Know who's calling before you say hello.

The worst moment on a service call happens before anyone picks up. Your CSR answers "Summit Heating, this is Kim" with no idea that the caller is a Gold member with a $612 open balance and a tech already scheduled for Thursday. The next two minutes are spent searching, and the customer can hear it.

TradesWork Phones puts your business numbers inside the same system as your customers, jobs and invoices. When a call comes in, the record is already on screen. When a call is missed, a text is already on its way. And because every number belongs to a campaign, every call is counted where it came from.

What's on the screen pop, and why each piece matters

The pop appears on the Calls page in the office app and refreshes every few seconds while the call is ringing or live. Here's what it shows and what a good CSR does with it.

The balance shows a dash when the customer has no invoices yet, not $0.00, so a CSR never tells a new customer they're "all paid up" by mistake.

Two buttons sit on the pop. Open customer goes to the full record. Book job opens a new job with the customer filled in and the call linked, which carries the call's campaign onto the job. If the number doesn't match anyone, the button becomes New customer and job with the phone number prefilled.

Routing: who answers, and when

Routing lives on Settings › Phones. You set:

• Office phones to ring: up to five numbers, rung at the same time. Mobiles work, desk lines work.
• Ring time: 10 to 60 seconds before the call moves on. The default is 20.
• Business hours: per day of the week, in your company's time zone. The default is Monday to Friday, 8 to 5.
• Voicemail greeting: your own, or the default asking for name, address and what they need.
• Who answers after hours: voicemail, or the AI receptionist in after-hours, overflow or every-call mode.
• Transfer number: where emergencies and "let me talk to someone" go.

The decision tree is short on purpose. During business hours, the office phones ring. If nobody answers and the AI is set to overflow, the AI picks up; otherwise it's voicemail. After hours, it's the AI if you've turned it on, voicemail if not.

Missed calls don't sit in a voicemail box

Most missed callers don't leave a message; they call the next contractor on the list. TradesWork sends a text the moment a call ends unanswered or goes to voicemail. The default reads: your company name, "Sorry we missed your call. Reply here and we'll get right back to you, or book online," plus your booking link when online booking is on.

Guardrails keep it from becoming spam:

• Once per 12 hours per number: someone who calls four times in a panic gets one text, not four.
• STOP is final: anyone who opted out never gets a text-back.
• Quiet hours: texts that would land overnight wait until morning.
• Real numbers only: blocked or unreadable caller IDs are skipped.
• No dead links: if online booking is off, the "book online" part is dropped from the text automatically.

Every missed and voicemail call also lands under Needs follow-up on the call log, with a short summary and a suggested next action, so somebody owns the callback.

Recording, consent and transcripts

You pick one of three recording modes:

1. Don't record calls. The default.
2. Record with a short notice for one-party consent states: "This call may be recorded for quality and training."
3. Record with an explicit announcement for all-party consent states, which tells callers they can hang up and text instead.

Federal law permits recording with one party's consent, but several states require everyone on the call to agree.¹ TradesWork lists the states commonly treated as all-party consent (including California, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Washington) as guidance, not legal advice. The notice also plays to customers on click-to-call before recording starts. Recordings and transcripts are visible only to roles allowed to hear them, and recorded calls feed call scorecards if you turn grading on.

Getting your numbers live

1. 1

   Get a number

   Search by area code, city and state, or toll-free. The price is on the button. The number takes calls immediately.

2. 2

   Choose who answers

   Add office phones, or switch on the AI receptionist, or set a transfer number. The step is done as soon as one is saved.

3. 3

   Test call

   Save your mobile and press Call me. Answer and you'll hear a short message.

4. 4

   Register for texting

   Enter your legal business name and EIN exactly as on your IRS letter. TradesWork prefills the rest: address, website, sample messages and opt-in wording that match how it handles STOP and START.

5. 5

   Wait for carrier approval

   Business review takes minutes to days; the texting campaign usually a few days, sometimes about two weeks. The page shows each status and, if rejected, the reason and a Fix and resend button.

6. 6

   Bring your old numbers

   List the numbers, current carrier, account number, PIN and service address, upload a recent bill, and e-sign the authorization. Most local ports take one to two weeks.

Why the texting step? US carriers require businesses texting from ordinary 10-digit numbers to register under a standard called A2P 10DLC, and unregistered traffic faces extra carrier fees and filtering.² TradesWork files the registration for you. While it's pending, the app says texting is limited and offers to share links from your own phone instead of pretending a text went out.

What it costs

Numbers and usage are passed through at Twilio's list prices: $1.15 a month for a local number, $2.15 for toll-free, and per-minute rates for calls ($0.0085 a minute to receive on a local number at the time of writing).³ Texting registration has one-time carrier fees and a small monthly campaign fee; the settings page shows current estimates. Porting in is free.

How it compares to ServiceTitan

ServiceTitan's call booking page says CSRs see who's calling before they pick up and that customer information fills in automatically as calls come in.⁴ Its Phones Pro product adds a virtual phone built into the software, real-time transcription, agent scorecards and Second Chance Leads, which flags unbooked calls.⁵ ServiceTitan doesn't publish prices for Pro products.⁶

Where it doesn't fit

If your office lives on headsets with call queues, hold music and a "press 1 for service" menu, TradesWork isn't there yet: it rings phones rather than running a contact center. Shops with five or more CSRs taking calls in parallel should test that before switching. For a 3 to 30 tech shop with one to three people answering phones, the pop, text-back and campaign tracking cover what matters.