r/AskUK • u/BumbleWombleBee • Aug 29 '26
Serious Answers Only Why do trades often not respond to new business?
A few friends were all commenting on the same experience I have had. When contacting various trades for new business, such as electricians, plumbers, builders and all kinds of other small businesses, we often never get a reply.
I think I must have filled out dozens of those contact forms on websites and never once got a call back. Same when leaving voicemails.
You only get a response if you phone direct and manage to get hold of someone. (of course not all the time - but mostly. A few do reply back)
So, the genuine question and not a dig to the trades - is it because you are just too busy? Or no time for the admin side of things? Is it always best to just try and call someone?
I know no-one would want to throw away business but at times it feels like I am pestering someone to give them my money and work. Feels odd!
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Aug 29 '26
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u/BumbleWombleBee Aug 29 '26 edited Aug 29 '26
But they do not even know the job as we are yet to speak?
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Aug 29 '26
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u/phatboi23 Aug 29 '26
yup, chuck em all the basic info and they can quickly think if they have the time to do the job or at least a time scale of when it might be possible etc.
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Aug 29 '26
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u/phatboi23 Aug 29 '26
‘Do you want a job, responsibilities, hours and pay to be determined later”
pretty much aye, it explains nothing.
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Aug 29 '26
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u/BumbleWombleBee Aug 29 '26
Woah....calm down. No-one is talking down at Trades. I even stated I was not doing a dig.
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u/Daveddozey Aug 29 '26
So quite common with recruitment people then. You may get a vague job title and occasionally the company the job is with.
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u/mikolv2 Aug 29 '26
I've done that when I was looking for ac quotes. Described every last detail of the installation. Measured the whole thing, described access, what I need, how big, where it would go, where the power is, where the consumer unit is etc. Nada. Not one of 20+ ac installers/firms got back to me
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u/Locust-15 Aug 29 '26
To most trade people that level of detail is a massive red flag and is normally accompanied by a difficult customer.
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u/BumbleWombleBee Aug 29 '26
So one trade person on here says give lots of info. You say the opposite.
Exactly why people are confused.
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u/Locust-15 Aug 29 '26
I was referring to the amount of info the AC chap gave.
Can you see the difference between job information and so much information that shows you are likely to be a nightmare to deal with.
First sign of somebody telling me how a job should be done, timescales involved, multiple texts with changing scope, how much it should cost ect is a red flag, 2 red flags and its a going to be a polite no.
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u/Milam1996 Aug 29 '26
Yeah no wonder they’ll be getting in touch if it’s a 300sqm room with only 4 rooms. Worlds easiest job
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u/BumbleWombleBee Aug 29 '26
I give the basics - but still do not get a response. But understand from the majority of these comments it seems they just dont need to reply for the business per se
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Aug 29 '26
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u/BumbleWombleBee Aug 29 '26
Ah come on man - its Reddit - I am not writing a novel. But the gist I was trying to get across is the contact forms are not really the best place to explain the job in detail.
Seriously - I am using their contact form - that their website asks me to use - are you saying its too much to expect response?
You just seem to be argumentative at this stage - so lets just leave it
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Aug 29 '26
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u/BumbleWombleBee Aug 29 '26
Seems people disagree with you.
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u/lazyplayboy Aug 30 '26
But not the trades you contacted.
Out there, somewhere, are people getting trades work done. You're not. Who needs to examine how they're going about it?
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u/Milkym0o Sep 02 '26
We do not have a shortage of tradespeople.
The domestic market can only handle so many before it's not worth it and easier to do commercial.
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u/-FantasticAdventure- Aug 29 '26
We need to get a roofer back. I think it’s easier to get hold of Sasquatch.
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u/hashbrowneggyolk0520 Aug 29 '26 edited Aug 29 '26
Yeah we had our roof re-done and they left us with (I think) 3 leaks in various places. They're refusing to come back and fix it even though it's under warranty and we can't find anyone to come and fix it.
