An industrial hose and fittings supplier in Welshpool, in Perth's south-east, sold to mine sites and contractors in Queensland and New South Wales, whose working day started while Perth was still dark. In summer, when daylight saving pushes Sydney three hours ahead, a site manager in the Hunter Valley ringing at seven-thirty with a burst hydraulic line reached a Perth office that would not open for another two and a half hours.
The businesses in this article are illustrative examples, not named StartAutomate clients.
Key takeaways
- Perth businesses selling to the east coast miss the first two or three hours of their customers' day, every day.
- An AI answering service covers that early gap, taking orders and passing on urgent requests so the Perth team finds everything written up when they sit down at eight.
- Urgent orders can be passed to a person on call, and the agent never commits stock or delivery times it cannot see.
The morning gap for Perth businesses
Western Australia sits two hours behind the eastern states for most of the year and three hours behind Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Hobart during daylight saving, since WA does not observe it. For a Perth business with east coast customers, that means the busiest hour of the customer's morning lands before anyone in the office has made a coffee.
Queensland does not observe daylight saving either, so the gap to Brisbane stays at two hours all year, which is one of those details a customer expects the supplier to have worked out.
Orders and enquiries before 8am
The agent answers in the business name from whatever hour the east coast starts calling. It takes repeat orders from known customers by checking the account and the part numbers against the ERP or inventory system, such as MYOB Acumatica, NetSuite or Pronto, and it takes new enquiries with enough detail for a salesperson to quote.
Customers get a confirmation by text or email saying what was ordered and when the office will confirm dispatch, and the order is waiting at the top of the queue when the Perth team logs on.
Urgent calls from site
Some early calls cannot wait two hours, such as a hydraulic failure stopping production or a part needed for a shutdown that starts that day. The business sets the rules, and the agent passes those calls to whoever is on call in Perth, with the customer, site, part and urgency already written up.
It does not promise stock, freight times or prices it cannot see in the system. When the answer depends on the warehouse, it says the Perth team will confirm by a set time and puts the request in front of them.
Covering the late afternoon too
The same arrangement works at the other end of the day for east coast businesses with WA customers. A Sydney office closing at five leaves Perth customers with two or three hours of their own working day, and the agent can take their calls after the east coast team has gone home.
Businesses with offices in both states sometimes use it simply to route calls to whichever office is open, which removes the recorded message telling a Perth customer to call back at a time that suits Sydney.
Common questions
How can a Perth business answer early calls from the east coast?
An AI answering service can pick up calls from the start of the east coast working day, take orders and enquiries, and pass urgent calls to a person on call in Perth.
Does it know about daylight saving differences?
Yes. It works from each caller's local time, including the three-hour gap to the south-eastern states in summer and the two-hour gap to Queensland all year.
Can it take orders from existing customers?
Yes. It checks the customer account and part numbers against your system and records the order for your team to confirm, without promising stock it cannot see.