Frequently asked questions
Straight answers on AI receptionists for home-service businesses. Something missing? Ask us directly.
How much does an AI receptionist cost for an HVAC or plumbing business?+
Our After-Hours AI Receptionist is a one-time $8,000 build plus $500 to $2,000 a month for maintenance and tuning, depending on call volume. Compare that to a single missed emergency call, which typically costs $350 to $1,200 in lost work. Most shops lose $45,000 to $120,000 a year to unanswered calls, so one recovered install usually pays for the build.
Do AI answering services actually work for trades businesses?+
Yes, when they are tuned to the trade. A generic answering bot frustrates callers. Ours is configured to your services, service area, business hours, and pricing, so it can triage a no-heat call at 2 AM, book the job into your schedule, and text you a recap. You review every booking it makes.
What happens when someone calls after hours?+
The agent answers immediately, identifies itself as an AI assistant for your company, asks what is going on, and triages. Emergencies get routed to your on-call number if you want live transfer. Routine work gets booked into your available slots. Either way you get a text and email recap within about a minute of hangup, with the caller's name, number, issue, and urgency.
How does the AI handle real emergencies like no heat or a burst pipe?+
You define what counts as an emergency for your trade, for example no heat in winter, gas smell, active leak. The agent listens for those situations, marks the call urgent, and either transfers the caller to your on-call phone or takes a priority message and alerts you immediately. Emergency detection is tuned during setup and tested with simulated calls before launch.
Will callers know they are talking to an AI?+
Yes. The agent discloses that it is an AI assistant in its first sentence on every call. That is both the law in many jurisdictions and better for trust. In practice callers care about getting helped fast, not about who answers.
How long does setup take?+
Days, not months. We collect your services, area, hours, pricing ranges, and emergency rules in a short intake, configure and test the agent with simulated calls, then put it live on a dedicated phone number you forward your line to after hours.
Do I need to change my phone system?+
No. You keep your number and your daytime routine. After hours, or on missed calls, your line forwards to the agent's number. Most phone providers support conditional call forwarding, and we set this up with you during onboarding.
Can the AI book appointments into my calendar or field service software?+
The agent books into its own schedule view and sends you every booking instantly by text and email. Direct two-way sync into Google Calendar, Jobber, Housecall Pro, or ServiceTitan is available as part of your build, scoped during onboarding to match the software you run.
What is speed-to-lead and why does it matter?+
Speed-to-lead is how fast you respond to a new lead. Responding within five minutes makes you far more likely to win the job than responding in an hour, because homeowners call down a list until someone answers. Our agents answer instantly, which is the whole point.
What does the $47 bootcamp cover?+
Three days, one hour a day, live. Day one is the math on what missed calls cost you. Day two is the after-hours script that books jobs. Day three is the AI receptionist setup, start to finish. It is the cheapest way to evaluate whether this is right for your shop.
Is my customer data safe?+
Call recordings, transcripts, and customer details are stored encrypted, used only to run your agent, and never sold or used to train public AI models. See our privacy policy for details.
What trades do you work with?+
Primarily owner-operated HVAC, plumbing, and electrical businesses with roughly 3 to 25 technicians. The same agents work for other home services, including garage door, appliance repair, and restoration. If you run on missed calls, it fits.