How to Stop Losing Job Requests in a Trades Business (Without Replacing All Your Software)

If you run a trades or service business, you probably get job requests from everywhere—texts, emails, Instagram DMs, website forms, phone calls, even handwritten notes. That chaos is how work gets missed, double‑booked, or delayed. Most owners think they need a whole new software stack to fix it. They don’t. They need a simple, consistent job‑request system.

The real problem (not enough structure):

The issue isn’t that your team is lazy or that your tools are “bad.” It’s that there is no single, agreed‑upon way for new jobs to enter the system. When every request looks different, your staff have to think and improvise every time. That’s when details get lost and jobs fall through the cracks.

What a simple job‑request system looks like:

At Umbrella AI, a standard job‑request build usually has three parts:

1. One front door for new work

   • A single online form or intake page for all new jobs.

   • Customers can submit from their phone in a few minutes.

   • Required fields make sure you always get the basics (name, contact, address, job type, urgency, photos).

   
   

2. Automatic routing to the right person

   • Requests are instantly sent to the right inbox, Slack/Teams channel, or job board.

   • No more “Who’s handling this?” emails.

   • Optional rules (e.g., plumbing vs electrical, residential vs commercial).

     
     

3. Simple tracking and follow‑up

   • Every request gets an ID and status (new, quoted, scheduled, completed).

   • Reminders for quotes not sent, jobs not scheduled, or customers not updated.

   • A basic dashboard so the owner can see what’s in the pipe at a glance.

What we build on top of (no rip‑and‑replace):

We usually connect this to tools you already use—Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, your existing job software, or a simple shared sheet. The goal is to reduce manual work, not force your team to learn five new platforms.

Typical timeline and cost:

Most job‑request systems go live in 1–2 weeks and land in the $400–$750 range, depending on complexity and how many tools we’re connecting.

Call to action:

If you’re tired of chasing job details across texts and emails, Umbrella AI can design and implement a simple job‑request system around the tools you already use.

Send a quick note to giovanni@yycompany.ca with “Job Requests” in the subject and a sentence about how requests come in today, and we’ll map a first version together.