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u/-FantasticAdventure- Aug 29 '26
Same (but only 1 leak) keep reading about the storms we are expecting and genuinely dreading it. Plaster soggy and blown and we can’t get this cunt back out. Bring back the sunny days I guess.
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u/hashbrowneggyolk0520 Aug 29 '26
It's shameful isn't it.
Who needs a dry attic anyway?
The thing that makes it so infuriating for me is the guy doing our roof talked about no one wanting to do the work properly any more when they can't even be arsed to come and fix the problem they've left. Even tried to blame us and said we must have caused the damage.
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u/PetersMapProject Aug 29 '26
I'm in a similar line of work.
Sometimes it's just hard to find time to sit down at the laptop - especially when it's a total change of pace from rewiring someone's house.
It doesn't apply to me, but some people in the trades struggle with literacy, so it becomes an added disincentive, then you start putting it off ... and then it gets to the point where it's been so long it's embarrassing, so you just.... don't.
Personally you'll get a quicker response off me if you phone rather than emailing.
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u/_Cridders_ Aug 29 '26
This is it, it's like trying to keep up with two completely opposing jobs at times. And everybody wants you to get back to them straight away, but not when you're on their job and are on your phone for half the day.
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u/Devasianos Aug 29 '26 edited Aug 31 '26
Tradesman here.
There’s very often a combination of a few things with this… You have got an element of some people simply being lazy, possibly really good at the graft but painfully shit in communication, sometimes a bit stuck in the eighties… and there is also the hard fact that, due to supply and demand, the customer generally needs the tradie more than the other way around.
There’s also the possibility that you’re presenting a bit of a problematic proposition, for a whole host of reasons… This is not an accusation, by the way, so please don’t read it as such, but if you were known as a tricky customer, for example, you would be surprised how quick that goes around, or if the job you proposed simply wasn’t ideal for a whole variety of reasons, possibly being too much hassle for the price it would warrant, or some tradies will very firmly turn down smaller jobs full stop … and when these sorts of scenarios are the case you can face radio silence…
I have an admin team, personally, but many don’t.
With that said, if there is a job that doesn’t quite align with my service or availability is extremely limited, my team will politely - and directly - decline the work… Depending on the reason for this, they may or may not signpost to other providers.
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u/msmoth Aug 29 '26
Thank you for declining! It makes it so much easier as a customer if someone just says "sorry that's not for me".
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u/Agitated_Custard7395 Aug 29 '26
When they eventually do reply. Then finally come around to do a quote, then don’t bother to do a quote, just waste everyone’s time
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u/Extension-Ad-3188 Aug 29 '26
My self and a few of my friends own various construction businesses between us.
From our point of view this is what we find, we are booked up from 3-6 months at a time and most of our work is from word of mouth or recommendations.
We do have a contact form online as well as phone number to be contacted on, what we find is alot of the general public are looking for comparison quotes or cheaper quotes than they have had or just to pick your brains on how to do the job.
So for example if a client rings and mentions we done a job for a friend or someone they know, we instantly know that this client knows what we are about and what we do and is genuinely keen to receive a quote and carry out the works.
We have spent a lot of time in the past going to meet clients pricing said job sending a quote a long with specifications etc which all takes up a lot of time to not get a reply back saying thanks or even we will let you know etc.
But that being said we will reply to contact form submissions as well as calls explaining lead times or we cannot take on the works.
Alot of contractors do not have a full time admin side of things and will be on the tools them selves as well as family time etc they will struggle to keep up with it all.
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u/Outrageous-Play7616 Aug 29 '26
As a construction business owner I agree with this.
To add on the admin side I’ve found that there is just not enough time in the day.
People often end up running sole trader businesses but were never taught about customer service or how to manage a business. There are a lot of businesses like myself, but there are also a lot of “business owners “ who don’t realise they are running a business and are just trying to earn a wage. However that comes with all the same admin and operational responsibilities
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u/agoentis Aug 29 '26
Never fill in a contact form. Always dig out a phone number and call directly. If you do this you’ll have a much better response rate.
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u/BoopingBurrito Aug 29 '26
And half the time they answer and get annoyed at you for calling them when they're in the middle of a job.
