Customer Story
i4Tradies cuts lead acquisition costs with an SMS hotline
Overview
Challenge: Respond to a drop in job requests by making it easier and faster for customers to find trusted tradies and submit service enquiries.
Solution: Launch an SMS hotline with automation and a dedicated number, letting customers text in service requests and helping tradies manage leads more efficiently.
Results: Lower lead acquisition costs, faster customer response times, and a simpler lead generation process for tradies. One participating business saw lead costs fall by 35%.
“Since we have started using i4Tradies SMS generation module, we have gained a lot more leads for new jobs which would have been otherwise impossible to obtain.“
In 2020, i4Tradies saw a sharp slowdown in job requests and needed to act quickly. The company already helped connect customers with vetted tradespeople, but the process of actually finding and booking a tradie was still frustrating for many people. Customers often spent hours researching options, then waited through multiple quotes before finally booking a job — if they went ahead at all. For i4Tradies, that friction was a real problem, especially at a time when demand had softened and the business needed a faster path from enquiry to job.
Making it easier for customers to request a tradie
To remove that friction, i4Tradies launched its Emergency Response Centre, a text-in hotline that let customers start the booking process by SMS. Using Sinch Engage (formerly MessageMedia), the business set up a dedicated number so customers could text through their postcode and a brief description of the issue. They then received a reply with a short link where they could add more detail if needed. From there, an ERC agent followed up by phone, gathered any final information, and once a suitable tradie had been assigned, the customer received a confirmation text. The whole process took about two hours at most.
The setup gave i4Tradies a much simpler way to start customer conversations. Instead of expecting people to spend time researching and comparing options on their own, the business created a more direct route to trusted tradespeople. The dedicated number also helped establish legitimacy and consistency, which mattered in a climate where customers were increasingly wary of suspicious messages and unknown senders.
Supporting lead generation and tradie workflows with SMS
The SMS workflow was not just useful for customers. Within the i4Tradies platform, tradies could also use SMS automation to support their own workflows, including appointment reminders, payment nudges, and automated responses to new leads. For tradies using the leads platform, new jobs came through the system for bidding, and the winning tradie then received an SMS prompt to contact the customer and schedule the work. That made SMS part of the full lead journey, not just the first point of contact.
The clearest proof point came from Emergency Trade Services, one of the businesses using the platform, which saw an immediate 35% drop in lead acquisition costs. With one user describing the service as a faster shortcut to a trusted tradesperson and saying he could often get issues sorted within 24 hours.
