Turn Checkatrade leads into jobs

Checkatrade emails you each new job request with the customer's name, number, email, postcode and what they need. With this switched on, Mucka picks those emails up and does the typing for you, so a lead never sits unanswered in your inbox because you were on a job when it came in.

What it needs

• The Inbox installed, with the email address Checkatrade sends your leads to connected. See Connect your email.
• The Checkatrade leads skill installed from Skills.

What happens to each lead

1. Checkatrade emails you a new job, the same as now.
2. Mucka looks for the customer on your books: by their email first, then their phone number. If they are new, they are added as a lead.
3. A job goes on your list with no date, under the job type you choose (Enquiry to start with). Their message, postcode and when they want it are in the job's notes.
4. A card tells you a lead came in, with a button to open the job.

Unless you switch on ringing them back (below), nothing is sent to the customer and nothing goes in your diary. Book the job in when you have spoken to them, the same way you book any other job.

Ring new leads straight back

The first trade to ring a Checkatrade lead usually gets the job. Switch this on and Mucka rings each new lead as soon as it arrives:

1. It says it is an automated assistant calling for your business, about the job they asked for on Checkatrade.
2. It checks the job and the address with them (against the Royal Mail address file), and offers times your diary has free.
3. It pencils the visit in on that lead's job, for you to approve with one tap. Nothing is booked until you do, and the customer hears nothing more until then.

It never gives a price. If they ask, it tells them you will go through the price with them, and you get a note of the question.

Your terms before booking. If you want something said before a visit is pencilled in, like "All works are subject to our company policy, found on our website", put it in Your script under Before booking, on calls Mucka makes. Mucka says it, then asks if they would like the visit pencilled in. It is only said on calls Mucka makes, never on calls that come in to you.

If nobody answers, they get one text from your receptionist number thanking them for their request and asking them to ring or text back. They are not rung again unless they ask.

Outside calling hours (before 8am, after 8pm, or on a Sunday) Mucka does not ring on its own. They get a text offering a call, and if they reply with a time, or "call me now", Mucka rings them then, whatever the hour, because they asked. A lead can also ask on the call to be rung back at another time.

What it needs

• Your AI receptionist's phone number. The call comes from it, so they can ring you back on it.
• The outbound calling terms accepted, on your receptionist page.
• For it to book times rather than just take them: Check the diary and Pencil in a booking switched on in your receptionist's settings.

Every call is made on behalf of whoever switched it on, and Settings shows who that was. Switching it off stands down any call a lead had asked for.

Changing it

Head to Settings → Customers → Checkatrade leads:

• File each lead as is the job type each lead's job gets, so you can find them all together on your jobs list.
• Ring new leads straight back turns the call back on or off.
• Recent leads shows the last ten, what became of each one, and whether they were rung.

Common gotchas

• Only new emails. Leads that arrived before you switched it on are left as they are.
• Sent twice, one job. If Checkatrade sends the same customer's lead again within 30 days, Mucka keeps it as the one job and adds a note to it.
• Declining a pencilled time keeps the lead. The job goes back to having no date, so you can ring them yourself.
• It reads Checkatrade's own emails only. A lead you forward on from another address is not picked up.