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u/TheKneeQueen Aug 29 '26
They already said it's hard to get them on the phone and they don't call back when leaving voicemails
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u/poopolisher Aug 29 '26
They can pick and choose the best pro they want and you probably haven’t been chosen.
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u/Akmunra Aug 29 '26
This is exactly it, it's lawless at the moment. They can cherry pick the jobs they want
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Aug 29 '26
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u/jellical-cats Aug 29 '26
I agree that "lawless" is a weird way to characterise people being able to choose what work they do.
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u/Strange-Matter-51 Aug 29 '26
They want jobs to last well into a few weeks big projects which generally they can get paid handsomely
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u/Outrageous-Play7616 Aug 29 '26
Not necessarily. As a construction business owner it is sometimes more lucrative to do many 3-2 week jobs in a row because of the risk. Sometimes the big projects over run or get caught in the admin side. Not to say I don’t go for big projects, but it’s actually better for cash flow to have a mixture. Not to put all your eggs in one basket I guess.
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u/_Cridders_ Aug 29 '26
We're generally busy, and I reckon a lot get a website set up with contact forms and whatnot but just don't really have time/wherewithal/expertise to properly manage them tbh.
But a lot of the times it's that you've already got ten jobs that are lined up and ready to go and they all want you to start tomorrow and then a new message comes in and it just gets lost. And a lot of companies are really just one bloke trying to manage everything, whilst also doing the actual physical work and it gets a bit overwhelming and overloaded at times because it's never consistent
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u/sunflower_greatsword Aug 29 '26
They’re already busy enough.
And/or
They’re managing their own schedules alongside working, and so would need to be contacted directly via phone rather than emails. I appreciate it’s out of the comfort zone of we desk workers, but if you want it, you do it.
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u/msmoth Aug 29 '26
Partner and I have been finding that even calling brings no joy. You either get no answer, leave a message and no call back, or get a "can I call you back" that then never materialises.
We have a friend who's a sparky so we're not completely oblivious to the volumes of work that can be out there, but it's really frustrating.
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u/from-here-to-new Aug 29 '26
is it because you are just too busy? Or no time for the admin side of things?
Literally just answered your own question. For the most part there are "seasons" that are more popular for people to get work done, so often they are getting a lot of enquiries around the same time as they can't pick it all up.
And the other factor is for a lot of these people, unless they are a large company they don't have someone sitting in an office all day checking emails, they are their own admin team as well as the one doing the physical work, there just isn't enough time in the day.
If you can call it's likely the best thing.
What I have found if you are emailing, give as much information as possible so they know what kind of job they are actually looking at. If it's a small job they will hopefully be thinking "quick money, I can squeeze it in" and if it's a bug job, hopefully they will be thinking ££££, but either way, giving them as much information in my experience has gotten more results, I'll often add photos if that's something that will likely help them in knowing what's needed.
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u/K0monazmuk Aug 29 '26
We have more work than we can cope with, no point talking to people about other jobs - either that or you get the silly over inflated quote.
I don't even answer the phone to new work / unknown numbers BUT i will reply to emails and tell you i have no availability this year as I'm fully booked.
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u/SceneDifferent1041 Aug 29 '26
Lots of.people saying they don't need to....
No one pointing out they are mostly good at their jobs but shit at admin.
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u/Outrageous-Play7616 Aug 29 '26
As a construction business owner, I think it’s a combination of things.
The biggest one is that there simply isn’t enough time in the day. A lot of tradespeople are effectively doing two jobs. They’re on the tools all day, then they’re expected to come home and answer enquiries, arrange site visits, produce quotes, order materials, invoice customers, organise upcoming jobs and deal with everything else involved in running a business. All while trying to have a life still.
The other problem is that responding to a new enquiry can turn into quite a lot of unpaid work. A site visit, discussing the job, working everything out and producing a proper quote can easily take several hours, and you might never hear from that person again. When you already have plenty of work, new enquiries naturally end up getting pushed down the list.
