Estimate requests, taken down while you're on a mower.
For landscaping and lawn crews. If you're on a mower when the phone rings, or doing the books at night, the calls you forward go to your agent. It answers in your business's name, asks about the job, takes the address and the number, reads them back, and emails you the write-up about a minute after the call.
Busy season, on the job, after hours
Busy season. When the cleanups and new-lawn calls come in together, your agent takes the ones your line sends it, one question at a time, and can take more than one call at the same time.
On the job. Mower running, trailer half loaded. Set your line to "only what you miss" and your phone still rings as it does today. If you don't pick up, the caller reaches your agent instead of your voicemail.
After hours. If a homeowner calls about a patio on a Sunday night, your agent answers whenever your line sends it a call, and the write-up is waiting when you start in the morning.
The calls you get, and what your agent does with each
Examples of the kind of question it asks, off the list of services we write in during setup.
"I need the yard cleaned up for spring."
"The whole yard, or just the front?"
The job and how much of the yard.
"Can you give me a price on a paver patio?"
Your question for a patio, like roughly how big.
The job, the size if they know it, and when suits them for an estimate.
"I want new sod in the backyard."
Your question for sod.
The area, in their words.
"Do you do weekly mowing?"
Answered from the services you gave us.
Their address and how often, for your team to price.
"I'd like some mulch delivered."
Works through your order list, written in during setup.
What they want, and the question each item needs.
"Can you skip us this week? It's supposed to rain."
"What day would you like instead?"
The change, for your team to confirm.
A caller from a town you don't cover.
Takes their details by default, so you decide. Or turns them away, if you'd rather.
Their details, with the town, for you to decide.
Then the address, including the town, when suits them, their name and the best number, all read back.
What it writes down
- The job, in the caller's words: cleanup, sod, a patio, weekly mowing.
- The answer to the one question it asked, like front yard only.
- The address, including the town, read back.
- When suits them for an estimate. Your team sets the time.
- Their name, and the best number, read back digit by digit.
- Any question it couldn't answer, like "Do you do irrigation too?" when you didn't tell it.
What it won't do
- Make up a price. For an estimate request, it takes the job down and your team prices it once they've seen the yard.
- Promise you can fit them in this season.
- Tell a caller whether something is safe. It takes the question for your callback.
- Move a regular customer's day. It takes the change down, and your team confirms it.
- 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.
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: Hi, I'm looking to get a paver patio put in out back. What does that usually cost?
Your agent: The team gives you the price once they've seen the yard. Roughly how big a patio are you thinking?
Caller: Maybe twelve by sixteen. Off the back door.
Your agent: Got it. What's the address, including the town?
Caller: [street address], [town].
Your agent: [street address], [town]. When would suit you for someone to come look?
Caller: Weekends are best.
Your agent: And your name?
- They give their name, then the best number, read back digit by digit.
Your agent: So that's an estimate for a paver patio, about twelve by sixteen off the back door, at [street address] in [town], weekends best, for [their name], on that number. Have I got that right?
Caller: Perfect.
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 patio, the size, the address, "weekends best" 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: landscaping and lawn crews where the owner runs a crew and answers the phone.
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 business that wants prices quoted and jobs scheduled on the phone without a callback. Your agent takes the request. Your team prices it and sets the time.
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 the towns you cover, how it handles prices, and your order list if you take orders by phone.
- 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
When the season changes
Tell us before the season turns and we change what your agent says: fall cleanups, your winter hours, snow work if you do it. It keeps answering while we test the change. In the quiet months, you can switch to After hours, and back to The whole line in spring.
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 landscapers ask
No. It takes the job, the address and when suits the caller, reads it back, and says someone from your business will call back to set a time.
Yes. It takes the change down with the day they'd like instead, reads it back, and your team confirms it.
It doesn't move anything on your schedule itself. Give us your cancellation policy and it can tell callers what it is.
By default it still takes their details, so you decide. If you'd rather, we set it to turn callers outside your towns away on the spot.
Yes. Email us before the season turns and we change what your agent says, test it, then switch it over, and it keeps answering the whole time.
Yes: tell us and we switch you to After hours for the quiet months, and back to The whole line when spring 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.