SMS for tradies: quotes, reminders, and getting paid

A tradie's phone is the office. Quotes go out from it, jobs get booked on it, and the invoices that keep the doors open get chased on it, usually badly, usually at 9pm. Email barely gets a look in on a work site. Text is the channel that already fits how you and your customers actually communicate, which is why it works so well for the three things that cost tradies the most money: quotes that go quiet, jobs people forget, and invoices that sit unpaid.

Here is how to use SMS across a job, from the first quote to the paid invoice, with the messages you can copy.

Follow up quotes without nagging

Most quotes are not lost to a competitor. They go quiet. The customer meant to reply, got busy, and the quote drifted down the inbox. A single well-timed text a few days later recovers a real share of that work, because it is easy to answer and it reminds them you exist.

Hi Jenny, following up the quote for the bathroom reno, $8,400 all up. Happy to walk you through any of it. Want me to pencil in a start date? Cheers, Rob, Mackay Plumbing.

Notice it asks for a small next step, not a yes or no. "Want me to pencil in a start date" is easier to answer than "have you decided". Send it three or four days after the quote, and again a week later if there is still nothing. Two nudges is plenty. A dedicated two-way number means when Jenny replies "yes go ahead", you see it in the same thread and can lock it in.

Confirm the job so you are not driving out for nothing

A no-show or a locked gate is an hour of your day and the fuel to get there, gone. A confirmation text the day before, and a heads-up when you are on the way, kills most of that. It also makes you look organised, which wins repeat work on its own.

Hi Dave, confirming Rob from Mackay Plumbing is booked for tomorrow (Thu 17 Sep) between 8 and 9am for the hot water system. Reply YES to confirm or call if the time doesn't suit.

Then on the day:

On my way, should be there in about 20 minutes. Rob.

These are transactional messages about a job the customer booked, so they sit outside the marketing rules, but a dedicated number still lets the customer reply "actually can we make it 9.30" and you find out before you are parked out the front. If you want templates for other trades and timings, see appointment reminder text templates.

Get the invoice paid before it becomes a problem

This is where tradies bleed the most, and it is entirely fixable. An invoice emailed as a PDF is easy to file and forget. A text with the amount and a working pay link removes every excuse. The customer taps the link and pays, no logging in, no digging up a reference number.

Hi Sam, invoice #204 for $1,150 from Mackay Plumbing for today's job. You can pay here: pay.sms365.com.au/k9Wm . Thanks for the work, Rob.

If you run your books in Xero, this can be automatic. SMS365 connects to Xero and sends overdue reminders that carry the real pay link from the invoice, so a text goes out on a schedule you set without you touching it. Set it once and the chasing runs itself. There is a full walk-through in automatic overdue invoice reminders from Xero.

A schedule that works for most trades:

• The day the job is done, invoice with the pay link. Momentum is on your side while the work is fresh.
• On the due date, a short "due today" note.
• A few days overdue, a firmer but still friendly follow-up.

When a customer replies "I'll pay Friday", write it down. SMS365's AI assistant can record a promise to pay against the invoice so the follow-up references the specific promise, which is far harder to ignore than another generic reminder. More on that in following up when a client says payment is coming.

Let the missed calls turn into jobs

You cannot answer the phone with your hands in a switchboard, so you miss calls all day, and a missed call from a new customer is a job that just rang your competitor instead. An automatic text back turns that around.

Sorry I missed your call, I'm on a job. This is Rob from Mackay Plumbing. Text me what you need and I'll get back to you as soon as I'm free.

Now the customer has a reason to wait for you instead of dialling the next name on the list. SMS365 can send that automatically on a missed call, and its AI assistant can even answer the common questions, "do you do gas fitting", "what suburbs do you cover", and take the details while you finish what you are doing, so a missed call turns into a booked job instead of a lost one.

Keep it honest and keep it cheap

Two practical notes. First, on delivery: when SMS365 shows a message as "sent" it means it was handed to the carrier, and it only shows "delivered" when a real receipt comes back. For job confirmations and invoices that is fine, because your two-way number means a customer who genuinely did not get the message can tell you. Anyone promising guaranteed delivery is guessing.

Second, on cost: this is prepaid, no lock-in, with texts from around 10c and a dedicated number about $10 a month. For a single recovered quote or one invoice paid a fortnight sooner, the maths is not close. The pricing page has the detail, and there are more trade-specific ideas in the use cases.

You do not need all of this at once. Start with the invoice reminders, because that is where the money is, then add quote follow-ups and the missed-call text as you go. Each one is a small habit that plugs a leak you have been living with, and together they mean you spend your evenings doing something other than composing "just following up" for the third time.