Your First Electrician Customers: 6-Month Plan

Make the business name, phone, website, services, coverage and attendance hours consistent across your own website, Google Business Profile and your Tradehand electrician listing. Search your business name before creating another listing; claim or correct the existing one where it is yours.

• List services you actually provide. Give a clear enquiry action and say what information you need to quote.
• Use your own job photographs with permission, describing the work shown. Publish scheme membership and insurance only when current and verifiable.
• For Google, use the business name customers know. A service-area business that does not receive customers at its address should hide that address and enter the areas it serves.
• Give one person responsibility for checking enquiries and replying with a next step. Test your own phone and enquiry form before sending people to them.

Start with people who know your work: former colleagues, builders, plumbers and existing customers. Tell them the services, coverage and availability you have just published, and share the same enquiry route. A specific introduction makes it easier for them to recognise a suitable job.

Example wording to adapt: “I am taking on [work you actually offer] in [your service area]. My next availability is [date]. Customers can send the job address and what they need through [your enquiry route].” This is a draft, not a customer testimonial.

If seeking subcontract work, send a short capability summary with your actual qualifications, registration where held, insurance and availability. Agree the work, rate, payment terms and responsibility for testing and certification before accepting. Keep subcontract work and your own customer enquiries separate when reviewing what fills the diary. For a local Nextdoor request, use the reply and scope-confirmation worksheet before quoting.

Your handover can show what was done and give the customer a record to keep. Choose the document for the work: an EIC for a new installation or circuit, Minor Works for an eligible alteration to an existing circuit, or an EICR for inspection of an existing installation. The IET publishes the model forms.

Record the actual extent, inspections and test results; sign only the responsibilities you hold. A certificate template does not grant competence, registration or permission to self-certify Building Regulations compliance. Where notification is required, arrange that route separately. Keep the customer's quote, job and handover documents together so a later question can be answered from the record.

Ask customers for an honest review of their actual experience, and share your direct review link. Ask consistently rather than selecting only customers you expect to give five stars. A simple message is enough: “Thanks for having me. If you would like to share your experience, here is the review link: [link].”

Google prohibits offering discounts, payment, gifts or free services in exchange for reviews, even when the review is described as honest. Set any introductory price independently of whether the customer leaves a review. Do not write the customer's review for them or prescribe its rating or wording.

Keep a small weekly record: where each enquiry came from, service and postcode, whether it was suitable, quote sent, booking won or lost, and the reason where the customer supplied one. Count completed jobs separately from enquiries, and compare the time and any fees spent on each source.

For paid platforms, get the current price and terms for your trade and area before committing. Choose a spending limit and review date. A paid lead is an opportunity to quote, not a guaranteed booking. Continue the channels that produce suitable paid work within your capacity.

When a quote is waiting, check the saved details and agree the next contact. Tradehand's quoting workflow and follow-up tools support keeping that work on the record. On a completed job, agree any future work or inspection reminder with the customer rather than assuming the same date suits every installation. See current Tradehand pricing before choosing how to run the admin.

Fictional method example, not Tradehand customer results. An electrician records three enquiries in a week: one suitable introduction becomes a quote and a booking; one web enquiry is outside the service area; one suitable profile enquiry receives a quote but has no booking decision yet.

That is three enquiries, two suitable enquiries, two quotes and one booking. Completed work and payment remain separate stages. The booking is not proof of profit or a repeat customer.

• Copy for your private ledger: received date ___; source ___; job reference ___; suitability and reason ___; quote date ___; booking decision/date ___; completion ___; payment ___; source cost and time ___; customer’s own source wording ___; source evidence (reported / observed link / unknown) ___; time spent on source activity and handling enquiries ___.
• Review: choose one date window; count suitable enquiries and quotes separately; record unknown decisions rather than calling them lost. Compare actual source fees and your time over that same window; keep a profile interaction or website visit separate from a real enquiry.
• Permission: a lead is not automatic email-marketing permission. Use the permission cases before promotional follow-up.

Use the Google audit for visibility faults, the mobile enquiry check for website receipt, and the referral-source record for introductions. Use the first-job pack when a quote becomes agreed work. Check the current-rules board before planning work affected by a dated change.

Source to next action: extend the same enquiry record

Give every enquiry one internal owner and one next action. Record the source in the customer's own words, including unknown, rather than attributing a call to the last post you published.

• Received: date/time ___; channel ___; private enquiry reference ___; customer-reported source or observed link ___.
• Job: actual request ___; area/access ___; information missing ___; survey or assessment needed ___.
• Next action: responsible person ___; agreed action and time ___; reply received ___; quote reference/revision ___.
• Decision: awaiting clarification / quoted / no reply / declined / accepted / closed ___; reason and date ___; booked appointment ___.

Keep no reply separate from declined. Acceptance, a booked slot, completed work and payment each need their own record.

Two fictional clarification examples

Fictional missed call. A caller leaves a number but no job details. The owner records “phone; source unknown; work unknown; clarification pending”. A reply to adapt: “Thanks for calling. What work do you need, which area is it in, and when would be a good time to speak?” The next action is the agreed callback, not a quote or a booking.

Fictional remote HVAC enquiry. A message asks for a replacement system price without enough information about the existing equipment or requested work. The owner records “message; survey decision pending” and asks: “Which system do you have, what work are you asking for, and can we agree a time to assess it?” Any received photos or equipment details stay linked to the same enquiry. A firm quote waits for the information and assessment needed to define the work; a short clarification comes before promotional copy.