AI receptionists and chatbots for trades compared

Reading past the word AI

Every provider here uses AI in its marketing copy. That tells you nothing. The useful questions are narrower. Does the AI answer live voice calls, or only website chat and text? Does it book into a calendar, or just collect a name and number? When it gets stuck, does it transfer to a human or take a message? And is it the whole product or a layer on top of ads and SEO?

We also looked for evidence. AI answering is new enough that very few UK trades agencies have published case studies, and several of these have none at all. That does not make the tools bad, but it means you should ask for a live demo on your own number before paying setup fees. If what you really need is the simpler cousin of all this, our comparison of missed-call text back providers covers it.

1. Local Leads Accelerator

Best for: Electricians who want automated follow-up tied to map pack and Local Services Ads work

Local Leads Accelerator runs a 12-week programme built around local SEO and map pack rankings, Google Local Services Ads, a conversion-focused website, missed call text back with automated follow-up, and lead tracking and reporting. Its stated measure is cost per booked job rather than clicks or positions, under the line that clicks do not pay the bills, jobs do.

The AI element is in the follow-up automation rather than a voice receptionist. A missed call triggers a text, and the follow-up sequence continues from there. Electricians are its primary trade, with joinery and carpentry, cleaning, waste removal and exterior services also listed. Case studies show ranking results for a cleaning business and a carpentry firm; pricing is not published.

2. One Base Media

Best for: Trades that want the AI question answered inside a long-established full-service agency

One Base Media, in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, has been working with trades since 2012 and says it has helped more than 1,000 local trades businesses. It offers web design, SEO, Google Ads, exclusive job leads, branding, and a large body of free educational content on YouTube, a podcast and a blog. It is a Google Partner and works on a single monthly payment with no contracts.

AI reception is not a named product. Its case study library is unusually wide, covering roofing, driveways and landscaping, garden rooms, plumbing and drainage, loft conversions, shutters and blinds, scaffolding, heat pumps and windows, and it covers trades from electricians to tree surgeons. Prices are on a separate page.

3. Trustmark Trades (marketing arm)

Best for: Sole traders who prefer a forwarded local landline and a dashboard over an AI answering for them

Trustmark Trades' marketing arm, in Hove, runs on its own software for a flat £299 plus VAT a month with no setup fee, no contract and no per-lead charges. Call handling takes the form of call tracking: a local landline number forwarded to your mobile, so you can see which pages and towns are producing calls. The members dashboard also handles review requests, completed-job posts to the website and Facebook, and an optional jobs CRM.

The approach is deliberately low-tech on the phone side. The company builds many small-town pages, targets less competitive areas outside big cities, does not sell or share leads, and avoids guaranteeing rankings or call volumes. It cites a network of more than 170 members and publishes call-volume results for an electrician, a drainage, plumbing and heating firm, and a paving, landscaping and roofing firm.

4. LeadFly

Best for: Trades that miss many calls a day and want a voice agent answering around the clock

LeadFly, in Watford, is the only provider on this page where the AI receptionist is the core product. It offers AI voice agents for 24-hour answering, AI website chatbots, AI workflow automation covering quote chasing, reminders, and review and referral requests, short-form video production, AI avatars, staff AI training, and CRM and calendar integration. It works exclusively with UK trade businesses and uses Gas Safe and Part P language on its site.

Pricing is published per product: website chatbots at £99 a month, the AI receptionist at £299 a month plus a setup charge, and video at £299 a month. The pitch is that a fully managed AI reception costs less than a member of staff. The weakness is proof. No case studies are published and the single savings claim is unattributed, so ask to hear the agent handle a real-world call, such as a boiler breakdown at 11pm, before committing.

5. SanXpert Digital

Best for: Trades on Google Ads who want out-of-hours enquiries captured automatically

SanXpert Digital works only with trade businesses, says it has done so for 12 years and covers more than 80 UK towns and cities. Alongside Google Ads, Google Business Profile management, local SEO and web development, it offers AI automation for out-of-hours lead capture and AI visibility work aimed at getting a trade recommended by ChatGPT and Gemini.

The out-of-hours automation is the relevant piece. Its campaigns are built around trade-specific sales cycles, separating emergency jobs from replacement jobs, and the capture layer exists so a 10pm emergency search does not go to a competitor. Fees are fixed monthly with no percentage of ad spend, rolling with no contract, but prices are not shown. Trades named include roofers, plumbers, electricians, builders, gas engineers, landscapers, drainage engineers, solar and EV charger installers and glaziers. Proof is limited to a roofing testimonial.

What each AI actually does

Who should buy an AI receptionist, and who should not

The honest answer is that most one-van firms should not, yet. A voice agent at £299 a month plus setup only pays for itself if you are missing enough calls that a text back cannot recover, and if the jobs are big enough to justify the cost. Emergency trades with high call volumes, such as drainage and heating, are the likeliest fit, and LeadFly is the only provider here selling the real thing.

If you are missing a handful of calls a week, the simpler text back approach gets most of the benefit for a fraction of the cost, and Local Leads Accelerator's follow-up automation does a version of that for electricians. If you want to know where calls come from rather than have a machine answer them, Trustmark Trades' forwarded landline does the job without any AI at all.

Whatever you choose, the AI is only as useful as what it hands the lead to. A receptionist that books into a calendar nobody checks has not helped. We cover where the handover should land in our piece on the parts of a trades lead system and how they connect, and the wider question of speed in why lead response time matters so much for trades.

Frequently asked questions