AI answering service in Derby
Pulsemint is an AI answering service for Derby tradespeople and small businesses. It answers your 01332 number or mobile when you can't, takes the caller's name, number, address and the job, and texts you a summary within about a minute, any hour of the day. It costs £199 a month including up to 50 captured calls, with a free 14 day pilot and no contract.
Derby's big employers run around the clock, and that changes when your customers ring. This page covers why that matters and how the agent handles it.
Pulsemint at a glance
- What it does
- Answers the calls you miss, takes the caller's details and the job, and texts you a summary within about a minute
- Price
- £199 a month including up to 50 captured calls
- Free trial
- 14 day pilot, no card needed
- Contract
- None. Cancel any time.
- Hours
- Every hour of every day, same price
- Your number
- Stays the same. Unanswered calls divert to Pulsemint.
- Setup
- Done for you, about ten minutes of your time
- Coverage
- Derby and the DE postcode area, plus the rest of the UK
Try Pulsemint free for 14 days
Leave your name and email, then pick a time for a 15 minute setup call. No card and no contract. You keep your number.
Want to hear it first? Talk to the agent now. It answers questions about Pulsemint itself, and nobody will ring you back.
Why Derby trades miss calls
Derby is an engineering city. Rolls-Royce, Toyota at Burnaston and the train works at Litchurch Lane employ thousands of people, many of them on shifts. A customer who finishes a night shift notices the leak at eight in the morning. Someone on lates rings about a quote at ten at night. Their free time rarely lines up with your working day.
The housing keeps trades busy too. Victorian terraces around Normanton and the centre. 1930s semis across Allestree, Littleover and Mickleover. Large 1980s and 90s estates at Oakwood. Newer homes around Chellaston and the edges of the city. Each era comes with its own jobs, and they all come in while you're already working on one.
Getting Derby addresses right
Callers usually give the area rather than the street: Allestree, Mickleover, Littleover, Chaddesden, Spondon, Alvaston, Darley Abbey. Some ring from villages out towards the Peak District or Belper and still say "Derby". The agent takes the full address and DE postcode and reads it back, so you know whether it's a ten minute drive or forty before you ring.
Calls at odd hours
With so many shift workers, Derby trades get more calls outside normal hours than most. Pulsemint costs the same at 6am or 11pm as at noon. You decide what counts as urgent, and everything else waits for the morning with the details written down. There's a page about how out of hours cover works if that's your main problem.
What a call looks like
A shift worker in Mickleover rings at 10.40pm. He's just got home and the downstairs sockets have stopped working. The RCD trips every time he resets it. The rest of the house is fine.
URGENT. Downstairs sockets dead, RCD trips on reset, lights and upstairs OK. Fridge freezer on that circuit. Works shifts, home tomorrow after 2pm. Dan, 07700 900516, 25 Example Drive, Mickleover, DE3.
One thing to be upfront about: Pulsemint is run from Lowestoft, not Derby. The agent answers calls remotely, so where it's based makes no difference to the caller. What matters is whether it gets Derby addresses right, and whether you can reach a person when you want something changed. You can: you deal with me directly.
Keeping your 01332 number
Your number doesn't change. Whether customers ring a 01332 landline or your mobile, your phone diverts the calls you don't answer to Pulsemint after however many rings you choose. Your van, your website, your Google Business Profile and your Checkatrade or MyBuilder listing all stay exactly as they are.
Setup takes about ten minutes of your time. I set the agent up with your business name, the trades you do, the Derby areas you cover and anywhere you won't travel to. If anything ever fails at our end, calls ring your phone as they do now.
Trades we answer for in Derby
Each trade gets different questions, because a plumber and a roofer need to know different things before they ring back. These pages explain what the agent asks for each one:
- Plumbers, including leaks, stopcocks and landlord calls
- Electricians, including power cuts, EICRs and rewires
- Gas and heating engineers, including fault codes and gas smells
- Roofers, including storm damage and flat roofs
- Builders, including extensions and planning questions
- Locksmiths, including lockouts and security upgrades
Working on your own? There's a page on using Pulsemint as a virtual receptionist for sole traders, and one on evening and weekend cover.
Is it worth it for a Derby business?
Only your own numbers can answer that. Count last week's missed calls, take out the spam and suppliers, and be realistic about how many were jobs you'd have won. Multiply by what a job is worth to you. If it comes to more than £199 a month, it pays. If it doesn't, a better voicemail and missed call text back may be all you need. The calculator on the Pulsemint homepage does the sum for you, and this guide explains the method.
Common questions
Does it answer at night?
Yes, at any hour, for the same price. That suits Derby, where a lot of customers work shifts and ring outside normal hours.
Can I keep my 01332 number?
Yes. Your phone diverts the calls you don't answer, and your number stays the same everywhere.
Will it get Derby addresses right?
It takes the area, the full address and the DE postcode and reads them back to the caller, so you know exactly where the job is.
Can it tell me which calls are urgent?
Yes. You decide what counts as urgent for your trade, and those texts start with URGENT so you can spot them.
Do I need a Derby based service?
No. It answers remotely for any number you divert to it.
Who is behind this
I'm Shadman, and I build and run Pulsemint myself from Lowestoft. When you start the pilot, I set the agent up for your business and you deal with me directly, not a support queue. If it doesn't catch jobs you'd otherwise have lost, don't keep it.