Missed-call text back for UK trades: providers compared
You are under a sink, the phone rings, it stops. The homeowner is already dialling the next plumber on the map. Missed-call text back exists to interrupt that sequence with a message in the first thirty seconds. We compared five UK providers that offer it to trades, with attention to the bits that break: trigger speed, message content, and where the conversation goes afterwards.
What separates a good text back from a gimmick
The feature sounds trivial. Phone rings, nobody answers, a text goes out. The failure modes are in the detail. If the text takes two minutes to send, the caller has already moved on. If it says only sorry we missed you, it gives them nothing to do. If the reply they send lands in a shared inbox nobody checks, you have automated a dead end.
So we judged providers on four things: how fast the trigger fires, whether the message asks a useful question or offers a link, whether the reply creates a record somewhere you will see it, and whether it is sold on its own or as part of a wider chain. Our missed-call text back setup guide explains how to configure each of those if you are doing it yourself.
1. Riley Marketing
Best for: One and two van firms that want text back feeding a CRM rather than a phone inbox
Missed call text back is one of the standing components of Riley Marketing's foundational growth system, priced at £149 a month at the time of writing. It arrives alongside an SEO-focused website with service and location pages, Google Business Profile optimisation, Google review automation with past customer reactivation, and a CRM with lead status tracking and branded quote pages on your own domain.
The design choice that matters is where the text back lands. Because the CRM is part of the same system, a missed call becomes a lead with a status, not a loose text thread on a mobile. That is the difference between knowing you had eleven missed calls last month and knowing which four of them turned into quotes.
Riley builds the whole system before you pay anything, offers unlimited revisions, charges no setup fee and lets you cancel at any time. Google Ads, Meta ads and local SEO are available as add-ons. Founder Tom Riley has ten years in search and lead generation, led organic growth at an insurtech and has run his own lead generation websites, and clients deal with him directly.
It works with electricians, plumbers, heating engineers, roofers, builders, window and door fitters, decorators, landscapers, plasterers and kitchen fitters, and has built sites for Anglia Decor, an industrial painting and roofing contractor, and SET Building & Brickwork in Essex.
2. One Base Media
Best for: Trades that want a long-established full-service agency and will ask about text back as part of the package
One Base Media, founded in 2012 and based in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, is one of the most established trades-only agencies in the UK. Its services are web design, SEO, Google Ads, exclusive job leads, branding and a large library of free educational content across YouTube, a podcast and a blog. It says it has helped more than 1,000 local trades businesses, holds Google Partner status and works on one monthly payment with no contracts.
Missed call text back is not a named product on its site. Its strength is the breadth of trades it covers, from roofers, drainage contractors and heating engineers to solar installers, double glazing firms and tree surgeons, backed by a substantial case study library. Specific prices sit on a separate pricing page.
3. LeadFly
Best for: Trades that want a missed call answered by an AI voice rather than a text
LeadFly, in Watford, takes a different approach to the missed call. Instead of a text, its AI voice agent answers the phone 24 hours a day, with website chatbots and workflow automation for quote chasing, reminders, and review and referral requests. It integrates with your CRM and calendar and pitches the AI receptionist as cheaper than hiring staff.
Published pricing is per product: chatbots at £99 a month, the AI receptionist at £299 a month plus a setup charge, and short-form video at £299 a month. The company works exclusively with UK trades. There are no published case studies and the one savings figure on the site is unattributed, so the proof is thinner than the product description.
4. Get Work
Best for: Trades running Google Ads who want new leads texted to them instantly
Get Work, based in Lytham St Annes in Lancashire, is a Google Partner that builds a custom landing page and Google Ads funnel for each tradesperson, then delivers leads through a lead management and job booking platform with a spend and job-value dashboard. Text notifications for new leads are part of the platform.
That is the reverse direction to text back: the text goes to you, not the customer. It solves the response-time problem from the other side, by making sure you see the enquiry within seconds of it arriving. Trades covered include roofing, building, landscaping, driveways, plastering and rendering, electrical, decorating, joinery, plumbing and heating, loft conversions, kitchen and bathroom fitting, tree surgery and fencing. One roofing case study publishes first-month revenue and return. Pricing is on a separate page.
5. We Build Trades
Best for: Growing home service firms that want AI follow-up as part of a managed platform
We Build Trades sells an AI-powered growth system that links a website, paid media on Google, Meta, TikTok and Bing, AI-powered lead follow-up, and a CRM pipeline with reporting, with area exclusivity for clients. It says more than 300 trade companies have used the system and that it has been refined since 2017. Named trades are heating, boilers and heat pumps, electrical, roofing, and solar and EV charging.
The AI follow-up layer is where a missed-call response would live, though the site does not describe the text back behaviour specifically. Pricing is not published and no case studies are available, so this needs a demo rather than a signup.
How the five handle the moment after a missed call
| Provider | What happens on a missed call | Where the reply lands | Sold standalone? | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riley Marketing | Automatic text to caller | CRM lead record | No, part of £149/month system | £149/month |
| One Base Media | Not described | Not described | No | Separate pricing page |
| LeadFly | AI voice agent answers | Your CRM and calendar | Yes | £299/month plus setup |
| Get Work | Lead texted to you | Job booking platform | No, with Google Ads | Separate pricing page |
| We Build Trades | AI follow-up, not detailed | CRM pipeline | No | Not published |
Matching the provider to how your phone behaves
Count your missed calls for a fortnight before deciding. If it is two or three a week, a text back inside a wider system is plenty, and Riley Marketing gets you that plus the CRM and review automation for one fee. If it is two or three a day, LeadFly's voice agent starts to earn its £299, because a text cannot book a job and a voice agent can.
If your enquiries arrive mostly as web forms from paid search, Get Work's inbound notifications address the same response-time risk from the other side. We have written about why response time decides so many trades jobs, and the numbers apply whichever direction the text travels.
Finally, do not buy text back in isolation and leave the replies in a phone. The point is to get the lead into something with a status, which is why we treat it as one link in the full anatomy of a trades lead system rather than a feature on its own.
Frequently asked questions
How fast does a missed-call text need to go out?
Within a minute, ideally under thirty seconds. Most callers who get voicemail are dialling the next number inside two minutes.
What should the text say?
Who you are, that you saw their call, and one easy next step such as reply with your postcode and what you need. A link to a quote form also works.
Does text back work on a normal mobile number?
Usually it runs on a tracking or VoIP number that forwards to your mobile, so the system can see the missed call and send the reply. Some setups work with your existing number via call forwarding.
Will customers find an automatic text annoying?
In our experience the opposite. A reply within seconds reads as responsive, and most people would rather text their problem than leave a voicemail.