line drops mid-job.
She identifies the exact sub-trade — paving, concrete, masonry, fencing or decking — before asking anything else.
The only question that matters at the start: these five trades sell the same way, but they are not measured the same way.
For a price shopper, she explains the cost depends on the product, the access and the excavation, without giving a price per foot.
The preset rules out a firm price as much as a price per foot; she captures the project and books the visit instead.
The measurement, with how it was taken
She takes the dimensions or a provisional measurement, noting whether it was taped, read off a plan or eyeballed.
A measurement carries its degree of validation: that is what makes a quote explainable instead of redone.
She records the substrate, base or existing surface and its condition, with photos attached to the file.
The substrate and the access drive the quote, before the inspector even drives out.
She captures the site access, property lines and any neighbours the caller mentions.
A fence or a wall quickly runs into a property line or a municipal by-law, and that is noted before the visit.
The wait that follows, and why she does not invent it
She passes on the return-to-use instruction your crew chief wrote for the exact product installed at this address, not a general rule found elsewhere.
How long before someone can walk, drive or water depends on the product; it is your instruction, pulled from the file, that she passes on.
She captures schedule constraints and the season being targeted, without promising a completion date.
Season, weather and curing time set the book; she does not set the date.
Routine maintenance and the estimate visit
She recognises joint sanding or a sealer job as shorter maintenance and places it directly in the windows you keep for that kind of work.
These requests are scheduled without a separate estimate visit.
She sends the confirmation and then the reminder ahead of the estimate visit, and reschedules when weather pushes a day.
The booking stays within the availability you allow for this kind of visit.
After the measurement: the estimate and dispatch
Each of these options is added separately, when it is useful to you.
- Add-on
She prepares line items and options calculated from your controlled price grid, with every agreement or revision tracked instead of living in an inbox.
An explainable quote for five different sub-trades, not a number thrown out over the phone. Assisted estimates
- Add-on
She assigns each build to the crew that can take it, with its own instructions, as soon as a weather window opens.
Several crews, several sub-trades, one window: you can see who accepted what. Dispatch and field work
When your customers write, and if you already use software
- Channel
She directs website questions to the right specialty — paving, concrete, masonry, fencing or decking — before the callback.
Optional web channel: the right crew already gets the context sorted.
- Software
She logs the outdoor build in Jobber as a client and a request, once writing there is confirmed on your account.
The client-request-quote model already exists in the product, but its actual writing still has to be proven before it is announced. Jobber
- Software
She keeps a place for Buildertrend if your company uses it to track material choices for a wall or a deck.
For paving, concrete and fences, options and change orders are documented in the product; no third-party interface access is established. Buildertrend
- Software
She treats a request forwarded by Soumission Rénovation as a separate commercial model, not as a technical connector.
Access terms, per-request fees and feedback are not established for this platform. Soumission Rénovation
What she does not do, in paving, concrete, masonry, fences and decks
- She gives no firm price and no price per foot: the measurement and the preparation are confirmed on site.
- She gives no return-to-use instruction that is not yours, for your product.
- She does not confirm the state of a substrate or the preparation required — the inspection does.
- She commits to no completion date: season, weather and curing set the book.
- She settles no property line and no municipal by-law.
- She confirms no wall or retaining wall as feasible over the phone.
- She does not declare a job done when rain has pushed back delivery — she waits for your crew chief’s call.
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 enquiries should go to paving or masonry?
She distinguishes the requested work from collected details. Quantities, structure and pricing still need verification.
Which measurements from this week are still labelled estimated rather than confirmed?
She rereads the measurement method noted beside each figure. She does not turn an estimated measurement into a verified one.
Which estimates sent this month have had neither an agreement nor a revision?
Add-onWith Assisted estimates: the last follow-up and the current version of each file. Without the option, she does not track estimates.
Which builds are still waiting on a crew?
Add-onWith Dispatch and field work: who accepted each build. Without the option, she passes the request on without tracking its assignment.
What happens to the request
You write your instructions, per product
Your sub-trades, your materials, the return-to-use instructions specific to each, your visit windows and what your receptionist does not say. She gives your instructions, not a general rule.
She identifies the build, then measures the context
Name and callback number first. Then the sub-trade and the build asked for, the dimensions and how they were taken, the existing substrate or base, the materials and finish wanted, the access, the property lines and the schedule constraints.
A measurement with its degree of validation
You get a request where every measurement carries its provenance, and an explainable quote is prepared from your price grid. Punch-list items and end-of-job instructions follow the same file.
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 gives no return-to-use instruction that is not yours, for your product.
Decisions that stay with you
- She gives no firm price and no price per foot: measurement and preparation are confirmed on site.
- She does not confirm the state of a substrate or the preparation required — the inspection does.
- She commits to no completion date: season, weather and curing set the book.
- She settles no property line and no municipal by-law.
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 enquiries should go to paving or masonry?
She distinguishes the requested work from collected details. Quantities, structure and pricing still need verification.
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
Website chat
Direct website enquiries to paving, concrete, masonry, fencing or decks.
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.
Client, request and quote model documented; writing each object still has to be proven on a real account before it is announced.
Selection and change-order workflows are documented in the product; they do not establish third-party interface access.
Access terms, per-request fees and write-back are not established; it is a separate commercial model.
Five sub-trades that share a book, not a recipe
Paving, concrete, masonry, fences, decks: these builds resemble each other in how they are sold — a measurement, a preparation, an order, a window to execute — and not at all in technique. Paving and concrete need preparation and curing; a fence or a deck needs layout and components; masonry needs a substrate and access.
So your receptionist starts with the only question that matters: which sub-trade, which build. Then she takes the dimensions with the method used, the state of the existing substrate or base, the materials and finish wanted, the access, the property lines and the schedule constraints.
And she gives no generic instruction. How long before someone can walk, drive or water depends on the product laid: your crew chief sets that, and it is that instruction — yours — that your receptionist passes on, not a rule found somewhere else.
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 & maintenanceConstruction and site work
Paving, concrete, masonry, fences and decks — your questions
Does she know how long before driving on something new?
She gives the instruction you wrote for your product, and nothing else. The documented risk in this trade is precisely a generic rule unsuited to the product laid: your crew chief sets the condition, the weather and the usable delay.
Measurement mistakes cost me a lot.
That is the documented hypothesis in this trade. She writes the measuring method beside the number, so the inspector knows what he has to confirm rather than redoing everything.
Does she book the appointment?
Yes, within the availability you allow and on the windows you keep for visits and maintenance. She sends the confirmation and the reminder, and reschedules when the weather pushes a day.
Why group five trades on one page?
Because they share a workflow: measurement, preparation, order, execution window, punch list. It is not a claim of technical equivalence, and the page does not pretend otherwise — the research behind it explicitly groups ways of working, not methods.
Can she give a price per foot?
No. The paver preset rules out a price per foot as firmly as a fixed quote: the cost depends on the product, the access and the excavation. She captures the project and books the 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 numberPaving, concrete, masonry, fences and decks