Built for trades, named after an amazing dog

I've spent the last 20 years in property as an investor and developer. Buying, refurbishing, selling, renting. The work meant I lived alongside trades for two decades. Plumbers fitting boilers. Electricians rewiring kitchens. Carpenters hanging doors. Tilers, plasterers, kitchen fitters, decorators. Hundreds of them, on hundreds of jobs.

What I noticed early on, and what kept bothering me job after job, was that the best trades people were the worst at answering their phones. Not because they didn't care. Because they physically couldn't. They were on a ladder. Under a sink. Drilling into a brick wall. Halfway through a five-hour fit. Their phone would ring, ring, ring out, and the customer on the other end would call the next plumber on the list. Money walked away every single day.

For years there was no good answer. Voicemail was hopeless. Hiring a receptionist was overkill for a sole trader and unaffordable for most small firms. Answering services charged a fortune and read from cold scripts. So trades carried on losing calls, and customers carried on going to whoever picked up first.

Then in late 2024 I started reading about voice AI. Not chatbots. Actual voice AI that sounds human, holds a real conversation, books jobs in your diary, and answers every single call without ever sounding tired or fed up. And I thought: this is the answer. This solves the problem I've watched trades wrestle with for 20 years. So I built it.

Poppy. The original.

Poppy is named after my dog. A gorgeous Lhasa Apso who was with us for 16 years and passed away in 2023. She was the friendliest, calmest, most loving little soul you could ever meet. When it came to naming the AI receptionist, the idea was simple: she had to be warm, capable, friendly and never thrown by anything. So she got Poppy's name.

Today, Poppy answers calls for plumbers, electricians, builders, mechanics, salons, locksmiths, gardeners, painters and carpenters across the UK. She picks up on the first ring, every time. She books quotes, takes messages, handles emergencies, runs the diary, and never sounds like a robot. She works while you work. She works while you sleep. She doesn't get sick, doesn't take holidays, and doesn't ask for a pay rise.

I built her for the trades I've worked with for two decades, but she works just as well for anyone whose business runs on the phone. If your team is missing calls, Poppy fixes that.

If you're a UK trade or service business, give her a try. The first 7 days are free. After that she's £79 a month, less than the cost of a missed job. Worst case: you save your sanity. Best case: she pays for herself ten times over.