No heat in January, tune-ups in June. Your HVAC calls, taken down.
For heating and cooling shops. When you're already in someone's basement, the calls you forward go to your agent. It answers in your business's name, asks what that call needs, writes down how urgent it is in the caller's own words if they say, reads it all back, and emails you the write-up about a minute after the call.
The calls you get, and what your agent does with each
Examples of the kind of question it asks. Your own questions, in your words, are written in during setup.
"It's fifty-eight in here and the heat won't come on."
"Is the heat out in the whole house?"
Whether it's out everywhere, and when they'd like someone, in their words.
"The furnace stopped and the house is cold."
"How long has it been off?"
How long, and how urgent it is to them, if they say.
"The AC is running but it's blowing warm."
Your question for a cooling call.
What it's doing, and when suits them.
"The thermostat's gone blank."
Your question for a thermostat call.
What they see, in their words.
"I want the AC serviced before it gets hot."
"Is this the yearly service, or is something not working right?"
Which it is, and when suits them.
"Do you work on my brand?"
Answered from the list of brands you give us.
Their brand, if it's one you didn't list, as a question for you.
Then the address, including the town, their name and the best number, all read back.
The same agent in January and in June
The first cold night. If no-heat calls come in while you're on a job, your agent answers the ones your line sends it, asks what each needs and reads it back. If two reach it at once, it can take them at the same time. The write-ups wait in your inbox for when you're back in the truck.
June, and the service calls. Tune-ups and replacement quotes, each with its own question. Tell us before the season turns and we change what it says, from your summer hours to the brands you carry. It keeps answering while we test the change.
Want every caller asked whether their yearly service is due? Tell us at setup and your agent asks it. The answer is in your email after the call.
What it writes down
- The system and what it's doing, in the caller's words.
- How urgent it is to them, in their words, if they say.
- The answer to the one question it asked.
- The address, including the town, read back.
- When suits them. Your team still agrees the time.
- Their name, and the best number, read back digit by digit.
- Any question it couldn't answer, like "Do you clean ducts too?" when you didn't tell it.
What it won't do
- Diagnose a system, or tell a caller whether something is safe.
- Send a tech, say anyone is coming, or give an arrival time.
- Make up a price or a fee. Asked for one it wasn't given, it says the number comes from your team and asks about the job.
- Book a time, or confirm one. It can't see your calendar. It takes the time the caller would like, and your team calls back to set it.
- Take card numbers. If a caller offers one, it says that's handled another way and moves on.
- Pretend to be a person. Asked, it says it's your business's virtual assistant.
Answerling is not an emergency service. Anyone who smells gas, sees smoke or has any other emergency should hang up and call 911 or their utility.
A scripted example call
Scripted example. Not a real customer call. Bracketed details are placeholders.
Your agent: Thanks for calling [your business]. This call is recorded. How can I help?
Caller: The furnace stopped sometime last night. The house is freezing.
Your agent: I'm sorry. How long has it been off?
Caller: Since about midnight, I think.
Your agent: Got it. What's the address, including the town?
Caller: [street address], [town].
Your agent: [street address], [town]. When would suit you?
Caller: Today, if anyone can.
Your agent: I'll note today. The team sets the time when they call you back. What's your name?
- They give their name, then the best number, read back digit by digit.
Your agent: So that's the furnace off since about midnight, at [street address] in [town], today if possible, for [their name], on that number. Have I got that right?
Caller: Yes.
Your agent: Someone from [your business] will call you back to set a time.
Keep your number
You keep your number, and it stays with your carrier. Your agent gets its own local number, and your carrier sends it the calls you choose:
- Only what you miss. Your phone still rings as it does today. If you don't pick up, the caller reaches your agent instead of your voicemail. We can also set your line so the next caller reaches your agent when you're already on a call, and we test it with you first.
- After you close. Nights, weekends and holidays go to your agent.
- Everything. All calls go to your agent, and you ring back the ones you want with the write-up in front of you.
We set it up with you on a call. You ring your own number from another phone and hear your agent answer before you rely on it. You can switch forwarding off yourself, and callers still ring the number they already have. Call forwarding, carrier by carrier
What you get after the call
About a minute after the call, the write-up is in your inbox, to everyone you name: who rang, what they need, the number to call back, and a short summary in plain words. For the call above, that's the furnace, off since about midnight, "today" in the caller's words, the address and the number to call back.
- The email links to the call in your dashboard, where the recording plays beside the transcript.
- Tell us your quiet hours and late-night emails wait until they end. Your agent still answers.
- Sales pitches, robocalls and quick hang-ups don't email you. They still show in your dashboard.
- Callers from the past week who asked for a call back sit together on your dashboard's Home page.
Your inbox and your dashboard come with both plans. Want the write-up somewhere else, like the app you schedule from? Name it on our first conversation and we'll tell you straight what we can do. After the call
Who it's for, and where we'd say no
For: heating and cooling shops where the owner or a small crew answers the phone between jobs.
Where we'd say no:
- Shops that already have a dispatch desk or an answering contract around the clock.
- Franchises on enterprise field-service software.
- Businesses where a licensed person must give advice on every call.
- A shop that needs its phone line to rouse an on-call tech in the night. Your agent takes the call down for your callback. It doesn't ring anyone.
How it gets set up
- One conversation. Fifteen minutes on your services, prices, hours, the towns you cover and the work you turn away.
- We build it. Your greeting in your business's name, the question it asks for each kind of job, and its answers to what callers always ask. We also write in your brands, your warranty, and whether it asks if a yearly service is due.
- You try to break it. We put it through ten scripted test calls, then you ring it yourself.
- You forward your line. On a call with us. Nothing goes live until you say so.
No setup fee, and you don't write a script. How setup works
What it costs
Two plans, month to month. No setup fee, no annual contract, cancel any month.
- After hours: $149 a month. 200 minutes of talk a month. Your agent takes the calls you cannot: nights, weekends, the lunch rush. $0.40 a minute above that.
- The whole line: $299 a month. 600 minutes of talk a month. Your agent answers everything and you pick up when you want to. $0.40 a minute above that.
Both include the recording, transcript and summary of each call, the write-up in your inbox, and a login for anyone you name. Prices exclude any sales tax that applies. Both plans, side by side
Questions HVAC owners ask
No. Your agent doesn't diagnose and doesn't tell a caller whether something is safe; it takes the problem down in their words, reads it back, and says your team will call back.
Answerling is not an emergency service. Anyone who smells gas, sees smoke or has any other emergency should hang up and call 911 or their utility.
Yes. Tell us during setup and your agent asks it, and the answer is in your email after the call.
If several calls reach your agent at the same time, it can take them at the same time. Each is its own call in your dashboard, with its own write-up.
How many calls reach it depends on how you set up forwarding.
Tell us, and we switch you to After hours for the quiet months and back to The whole line when it picks up. Plans are month to month, with no annual contract.
Talk to us
Fifteen minutes on your calls, your hours and what you want captured. Then we tell you honestly whether an agent is worth it for you.
Rather email? info@answerling.ai
Want to see what a missed call is worth to you first? Run the numbers. Three numbers you already know, multiplied. Your math, not ours.