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a side projecthi, I'm Rhys

I got bored. So I built Pedler.

It's a little thing that texts people back when you miss their call, keeps the whole chat in one spot, and tells you what they actually wanted.

It's for anyone whose hands are full when the phone rings: tradies, salons, clinics, dog groomers, the lot.

Poke around the demo Say hi
  • Missed call · 2:14 pm
  • “any spots for a trim saturday?”
  • Texted back · 6 sec
  • “do you do gutters?”
  • Missed call · 7:42 am
  • “can I move my appointment to friday?”
  • Booked · Thu 2 pm
  • “how much for a full service?”
  • Voicemail · written out
  • “it's Sarah, Biscuit needs a wash again”

The whole idea

It fits on a napkin.

You miss a call. Pedler texts them before they ring someone else. They reply when it suits them. You sort it out when you've got a minute. That's pretty much it.

  1. 12:14:03 pm
    missed call

    You're with a customer, on a job, or just busy. It rings out.

  2. 22:14:09 pm
    Sorry we missed you! What can we help with?

    Six seconds later they get a text, in your words, from your business.

  3. 32:21 pm
    need a quote, free thursday arvo?

    They reply. Pedler reads it and pulls out what they want and when.

  4. 43:05 pm
    Booked

    Between jobs you check it, tap book, and it's in your calendar.

Stuff it does

Things I'd want if my phone never stopped.

Texts back in seconds

In your own words. “Reply STOP to opt out” gets added so you're on the right side of the Spam Act.

Nudges you about the urgent ones

Someone said it's urgent, or rang three times in five minutes? You get a text straight away.

Writes out voicemails

Read it between customers instead of listening to it. Any details go straight into a booking.

Fills in the booking

When a time's agreed, the job, day, time and address are already there. You check it and tap.

Remembers your promises

“I'll send you a quote tomorrow”

…and reminds you if tomorrow comes and goes.

A morning text

Who's waiting on you, what's booked today, and anything you said you'd do.

Shows when you miss the most

“Mondays 8–10am, apparently”

Plus roughly what those missed calls are worth.

Answers questions

“who asked for a quote?”

Ask it about your calls, texts and jobs, in plain English.

Calls back as the business

They see your business number, not your personal mobile.

Spreadsheets for the accountant

Every call, message and missed caller, whenever you want them.

Reminds your customers

They get a text a couple of hours before you turn up, so fewer people forget they booked you.

A weekly wrap-up

A plain-English rundown of your week: calls, replies, jobs, and anything that slipped.

It's real

Not a mock-up. It's the actual app.

These are from the demo. The pretend business happens to be a plumber, with six months of pretend calls and texts, but it works the same whatever you do.

A customer's page on a phone: “They want the hot water fixed. They asked for tomorrow morning,” with the booking already filled in and a suggested reply.
one customer, one page. booking's already filled in
The dashboard: a summary of the last 7 days, a busier-than-usual warning, the people who need a reply, and tomorrow's jobs.
the dashboard: what happened, what matters, what to do
Busy times: a heatmap of missed calls by day and hour, and the two-hour stretches when the most calls go unanswered.
turns out Mondays are chaos. who knew

Go on, try to break it.

Reply to customers, book jobs, ask it questions. It's a made-up business, every phone number's hidden, and nothing you do goes anywhere.

Open the demo

The clever-ish bit

It reads the texts so you don't have to.

Name, job, suburb, when they want you. Pedler picks those out and puts them where you need them. It sticks to three house rules:

  1. It doesn't make stuff up.A day, time, price or address only shows up if the customer actually said it.
  2. Not sure? It asks.“Thursday arvo” isn't a time, so it says “pick a time” instead of guessing 2pm.
  3. You press the button.It fills things in and writes replies. Booking and sending is always you.
text from 0491 570 1562:21 pm

Hi it's Dan. Could you fit Biscuit in for a wash and trim? Any chance Thursday arvo? We're in Preston

becomes…
They asked for Thursday afternoonNothing's confirmed yet. Check it suits, reply, then book.
What
Wash & trim (Biscuit)
Date
Thu 2 Oct
Time
Afternoon, pick a time
Where
Preston

Hooking it up

Works with the phone you've got.

There are four ways to plug it in. Most people want the first one.

Keep your number

most people
your mobile→no answer→pedler→text back

Flip a setting on your phone plan so unanswered calls pass to Pedler. Two minutes, and customers keep ringing the number they know.

