Business Phone Numbers for Builders & Construction Firms

Feature by feature: why SwitchboardFREE works for builders and construction firms

Every SwitchboardFREE account comes with over 40 features. These are the ones that make the biggest difference to builders and construction firms, and why.

DepartmentsStandard & Unlimited plans

New customers asking about extensions, current customers chasing a kitchen and suppliers confirming deliveries all ring the same number. A menu such as "press 1 for a new project, press 2 about a current job, press 3 for suppliers" sends each caller to the office, the site manager or whoever handles orders, each with its own voicemail.

Divert calls to your mobile

Site managers spend the day on site, not at a desk. Calls to the business number ring the SwitchboardFREE app on their mobile, a softphone or a desk phone, so a customer asking about tomorrow's start reaches the person running the job.

Ring groups

When the office is busy, a call about a new extension should not ring out. Ring the office first and then the site manager and the director in order, or ring several phones at once so whoever is free answers.

VoIP desk phones

The office that prices jobs and orders materials needs proper phones, while the site team works from mobiles. VoIP desk phones plug into the office broadband and arrive set up, on the same system as the app on the site managers' phones.

Call transfers

A customer rings the office about a snag that only the site manager can answer. Transfer the call to site, blind or after a quick word first, and the office and site call each other free on internal calls.

Call recordingPaid add-on

Variations are where builders lose money: a customer asks for an extra socket or a different tile on the phone and remembers it differently three weeks later. Call recording keeps a copy of all or some calls to play back or download, so you can check exactly what was agreed.

Voicemail to email

A new enquiry left as a voicemail while the cement mixer is running is easy to lose. Voicemails arrive by email with a written transcript, ready to forward to whoever prices the job.

Calls from your business number

If customers have your site manager's personal mobile, they follow the site manager when they leave. Calls made from the app show the business number, so the customer relationship stays with the firm and personal mobiles stay private.

Contact book

Building firms get more than their share of lead sellers, directory sales and cold calls. Bar known nuisance numbers in your contact book and set your best customers and suppliers as favourites, and choose Unlimited if you want the nuisance call blocker included rather than paying for it separately.

Missed call alerts

On a noisy site, plenty of calls go unheard. The caller's number is emailed the moment a call is missed, so you can ring a homeowner asking about an extension back before they try another builder.

Music on holdStandard & Unlimited plans

When the office puts a customer or supplier on hold to check the programme or a delivery date, silence sounds like a dropped call. Music on hold keeps them on the line while you find the answer.

Open and close times

Customers ringing about their job at 9pm do not need to reach the site manager at home. Set your business hours, and outside them callers hear your out-of-hours message and can leave a voicemail for the morning.