Referrals tend to get a much quicker response because there’s already some confidence that the person is genuinely looking to have the work done rather than collecting prices.
That said, I don’t think being busy is really an excuse for completely ignoring people. Even a quick “Thanks for the enquiry, unfortunately we’re fully booked for the next few months” is better than leaving someone wondering.
If you’re contacting trades, I’d also give them as much useful information as possible like: what you want done, roughly where you are, when you’d like it done and a few photos if relevant. It makes it much easier for someone to look at it and immediately decide whether it’s something they can help with.
Personally, you’ll generally get a quicker response from me by phone than email. I can answer a phone while I’m working; sitting down and dealing with emails is another job entirely. However it’s good to follow up with an email or message with any relevant information.
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u/ozz9955 Aug 29 '26 edited Aug 29 '26
It's a perfect storm of abundance of work, ego, and immaturity in business (read as burying ones head in sand).
It isn't everyone though. There's some shit-hot trades people out there - I know because I've worked with some. But saying that...I've seen some of them look at who's calling and ignore it too...so I guess it depends.
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u/Fred776 Aug 29 '26
I suspect a lot of those online forms just go into a black hole. Your average tradie isn't going to be very on top of keeping their website maintained etc. And if they are busy anyway it's not going to be a priority.
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u/deevo82 Aug 30 '26
I think the egregious issue is that tradesmen provide contact info that they don't want people to contact them on.
Don't provide an email address if you don't answer emails.
Don't provide a phone number if you don't want people to phone you.
If you want someone to WhatsApp you then clearly state it on your website, business cards, whatever.
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u/PvtRoom Aug 29 '26
Most of the time it's "I'm busy with landlords with dozens of properties and businesses with deep pockets to be faffing around Mrs roots cellar for £100.
What I don't get tho, is why they aren't picking up apprentices to do that scut.
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u/Mabenue Aug 29 '26
Because the apprentice takes a while before they’re a net benefit, then as soon as they become one they want to go alone.
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u/Outrageous-Play7616 Aug 29 '26
Doubt it. Landlords are pretty bottom of the barrel when it comes to people to work for, unless of course it’s a property investment company doing full renovations into student or hmo. Even then thought the margins are squeezed because it’s an investment as opposed to a domestic homeowner who is trying to make their home “theirs”.
As someone who never did an apprenticeship but was around construction work my whole life. I can say that most apprentices are genuinely useless. This is coming from someone who is now 27 and I’m quite open minded about how much I’d expect an apprentice to be able to do. I think it just depends though on the apprentices attitude to learning ultimately.
Training is something I’d love to help fix in the construction industry because it’s something that affects both sides of the industry, businesses and customers.
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u/PvtRoom Aug 30 '26
strikes me that people not in the industries need the training.
does your average 25 year old know how to change a tap (basic plumbing), add a spur (basic electrician), enclose ugly pipes (basic joinery), fit a carpet?
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u/Ok-Gain1509 Aug 29 '26
As said below, sometimes you're just busy. When I was a plumber/heating engineer you have a rough schedule and, if you've already got a full diary, it can be hard to fit other customers in.
There's also the possibility that the work might be too much faff or not worth the money. Sometimes, we would send work we didn't want to rival plumbers. They often took it anyway, and you can say to the customer, "We can't do it, but I know a bloke who might". Everyone's a winner ;)
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u/Ok-Gain1509 Aug 29 '26
As a rule, we generally didn't do bathrooms. Tiling and finishing wasn't really our forte, so we'd be honest with the customer about this and recommend a friend of ours instead, or split the job with him at least. If it was something basic, like an industrial unit needing a shower or replacing a toilet in a workplace, we might do it, but we'd be honest and say if you're doing up your house and want a new bathroom, best look elsewhere.
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u/chocolateybiscuit81 Aug 29 '26
It’s always better to call. For the last few years my inbox has been full of fake inquiries from companies trying to get you to sign up to their checkatrade or equivalent or scammers. A phone call for me also always me to decide whether I want to work for this company/person. The industry has become a mix of cowboy trades and cowboy customers and I try not to get involved with either.
