A shared phonebook for trades and contractors
When the whole job runs through your phone, the address book is the business. Here's how to run it properly.
In the trades, the phone is the office. You call the customer to confirm the job, the merchant for materials, the subbie to see if they can make Thursday, the supplier when something's out of stock. The address book isn't admin — it's the whole operation.
So it's strange that most trades run it on the worst possible tools: a personal phone that only one person has, a group chat, and a battered spreadsheet nobody trusts.
What goes wrong on site
- The number lives on one person's phone — and they're up a ladder, or on holiday, or they've left.
- Half your contacts are numbers with no email — the exact ones most tools refuse to store.
- When a supplier changes number, you find out by calling the old one during a job.
What a shared directory changes
Put every customer, merchant, subbie and supplier in one shared book the whole team can see and call from. Click to call from a mobile on site or a desk phone in the office. Because contacts can keep their own details current, the numbers stay right without anyone chasing them.
The right number, in one place, that the whole crew can reach — even the numbers with no email attached.
Useful on day one
You don't need anyone else to sign up first. Import your existing contacts and you're calling straight away. Invite your key suppliers and regulars to keep their details current, and the book quietly gets better on its own. Free for individuals, and £7.99/month for a team of five.