Follow-Up · Missed call text-back
Phone rings while you're on the tools. We catch it for you.
The second a call goes unanswered, an SMS goes out from your business number to the prospect's mobile. They reply straight back into a thread you can pick up the moment you're free, before they redial the next firm on Google.
The missed-call graveyard.
Three or four calls a week, easy. Each one a £200 to £1,000 job donated to the firm down the street. The numbers from the field, not from a marketing deck.
80%
of consumers expect a response within 10 minutes when they enquire.
Source: HubSpot State of Service report
3 to 4
missed calls per week is normal for a sole-trader plumber, electrician or roofer.
Source: UK trades operator interviews, 2025
£20k+
lost per year to missed calls for the average UK trades business.
Source: AllDayPA / ConstructionX benchmarks
01 / How it works
Twelve seconds from missed call to reply.
The moment your phone misses a call, our routing layer fires a templated SMS to that number. The text reads as if it came from you, signed off with your business name, and opens a two-way thread the prospect can reply to.
- Templates per service, time of day, or campaign
- Sent from your business number so the prospect saves it
- Replies land in one central inbox alongside SEO and ads
- Auto-escalates to the AI conversation agent out of hours
Step 1 of 3
Missed call from a prospect.
Mark (07700 900 456)
Missed call · just now
Without Kelso, that lead just got handed to your competitor.
Step 2 of 3 · Within 12 seconds
Auto-SMS sent to the missed caller.
Sent · 12s after missed call
Step 3 of 3
They reply. Lead saved.
02 / Where the money lives
The moments you used to lose.
Up a ladder
Roofer on a pitched roof, both hands busy, phone in the van. The text-back catches the enquiry without you climbing down.
Mid-fault, power off
Electrician with the consumer unit open. The job stays safe, the lead stays warm.
Driving between jobs
No legal way to answer. The text-back fires automatically while you stay legal.
Evenings and weekends
Prospects searching at 9pm Sunday for a Monday-morning fix. They get a reply, you sleep.
On the phone already
Engaged tone normally kills the lead. The text-back fires the second the line clears.
Holiday or sick
Set the templates to a hand-off message. The pipeline keeps moving without you in it.
Cost of missed calls
How much are missed calls costing you?
Most UK trades miss 3-5 calls a week. The average job they lose is worth between £200 and £1,000. The maths gets ugly fast.
Your numbers
UK average for owner-operator trades is 3-5
Plumber callouts £150-£800, install jobs £500-£5,000
Industry studies: 30-50% if you respond within 5 minutes
48 is a typical UK trade year after holidays
What it's costing you
Revenue lost every year
£28,800
≈ £2,400 a month, in jobs you never even quoted on.
With Kelso AI Follow-Up (~70% recovery)
+£20,160
£1,680 a month, on average, recovered.
Get the follow-up stackIndustry benchmarks: AllDayPA put the UK average at £26,000/year lost. ConstructionX clocks £20,800. JPAutomations £24,000. Your number will be different. The pattern won't.
FAQ
Common questions before you wire it on.
Does the text come from my number or a random shortcode?
Your business number. The prospect sees the same caller ID they tried to reach, which keeps trust intact and means they save the number to their phone.
How fast does the SMS actually fire?
Inside 12 seconds of the missed call hitting voicemail. That window matters. After two minutes a prospect has already typed the next business name into Google.
What if they reply outside working hours?
The AI conversation agent picks the thread up, qualifies the job, and books it into your calendar. You wake up to a clean brief, not a chase.
Will it work with my existing GoHighLevel or CRM?
Yes. The text-back layer plugs into GoHighLevel as standard. If you have an existing CRM we can wire that in too. Conversations are mirrored both ways.
Is this just missed-call text-back, or part of something bigger?
It is one rung of the AI Follow-Up ladder. The other rungs are auto-call routing, the AI conversation agent, and a central lead hub. See the full picture on the AI Follow-Up page.
How quickly can it go live?
Inside one working week. We port your number into the routing layer, write your templates with you, and run a test call before flipping it live.
Related Follow-Up tools
The rest of the Follow-Up stack.
Stop donating jobs to the firm down the street.
We wire the text-back in alongside your AI SEO matrix so every channel feeds the same inbox. One enquiry, one response, every time.