Most tradies and small service businesses are running on a combination of messages, paper job sheets, and a spreadsheet that started as a temporary solution. It works — but you’re spending hours every week on admin that a properly set up automation could handle in seconds.
Make.com is the tool we recommend most often for small service businesses. It’s visual, powerful, and doesn’t require any coding.
What Is Make.com?
Make is an automation platform that connects apps together. You build “scenarios” — automated workflows triggered by an event (like a form submission or a new email) that then do a series of things automatically.
Automation 1: Quote Follow-Up Sequence
1. You send a quote from your quoting software
2. Make detects the sent quote
3. 48 hours later, if the quote hasn’t been accepted, Make sends a polite follow-up email automatically
4. 5 days later, another follow-up if still no response
5. After 14 days, marks the quote as cold in your CRM
Most businesses that implement this see their quote acceptance rate improve significantly.
Automation 2: Job Completion → Review Request
When a job is marked complete, Make waits 24 hours then sends the customer a personalised email asking for a Google review with a direct link to your review page.
Automation 3: New Lead → Instant Response
When someone fills out your website contact form, Make immediately sends them a personalised acknowledgement, adds them to your CRM, creates a follow-up task, and notifies you. Fast response time wins jobs.
Getting Started
Start with one workflow — the quote follow-up is usually the best first choice. Make has a free tier that handles most small business needs. Paid plans start at around $9/month.
If you want help mapping out which automations will have the biggest impact, a $50 consultation is a good starting point.