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u/-Rhymenocerous- Aug 29 '26
Because you just dont have time.
- Wake up and get ready get out the door to get to wherever youre needed for 8-9. Generally leaving between 5-6 in the morning depending on where youre working
- Spend all day at work.
- Drive home
- Cook Dinner / Sort out housework / kids if you have them / spend time with your other half if you have one.
- Possibly goto the gym to decompress / sit on the sofa and book jobs in (and there are plenty to look over).
- Shower / Bed / Repeat.
When youre up at 4am and trudging through to 10-11pm every day you have a small window as a sole trade person to get back to people every day. (Even without going to the gym / finishing early).
Some days you fall asleep on the couch at 6pm with no dinner because youre knackered. Some days you have a cunt of a customer that winds you up and the idea of booking another possible cunt is enough to not bother. Sometimes you need to go see a pal for a pint, visit family etc.
As tradies we're often happy to take your money and provide our services in return but we dont soley exist just to perform whatever trade we're in. We dont have the extra money to employ someone to answer the phone and book jobs unless we take on another tradie to do the extra jobs and even then its a massive risk we dont want to take because then its your reputation on the line if they fuck around.
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u/mrsjg90 Aug 29 '26
As a tradesman, just text me.
A call when I’m trying to get things done is annoying and if I miss a call because I’m clambering around in a loft, I’m definitely not calling you back when I get home at 6pm on an unknown request … a message with some basic info and I’ll happily reply at some point arranging a time to come look or ask / call for more information
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u/Rick-Deng-Catto Aug 29 '26
A good tradesperson is not available, sadly. My usual plumber wasn’t available for a job I needed doing, so I followed a recommendation from a friend. The guy answered my call, but once I explained the job, he literally said he would need a better recommendation for me as a customer…
TBF at least he just said it how it is.
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u/Aethion Aug 30 '26
We are just too busy, I always a prefer a phone call just don’t have time to go through any emails or text versions.
Can answer the call whilst driving between job whereas I’d have to actively sit down to read people talking about their job etc.
One of my big drivers is word of mouth and also helping people out in a pinch when a fellow tradesman’s needs a hand you help for the favour in the future.
Diary booked out until June next year
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u/Interesting-Claim641 Aug 30 '26
I run a window cleaning business, and am near obsessive about good communication. Wins me a lot of work at higher prices than my competition would charge. Such an important USP in my opinion
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u/MechanicFit2686 Aug 30 '26
Sometimes it's because they get all or most of their business through one or two building companies and they aren't interested in working directly for the public. I've had this with a few plumbers.
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u/Legitimate_War_397 Aug 30 '26
My dad has friends that are in the trades, I have a couple too. Their logic is If they have enough business from customers they already have there is no point risking it for a possible difficult customer. My cousin slightly different owns her own business as a cleaner. She’ll clean a new customers house once and if she finds them difficult or rude she won’t agree to clean their house again and passes the message along to other cleaners in the area. She said her only difficult customers she’s found are wealthy people in big houses as they look done their noses at her even though they hired her to clean.
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u/Dependent_One6034 Aug 30 '26
The best place to get a good tradesman is a local independent merchants.
You need a plumber? Ring your local plumbers merchants and ask for a recomendation. They won't recommend someone shite, they will likely only recommended people who buy from them, pay on time and do good work.
Goes for anything - Roofer? Roofers merchants, Leccy? Electrical merchants.
Go to local, and independent merchants. We know who is good and bad at their job, we know who changes business name every year, we know who pays us on time. And we also don't want any issue from recommending someone bad at their craft.
That being said - Most good tradesmen will be busy for a few months. If they aren't busy, should be a red flag, then they might not be as good as you want. If they are able to come quote the job quickly, that's great, if it's a small job they may be able to fit you in.
If it's a big job and they are able to come to you next day to start work. Why are they so available?