Get a Pedler number

the full kit
pedler number→rings you→no answer→text back

Put it on your website, your cards, your van. It rings your mobile first, takes a voicemail if you don't answer, and texts them. Calls, texts and call-backs all use the same number.

Plug in your phone system

3CX & co
your system→pedler→text from your number

Got a front desk and a proper phone system? It tells Pedler when a call's missed, and the text can go out from your own number.

Just show me the numbers

no changes
call history→pedler→reports

Export your call history and see when you're missing calls and what it's costing you, before you change anything.

Privacy

I care a lot about privacy.

Your customers trusted you with their number. Here's what Pedler won't do with it:

  • Hand their texts to an AI companyThe bit that reads conversations runs on your own server. Messages never get sent off to be read.
  • Sell, share or train on anythingEvery call, text and job stays on your Pedler server, and it's yours.
  • Book or send without youIt can't book a job, send a reply or ring anyone on its own. A misread text can't turn into a wrong booking.
  • Make you remember a passwordYou sign in with a private link. If it's ever shared by mistake, you can replace it straight away.
  • Let anyone fake a text into your inboxEverything coming in from the phone network gets checked before Pedler trusts it.
  • Ignore the rulesSTOP always works. Calls are only recorded where your state allows it, with the announcement it needs.
  1. Customer's phone
  2. calls & texts, checked on the way in
  3. Phone network
  4. Your Pedler server · stays here Inbox & records calls, texts, jobs Assistant reads conversations Speech-to-text voicemails written out
  5. You your dashboard, with a private sign-in link
  6. ✕ Never sent to AI companies, advertisers or data brokers
Customer's phone Phone network calls, texts YOUR PEDLER SERVER · STAYS HERE checked Inbox & records calls, texts, jobs Assistant reads conversations Speech-to-text voicemails written out Your dashboard and alerts You private sign-in link Never sent to AI companies, advertisers or data brokers Optional: Ask worded from your totals, never names or messages
Where the data goes. Calls and texts have to travel over the phone network, because that's how phones work. After that, everything stays on your Pedler server, and only you can sign in to it.
The technical bits (if you're curious)
  • The assistant is a small open-licence language model running locally. The app refuses any model address that isn't on the same machine or a private network, and blocks redirects. Plain rules decide the facts; the model only suggests wording, and anything it writes with a time, price or phone number the customer didn't give is thrown away.
  • Voicemails are written out offline on the server with Whisper, run by sherpa-onnx.
  • Phone-network webhooks are signature-checked. Events from your own phone system are signed with HMAC-SHA256 plus a timestamp, so a request replayed more than five minutes later is refused.
  • Every form has a CSRF token. Cookies are secure, HTTP-only and same-site. Sign-in and calendar links are long random tokens, and each can be reset on its own.
  • Every page gets a strict Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options: DENY, nosniff, a same-origin referrer policy and HSTS. Customer text always goes on the page as text, never as HTML.
  • The optional Ask feature can send totals to Claude (counts, busy times, suburbs, job types). Names, phone numbers, addresses and messages are scrubbed out first, and questions about particular customers never leave the server.
  • The demo is the real app's pages, rendered from a made-up business and frozen into static files. Before it goes up, a scanner checks every file for phone numbers, emails, keys and tokens, and the build fails if it finds one.

Questions

Fair questions.

Got one that isn't here? Ask me.

Do I need a new phone or a new number?

Nope. Most people keep their number and turn on forwarding for unanswered calls, which is a setting on your phone plan. If you'd rather have a separate business line, Pedler can give you one that rings your mobile.

Will customers know it's automatic?

The first text is an automatic “sorry we missed you” in your words. After that it's you, replying when you've got a minute. Pedler writes suggested replies, but you're the one who sends them.

Is a robot reading my customers' messages?

Sort of. Pedler reads them to tell you what matters: what they want, when they're free, what you promised. It does that privately on your own server, and it never replies or books anything by itself.

Can I change what the text says?

Any time, from Settings. It also notices what people keep asking, like your call-out fee or whether you cover their suburb, and suggests adding the answer.

What if someone texts STOP?

They never get another automatic text from you. That's handled for you.

What does it cost?

A simple monthly price, no lock-in. I'm setting people up myself at the moment, so get in touch and we'll sort it out.

Can I leave, and take my data?

Yep. Every call, message and missed caller downloads as a spreadsheet, and there's no contract to get out of.

Say hi.

Keen, curious, or just want to tell me your phone never stops? Send me a message. It's just me reading these, and I'll get back to you.

— Rhys

I only use your details to reply. No mailing lists, ever.