You’re in the cab, not on the phone
Missed callers get a text back within seconds and the enquiry carries on in writing. Website and WhatsApp enquiries land in the same job file, with the address and what’s gone wrong.
For Cornwall Drainage & septic tank installers
A failed septic tank
won’t wait for a callback.
Drainage enquiries are either urgent — it’s backing up — or on a deadline, because a house sale has turned up a non-compliant tank. Either way the customer wants an answer today, and you’re in the digger. Foredesk answers for you, takes the details and texts you the job.
Kernow.ai sets up Foredesk for Cornwall drainage and septic tank installers: an AI front desk that answers website visitors, WhatsApp messages and missed calls from your own information, captures every enquiry and texts it to you — £499 setup, then £99 a month.
See it on your websiteWhat Foredesk does for you
Confused customers
Most people don’t know whether they have a septic tank, a cesspit or a treatment plant, or what a percolation test is. It explains the basics in your words, asks the questions you’d ask, and passes you an enquiry you can actually price.
Sale deadlines
When a buyer’s survey flags a tank, the seller, the buyer and two solicitors all want an answer this week. Foredesk answers the moment they ask and texts you, so you’re the firm that’s already in the conversation.
Paperwork eating your evenings too? Certificate, quoting and admin tools are built to order and quoted separately — tell me what takes the time.
Every build ships secure by default, UK GDPR-compliant and monitored — see how we build.
What your customers ask
Answered from your information, in your words
- “Our septic tank was flagged on the buyer’s survey — can you help?”
- “Do I need to replace my tank with a treatment plant?”
- “Do you do percolation tests?”
- “It’s backing up — can you come today?”
- “Do you empty tanks, or just install?”
- “Do you deal with the Environment Agency side of it?”
It only ever answers from what you’ve approved. If it hasn’t got an answer, it says so, takes the customer’s details and texts you the question. You answer once, and it knows next time.
Why it matters in Cornwall
A county off the mains
Much of rural Cornwall isn’t connected to mains drainage, and the general binding rules have put a lot of older septic tanks on borrowed time — especially those discharging to a stream or ditch, and especially at the point of sale. That makes drainage one of the steadiest, highest-value enquiry streams in the county. Foredesk answers those enquiries from your own approved wording, with a review date on anything regulatory, so it never tells a customer the rules say something they no longer do.
Proof, not promises
Live in the wild — go and ask one a question
Halls Roofing, Exeter
Trained on the firm’s own services, answering visitors and capturing enquiries around the clock — the same job it would do for drainage & septic tank installers.
Cornwall Play Safety — “Piran”
An inspection firm’s assistant answering questions on services, turnaround and quotes, and taking a number when a question needs the owner.
Straight answers
- What does it cost?
- £499 one-off setup, then £99 a month. No tiers, no per-lead fees, and no VAT on top.
- Will it tell customers whether their system is legal?
- No. It can explain what you check and how you’d assess it, from your own wording. Whether a particular system complies is a judgement you make on site, and it says so.
- Can it explain the general binding rules?
- In your own approved words, kept short and carrying a review date. The detail of what applies to a given property is for you or the Environment Agency, and it points customers there rather than paraphrasing the regulations.
- What if a customer asks something it doesn’t know?
- It says so rather than guessing, takes the customer’s name and number so the job isn’t lost, and texts you the question. You answer once, in your own words, and from then on it can answer it for everyone.
- Are you local, and do you know the work?
- St Austell — and before software I spent years in groundworks. I know what a perc test is and why the soil matters.
Using AI in your business
Straight guides for the trades
AI for tradespeople: what is worth your time
Written by someone who spent forty years on the tools. What genuinely helps a working trade, and what is sales patter.
AI website assistants for small businesses
What one actually does, whether it is worth it, why most quietly go out of date, and who is liable when one invents a price.
Can I put customer information into ChatGPT?
The single most common way small firms leak data. When it is fine, when it breaches UK GDPR, and how to make it safe.
Free tools
Calculators for the job
Free, no catch. I built these at TradeCalcs, my calculator site for UK trades.
See it answering your customers
A short demo, on a page that looks like your own website, answering from your own information. £499 to set up, then £99 a month.
Get in touch