ServiceM8 + Make: Five Automations a Tradie Can Build in a Week

ServiceM8 is built for tradies, but most owners only use a third of it. Pair it with a Make scenario and you can close the gaps where work falls through - quote follow-ups, review requests, after-hours response, all running on autopilot.

ServiceM8 is the best job management platform built for Aussie tradies. It handles scheduling, quoting, invoicing, photo uploads, and a thousand other things you’d otherwise need three separate apps for.

But most tradies use about 30 percent of it. The job card works, the invoice goes out, the diary syncs - and the rest of the platform sits untouched because nobody had time to learn it.

There’s another problem ServiceM8 alone can’t solve: the gaps between systems. ServiceM8 holds your job data. Xero holds your accounting. Google Calendar holds your diary. Your phone holds your SMS. When a job needs to flow across two or three of those, you end up doing it manually.

That’s where Make comes in.

Make is a workflow automation tool - similar to Zapier but cheaper and more powerful for the kind of automations a small trades business actually needs. ServiceM8 has a Make integration (and webhook support if you want to go deeper). With a free or $10-a-month Make plan, you can stitch ServiceM8 into the rest of your stack and close the gaps where work falls through.

Here are five Make scenarios you can build in a week.

Automation 1: Missed call → instant SMS auto-reply

The problem: Customer rings at 6:45pm. You’re on a job or driving home. They leave a voicemail or hang up. Meanwhile, your competitor’s auto-responder fires within 30 seconds. By morning, the job is gone.

The build:

1. Trigger: Missed call on your business mobile (most VoIP providers - MyNetFone, MNF, Twilio, or even a Google Voice number - can send a webhook to Make when a call is missed).
2. Make action 1: Send SMS to the caller from a Twilio or ClickSend number: “Hi, this is {your_business_name}. Sorry I missed your call - I’m on a job. I’ll ring you back first thing tomorrow morning. For urgent issues, please call again and I’ll do my best to pick up.”
3. Make action 2: Create a follow-up task in ServiceM8 with the caller’s number and a 7am next-day reminder.

Build time: 90 minutes. Cost: ~$0.10 per SMS sent. Payback: one job you would’ve lost.

Automation 2: Quote sent → 48-hour, 5-day, 10-day follow-up sequence

The problem: Quote goes out, you mean to chase it, you don’t, it goes cold. Industry estimate: 70 percent of trade quotes that go unanswered get followed up zero times. That’s the single biggest source of lost revenue in most plumbing and electrical businesses.

The build:

1. Trigger: Quote moved to “Sent” status in ServiceM8.
2. Make action 1 (48 hours later): Send SMS to the customer: “Hi {first_name}, just checking you received the quote for {job_description}. Any questions, give me a call on {your_number}. Cheers, {your_first_name}.”
3. Make action 2 (5 days later, if quote still “Sent”): Send a second SMS: “Hi {first_name}, following up on the quote from last week. Still happy to talk through any of it. Are you still keen to go ahead?”
4. Make action 3 (10 days later, if quote still “Sent”): Send a third message and create a task in ServiceM8 prompting you to ring them personally.

Build time: 2 hours. Cost: ~$0.30 per quote followed up. Payback: typical conversion lift of 15 to 25 percent on otherwise-cold quotes.

Automation 3: Job complete → Google review request

The problem: You finished the job, the customer was happy, you meant to ask for a Google review, you forgot. Forgetting compounds. After 50 jobs, you’ve earned the right to 50 reviews and got 3.

The build:

1. Trigger: Job status changes to “Complete” AND payment received in ServiceM8.
2. Make action 1 (24 hours after completion): Send SMS: “Hi {first_name}, thanks for the job today. If you’ve got 30 seconds, a quick Google review would mean a lot - it helps other locals find me when they need a {your_trade}. Here’s the direct link: [your-google-review-link]. Cheers, {your_first_name}.”
3. Make action 2: Log the review request to a Google Sheet so you can track which jobs got asked.

Build time: 60 minutes. Cost: ~$0.10 per request. Payback: typical real-world result is 8 to 12 percent of recipients leaving a review. Over a year that’s the difference between 20 Google reviews and 80.

A plumbing business with 80 Google reviews ranks dramatically higher in local search than one with 20. This is the single highest-ROI automation a trades business will ever build.

Automation 4: Invoice paid → thank-you message + folder archive

The problem: The job’s done, the invoice is paid, and the customer never hears from you again until the next time they need a plumber. Six months later they’ve forgotten your name. Year-on-year repeat business suffers.

The build:

1. Trigger: Invoice marked as paid in ServiceM8 (or via the Xero connection if invoicing is on that side).
2. Make action 1: Send a short thank-you SMS or email: “Hi {first_name}, just confirming payment for the recent job came through. Thanks for trusting me with the work. If anything plays up, give me a yell. - {your_first_name}”
3. Make action 2: Move the job’s photo folder from “Active” to “Completed” in Google Drive (or Dropbox).
4. Make action 3 (90 days later): Add the customer to a “warm leads” segment in a tool like Mailerlite or send a one-line check-in SMS: “Hi {first_name}, hope the {work_done} is still holding up. Let me know if anything’s playing up. - {your_first_name}.”

Build time: 90 minutes. Cost: under $0.10 per job. Payback: improves repeat-customer rates without any manual chasing.

Automation 5: New enquiry form → ServiceM8 client + diary check + auto-quote prep

The problem: A new lead comes in via your website form. You see the email tomorrow morning. By then the customer has already booked someone else.

The build:

1. Trigger: New form submission on your website (your contact form, Jotform, Typeform, or wherever leads come in).
2. Make action 1: Create a new client record in ServiceM8 with the form data.
3. Make action 2: Check Google Calendar for your next two days of availability and pull the first two free 2-hour slots.
4. Make action 3: Send the lead an SMS within 60 seconds: “Hi {first_name}, thanks for getting in touch about {job_type}. I’ve got availability {slot_1} or {slot_2}. Reply with which suits and I’ll lock it in. - {your_first_name}.”
5. Make action 4: Notify you via SMS or email so you know a lead just came in.

Build time: 3 hours (this one’s the most complex). Cost: under $0.20 per lead. Payback: lead-to-booked-job conversion typically lifts 30 to 50 percent because you’re first in the door.

What this stack actually costs to run

A small plumbing or electrical business running all five automations is looking at roughly:

For a tradie doing 20 to 40 jobs a month, this stack typically returns more than its cost in one prevented lost job per quarter. The review-request automation alone usually outperforms the entire stack’s cost within 60 days.

The order to build them in

Don’t try to build all five in one week. Do them in this order:

1. Quote follow-up sequence (automation 2) - biggest revenue impact, hardest to do manually.
2. Google review automation (automation 3) - biggest SEO impact, easiest to build.
3. Missed-call auto-reply (automation 1) - biggest reputation impact, fastest payback.
4. Invoice paid → thank-you (automation 4) - biggest repeat-customer impact.
5. New enquiry → instant SMS (automation 5) - biggest first-impression impact.

One a week. Five weeks. Working systems running on top of the ServiceM8 you’re already paying for.

Where to start

If you’d like a quick map of which automation will move the needle fastest for your specific business - and a 30-minute walkthrough of what to build first - book a free AI Ops Audit.

We’ll look at your current ServiceM8 setup, identify the two or three biggest gaps, and tell you whether to build it yourself or get help.

No pitch deck. Plain English. If your business can’t benefit from any of this, we’ll tell you straight.