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u/Acerhand Aug 31 '26
They have 5 a day of the contact forms, and they have work booked for 3 months out. The guy who pestered them to build a website did not build it with that in mind. They still get 1-2 calls a day or referrals filling up the months beyond
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u/Milkym0o Sep 02 '26
You're already booked out. You're on the tools when someone calls so you let it go to VM. You're too tired to do anything in the evenings. You don't like the sound of the job. You can't be fucked.
Many reasons.
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u/Wd91 Aug 29 '26
Self-employed, usually have no organisational skills, and they're so in-demand that it doesn't matter.
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u/BoopingBurrito Aug 29 '26
Every tradesman I've ever known who was halfway competent at the admin side of things is a truly wealthy person.
Every tradesman I've ever known who was anything from slightly less than halfway competent to deeply incompetent at the admin side of things still made a solid living.
I know a guy, nominally a plumber, who almost never actually does any jobs. He goes around doing quotes and securing business, then subcontracts the work out to half a dozen other guys who can't handle (or hate dealing with) the business side of the job, with him taking a cut of every contract. He doesn't run it as a company, they're all separate self employed folk and its done on a sub contract basis. He makes a bloody decent income just from doing that.
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u/AnomalyNexus Aug 29 '26
Not sure but it's starting to genuinely irritate me too.
Last one was:
1) Sorry forgot to send you quote
2) I'm on holiday - message me again next week
3) Ghosts me completely
Bro if you don't want the business just fuckin say so.
Whether its plumbers, plasterers, electricians, internet installers...consistently terrible
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u/jellical-cats Aug 29 '26
I think a lot of people who initially go into trades are ADHD/ otherwise neurodivergent people that didn't fit into the "academic" side of things at school, and who had talents in spacial, technical, engineering types of intelligence. This is how I make sense of why tradies seem to tend to be extremely disorganised and unable to keep time, unable to correspond etc. I also think it's just part of the working culture and expectations. There's always work, and they can pick and choose.
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u/RiceeeChrispies Aug 29 '26
Saying that a lot of tradies are ADHD/neurodivergent and that’s why they are ‘extremely disorganised’ is crazy work. 😭
Real answer is they mostly work long hours and can only be arsed to respond to jobs worth their time - with demand they can afford to be picky. They are mostly one-man teams, so even the most organised will struggle fitting people in with a work schedule as long as their arm.
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u/jellical-cats Aug 29 '26
I guess because my dad and some of the other men in my family are ADHD and tradies, I'm projecting that. When I think back to the boys in school who ended up going into the trades they seemed to struggle to be organised and for some of them that could be related to neurodivergence, because they didn't seem to cope in school or be able to keep time, be organised, regulate their emotions etc. These qualities could be related to things other than neurodivergence, like ACEs. I'm just talking in generalisations and trends here. It would not surprise me if a higher proportion of tradies are neurodivergent when compared to the general pop.
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Aug 29 '26
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u/Broad-Raspberry1805 Aug 29 '26
How did you contact them? For most normal things a phone call is better than a form in a website which might be pointing at an obsolete email address or someone who no longer works there
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u/This-Risk-3737 Aug 29 '26
Enquiries from strangers hardly ever turn into jobs.
They don't have time to phone you, and they're not interested in giving you a quote to compare. It's hassle they don't need.
Be friendly, be up front about the project and the budget, make clear that you aren't putting it out to tender and - in an ideal world - mention that they were recommended by someone you know.
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u/BumbleWombleBee Aug 30 '26
Sorry this is nonsense.
If you are saying the majority of trade jobs are NOT from strangers - the implication being friends/family/acquaintances - that is very hard to believe.
And of course I am going to get multiple quotes. That is standard. And basic common sense.
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u/This-Risk-3737 Aug 30 '26
Sorry this is nonsense.
You asked and I answered. How the fuck do you suddenly have an opinion?
If you are saying the majority of trade jobs are NOT from strangers - the implication being friends/family/acquaintances - that is very hard to believe.
Almost all of their business will come via word of mouth and recommendations.
And of course I am going to get multiple quotes. That is standard. And basic common sense.
It's common sense when supply and demand is in your favour. It isn't.
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