Answering service for contractors
An answering service for contractors that books the job.
Contractors lose jobs to a ringing phone nobody can reach: the owner is on a roof, the tech is under a house, the office closed at five. The homeowner with no heat does not leave a voicemail. They call the next number on the list. An answering service for contractors catches that call.
Built on an AI voice agent, it answers every call in your company name. It sorts emergencies from estimates, puts the urgent ones through to whoever is on call with the address already taken, and books everything else into your calendar.
24 / 7 · Warm transfer to on-call · Google, Outlook & Calendly booking · Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho · SMS confirmations
- AI agent00:00
Thanks for calling Ridgeline Heating and Air. I am the after-hours assistant, an AI. What is happening?
- Caller00:05
The furnace stopped and it is 51 degrees in the house. We have a baby.
- AI agent00:10
I am treating this as an emergency. First, do you smell gas anywhere in the house?
- Caller00:15
No, nothing. It just will not come on.
- System00:18
Emergency rule matched: no heat, infant in home · address confirmed · warm transfer to on-call
- Human00:34
Hi, this is Marcus. I have your address and what is going on. I can be there within the hour.
Who answers the phone while the crew is working?
In most small trade businesses, the phone is answered by whoever is holding it: the owner, or a tech halfway through a job. Their time is the most expensive in the company, and every call they take from a ladder is time the job is not getting done.
- Plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters
- $63,800
- Electricians
- $63,190
- Carpenters
- $60,580
- Roofers
- $55,440
- Construction laborers and helpers
- $46,680
Median annual pay, May 2025. · Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Construction and Extraction
Work out what an answered call should cost you.
Put in what you pay today to cover the phone, whether that is an office manager, a live answering service or the owner’s evenings, and how many calls you take. The break-even rate is the per-minute price below which an AI agent costs less.
Break-even rate per minute
$0.94
Any per-minute rate below this costs less than what you pay today, before counting the hours you gain.
- Minutes answered a month
- 1,600
- Cost per call today
- $3.75
- Hours a week nobody answers today
- 118 of 168
Every figure here is your input or arithmetic on it. Ask us for a quote to put a real rate in.
Emergency or estimate: how each call gets handled.
You decide what counts as urgent. The agent asks the questions your dispatcher would, then follows your rules for each kind of call.
| Call | What the AI agent does | Where it ends up |
|---|---|---|
| No heat or no cooling in extreme weather | Asks your safety questions and checks your emergency rules | Warm transfer to the on-call tech, address attached |
| Active leak or storm damage | Reads out your shut-off advice and marks it urgent | On-call tech now, or the first slot in the morning |
| Gas smell | Tells the caller to leave and call the gas utility or 911, as your script says | Logged, and the on-call tech alerted |
| Estimate request | Takes scope, address, timing and how they heard of you | Estimate visit booked, SMS confirmation sent |
| Question about a current job | Takes a detailed message | CRM note, project manager notified |
| Supplier or sales call | Screens it and takes a message | Email summary, no interruption |
The agent follows the rules and scripts you write. It does not diagnose equipment or quote prices you have not given it.
Your office is open 50 hours. Emergencies are not.
Even a contractor office that opens at seven and closes at five leaves most of the week to voicemail. Burst pipes, dead furnaces and storm damage do not wait for Monday, and neither do the homeowners calling about them.
- Nights and weekends
- Every call answered in your company name, with emergencies sent to whoever is on call.
- Storm days
- Thousands of concurrent calls, so a hailstorm does not mean a busy signal.
- During the day
- Overflow when the office line is busy, so a second caller is answered too.
A construction answering service for every trade.
- 01Dispatch
HVAC
No-heat and no-cooling calls triaged and dispatched, maintenance visits booked.
- 02Emergency
Plumbing
Leaks and blockages sorted by urgency, shut-off advice read out, jobs booked.
- 03Safety
Electrical
Outages and safety calls escalated, quotes for panels and installs booked.
- 04Storms
Roofing
Storm-damage calls logged with address and urgency, inspections scheduled.
- 05Estimates
General contractors and remodelers
New project enquiries captured with scope and budget, site visits booked.
- 0624 / 7
Restoration
Water and fire damage calls answered at any hour and passed to the crew on call.
Set up an answering service for contractors in four steps.
- 01
Keep your number
Forward your business line after hours, or when it rings out, to a number we provision. Customers keep calling the number on your truck.
- 02
Write your rules
Your trade, service area, hours, the questions to ask, what counts as an emergency and the on-call rotation numbers to transfer to.
- 03
Connect your calendar and CRM
Google Calendar, Microsoft 365, CalDAV or Calendly for estimates. Salesforce, HubSpot or Zoho for records, or webhooks into the software you already use.
- 04
Test it like a customer
Call it with a no-heat emergency, an estimate request and a wrong number. Adjust, then switch on forwarding.
Questions buyers ask first.
Stay on the job. Let the phone get answered.
Tell us your trade, your service area, what counts as an emergency and who is on call. We will set up an agent that answers in your company name and let you test it on a live call before a customer hears it.
