One week of missed calls at a four-van company
A missed call is not a missed conversation. It is a booked job at a competitor, because the second call a homeowner makes is almost never back to you.
Illustrative week using typical trade job values. Your real number is usually worse, because voicemail does not record the people who hang up.
It knows a burst pipe from a dripping tap
Triage is the whole job in plumbing. An answering service that treats every call the same either wakes you at 3am for a quote request, or books an emergency into next Thursday.
| Call type | What it does | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Burst pipe, no water, sewage backup, gas smell | Confirms the shut-off, gets the address, pages you immediately | Phone rings |
| Water heater, blocked drain, leak under sink | Books the next available emergency slot | Job in calendar |
| Quote request, bathroom job, scheduled work | Takes the detail, books a quote visit | Job in calendar |
| Existing customer chasing a date | Reads back the booking, reschedules if needed | Handled |
| Sales calls, wrong numbers, out of area | Ends the call politely | You never hear it |
You write the triage rules. Which faults count as emergencies, what your after-hours call-out fee is, how far you travel and what you do not take on.
Answering is step one of five
Every service on this results page picks up the phone. The difference is what happens in the ninety seconds afterwards, and in the week after that.
Answers
First ring, any hour, including the calls that arrive while you are under a sink.
Books it
Job into your calendar during the call, with address, fault, access notes and parking.
Confirms
Texts the customer the window and a confirmation link before you send a van.
Chases
Follows up anyone who does not confirm, and rebooks rather than losing the slot.
Reactivates
Calls back customers who had a quote and never booked, and last year's service list.
Steps two to five are the ones voicemail and a human message service cannot do. Answering protects revenue you were about to lose. Reactivation goes and gets revenue you had already written off.
The maths a plumbing company should run
Do not compare the price against another answering service. Compare it against the jobs in that log above.
Calls you miss
Most companies miss 20–30% of inbound calls: during jobs, after hours, and at weekends when nobody is on the phone.
What one job is worth
A call-out runs $150–$400. A water heater or a re-pipe runs into thousands. One recovered emergency usually covers the month.
The break-even
Ten missed calls a month at a $600 average and a 40% close rate is roughly $2,400 of work that simply went elsewhere.
Compared with what you are doing now
| Voicemail | Human service | AnsweringHQ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answers nights and weekends | No | Yes | Yes |
| Answers on the first ring, every time | — | Queued | Yes |
| Triages emergency vs routine | No | Script only | Yes |
| Knows your call-out fee and service radius | No | No | Yes |
| Books into your calendar | No | Takes a message | Yes |
| Chases unconfirmed jobs | No | No | Yes |
| Reactivates old quotes | No | No | Yes |
| Typical monthly cost | $0 | $300–$1,200 | Ask |
Human services bill per minute or per call, so the invoice climbs in your busiest month — exactly when you can least afford to be paying more per lead.
Questions plumbers actually ask
Will it wake me up for a dripping tap?
Only if you tell it to. You set which faults page you immediately — burst pipes, no water, sewage, gas — and everything else gets booked into the calendar for the morning. Most companies find the first week is spent tuning that line, and then it settles.
Does it sound like a robot?
No. It handles interruptions and people talking over it, which matters when the caller is standing in water. The honest limit is a caller who is shouting or on a bad line — that one gets transferred to you rather than pushed through a script.
What if it cannot handle the call?
It transfers, or takes the details and texts you immediately. You decide which situations always reach a human: emergencies, existing complaints, anything above a price threshold you set.
Whose phone number is it?
Yours. The number, the calling account and the billing stay in your name. Nothing depends on us continuing to exist — we set it up, hand it over, and you own it. That is worth checking with any vendor, because plenty of them keep the number.
How long does setup take?
Usually under a week. Most of that is us learning your call-out fee, service radius, which jobs you do not take, and the questions you would ask a caller yourself.
What does it cost?
It depends on call volume and how much follow-up you want run for you. Send your missed-call count and average job value and we will tell you whether it pays for itself.
Free missed-call audit
Send how many calls you miss in a week and what an average job is worth. We will tell you what it is costing you — and say so plainly if an answering service would not pay for itself.
Text or call — same number for both.