About SOS NOW

How we started

In mid 2005, plumber Aaron Rink (CF Reese Plumbing, Hamilton) joined builder Richard Hull (Richard Hull Builders, Hamilton) and electrician Phil Hollobon (Contact Electrical, Hamilton) for lunch at a local café & they began to discuss how they could all work together more effectively.  A series of jobs which they had all been called in to work on prompted them to wonder whether they could formalise their collective working arrangement and market themselves as a type of ‘one-stop unit’. 

They considered a business card and a brochure containing details of all three businesses and the services they offered, and felt that it would be mutually advantageous if they were to hand these out to any of their own individual customers, effectively referring them to the other two whom they trusted and could vouch for.

Talking it through progressed to their deciding to get an 0800 number that would connect people to any of the three. Then other business people started getting interested and wanted to know if they could get involved…

And so SOS NOW was born

Initially a phone-based referral service providing the general public with a time-saving means of finding the best person to do the job. Or as the slogan goes: “The quick way to the best help.” The beauty of the 0800 number is that it is phone-based, not web-based, and therefore can be accessed from anywhere. “It’s one phone number that’ll connect you, for free, to any service you want". 

The SOS NOW website was launched

Later SOS NOW developed a great interactive website with many benefits for both members and the consumer alike. 

Our website also includes a great ‘quote’ centre.  Using this quote system ensures that between one and three suitable businesses will quickly respond to your enquiry and offer you great service, competitive prices and the assurance of quality that being an SOS NOW Member brings.

Available to the public

SOS NOW allows just three companies in each area to list for each service offered. Each has its own level of Membership, ‘A’ ‘B’ and ‘C’. The applicant company is stringently vetted before being accepted (and subsequently listed both on our website and in our call centre database) and preference is given to those businesses belonging to their relevant trade or industry association.  Although SOS NOW started by offering trade services only, it has now grown to include a comprehensive network of different professional, medical, personal & trade services and the range of business categories offered by our Members is constantly expanding.