How our Message System Saved $2 Million a Year in Wages ... and Saved the Business
- Dan Ahchow
- Dec 17, 2025
- 5 min read
The TLDR (Too Long Didn't Read): Eaco has a new Messages & Automations System just like what we used to save $2 Million a year for our own business. Back then it took a team of developers 6 months to create. Now, it comes built in to Eaco as a standard part of your subscription.
The Full Story (you'll never believe what happened ... and how it can help you too)
Things were flying.
My company had just been named E-Business of the Year by My Business Magazine. We ranked second fastest-growing business in Australia on BRW’s Fast Starters list. In under two years, we’d profiled more than 45,000 trades and services businesses and were generating thousands of new work opportunities every single week.
From the outside, it looked unstoppable. But ....
Then the GFC hit.
The Global Financial Crisis didn’t arrive politely. It didn’t knock. It kicked the door in.
Finance vanished overnight. Credit lines evaporated. Confidence disappeared. And suddenly, “growth” wasn’t the game anymore — survival was. We had one job: get to profitability, fast, or die trying.
What happened next changed everything.
Not only did we survive, we went on to generate over $2 billion in work opportunities for trades and service businesses. Even more counter-intuitive: we did it while cutting more than $2 million a year in wages and improving customer service so dramatically that customers stuck with us for years.
That combination, lower cost, better service, sounds impossible until you live it.
Here’s exactly how it happened.
The Hidden Problem We Didn’t Want to Admit
At the time, we positioned ourselves as the easiest way to find trades and services. It was the early 2000s. People still used phones. A lot.
So we did the obvious thing: we built a 30-person call centre to handle the volume.
Calls poured in all day, every day.
And for a while, that felt like success.
But when the GFC hit, we were forced to ask an uncomfortable question:
“What are these calls actually achieving?”
So we did something most businesses never do under pressure.
We measured it.
Step One: The Pareto Punch in the Face
You know the Pareto Principle, 80% of outcomes come from 20% of effort.
We applied it ruthlessly.
We analysed every category of inbound call. Not with opinions. With data.
The result was confronting.
Roughly 80% of incoming calls were not generating a single new opportunity for our tradespeople. They weren’t revenue-creating. They weren’t value-adding. They were distractions dressed up as “service.”
They were questions like:
Who responded to my job?
Who’s the best rated?
Are they licensed and insured?
Can I see examples of their work?
When are they coming?
Where are they now?
Can you just check one thing for me?
Perfectly reasonable questions.
But here’s the kicker: none of them required a human to answer.
We were paying highly capable people to act as walking FAQs.
That realisation alone was worth seven figures.
Step Two: Answer the Questions Before They’re Asked
Instead of hiring faster, cheaper, or “better trained” staff, we did something far more effective.
We documented every common question.
Then we documented every answer.
Then we asked one simple design question:
“If we already know what people will ask… why wait?”
This mindset shift was everything.
Customer service isn’t about reacting quickly.
It’s about eliminating the need to react at all.
Step Three: The Move That Saved $2 Million a Year (and a Preview of Eaco's brand-new Messages System)
This is where the real leverage came from. Our tech team built a system of Workflows, Messages, and Automations that delivered the exact right information at the exact moment someone needed it, without them lifting a finger or picking up a phone.
Every job moved through clear workflow stages, such as:
Job requested
Contractors notified
Contractor responded
Quote prepared
Quote accepted
Job booked
Contractor en route
Contractor on site
Work commenced
Work completed
Invoice submitted
Invoice paid
At each stage, the system anticipated uncertainty and removed it.
Messages went out automatically (by email, SMS, or app notification) saying things like:
“Thanks for your job request ... here’s what happens next.”
“A contractor has responded ... here’s their profile, reviews, and compliance documents.”
“Your contractor is on the way ... track them live on the map.”
“Work completed ... here’s your invoice and job summary.”
No chasing.
No guessing.
No anxiety.
And no phone calls.
Now this technology is available to you, using Eaco's powerful messages system you can create your own custom messages using Eaco's rich text editor. Its deep integration into Eaco's Database means that you can easily configure custom messages for your Clients, Staff and Contractors that include the exact relevant details that they require (job details, contact details, site details, etc). Here's the Preview of just how easy it is to create your own Custom Messages using Eaco.
Then .... Automations watched for triggers (a quote submitted, a workflow change, an arrival logged, etc) and fired off the right message instantly. Preview how Eaco's Automations work here .... and just how easy it is to configure your own.
That single system replaced millions of dollars in manual effort and made customers calmer, more confident, and far more loyal.
For AAMI, the live tracking message that Eaco built for roadside assistance customers became so popular they featured it in AFL Grand Final TV ads.
That’s not just software.
That’s reassurance at scale.
Step 4: The Loyalty Multiplier We Didn’t Expect
Just when we thought we’d found the edge, another lever revealed itself.
Automated messages tell people what’s happening.
Portals let them see it whenever they want.
A client portal is simple in concept and devastatingly powerful in practice.
It’s a place customers log in to submit work orders, track progress, view documents, message stakeholders, review history, and feel in control.
Think about what online shopping did to retail.
Now apply that to services.
Uber.
Domino’s.
AirTasker.
Once customers can self-serve, they don’t just stay ... they commit.
Your business becomes the system of record for their work history. Switching suddenly feels painful. Loyalty becomes structural.
Eaco's clients now use portals to track millions of jobs, staff, contractors & work orders across offices, schools, hospitals, aged care centres, and more. Others use simpler versions just to eliminate admin noise.
Why This Matters Now (More Than Ever)
Here’s the part that excites me most.
For years, these systems were expensive, custom-built, and out of reach for most businesses. Today, thanks to the team at Eaco, they’re accessible and affordable.
The exact mechanisms that saved our business during the GFC (and later powered solutions for insurers, publishers, franchise groups, and facility managers) are now available, off the shelf, and incredibly easy to implement.
Workflows.
Messages.
Automations.
Custom Client Portals.
The opportunity is the same as it was back then:
Grow your business.
Reduce costs.
Delight customers.
Sleep better at night.
Not by working harder, but by designing smarter.
If this resonates, you already know what to do.
Step 5: Join Eaco Today.
Put the platform to work for you.
Have your own systems that anticipate questions, remove friction, and run quietly in the background.
That’s how you cut millions in dead weight. That’s how customers stop calling, and start trusting. And that’s how you build a business that doesn’t just survive shocks, but gets stronger because of them. This is what makes you Anti-Fragile.
The sooner you start, the faster you get ahead of your competitors.
