Plumbing calls, taken down while you're under a sink.
For plumbing shops. The calls you forward reach your agent instead of voicemail. It answers in your business's name, asks the one question the job needs, takes the address and the number, reads it all back, and emails you the write-up about a minute later.
The calls you get, and what your agent does with each
The question it asks comes off your own list of services, written in during setup. These are examples of the kind of question, not a fixed script.
"A pipe burst under the kitchen sink."
"Is the water still running, or have you shut it off?"
The leak, and whether the water is off.
"The water heater's leaking in the garage."
"Roughly how old is the tank?"
The leak, and the tank's age if they know it.
"The pipes froze overnight. Nothing comes out of the faucets."
"Can you see water leaking anywhere?"
Whether anything is leaking yet.
"The sump pump alarm keeps going off."
"Is there water on the basement floor yet?"
Whether water is coming in, and where.
"The kitchen sink won't drain."
"Is water backing up anywhere?"
The drain, and where it's backing up.
"Can you move Tuesday's visit to Friday?"
"What day suits you instead?"
The change and the day they'd like, for your team to confirm.
Then the address, including the town, when suits them, their name and the best number, all read back.
What it writes down
- What's wrong, in the caller's words.
- The answer to the one question it asked.
- The address, including the town, said back so the caller can fix it.
- When suits them, in their words. No time is promised.
- Their name, and the best number, read back digit by digit.
- Any question it couldn't answer, like "Do you work on tankless?" when you didn't tell it.
- Whether they want a call back.
A caller who gives the job, the address and their number in one breath isn't asked for them again.
What it won't do
- Send a plumber out, or say anyone is coming. It takes the request, and you decide who goes and when.
- Give an arrival time.
- Diagnose a leak, or tell a caller whether something is safe.
- Make up a price. 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 water heater's leaking. There's a puddle all around it in the garage.
Your agent: Sorry to hear that. Roughly how old is the tank?
Caller: No idea. It came with the house.
Your agent: That's fine. What's the address, including the town?
Caller: [street address], [town].
Your agent: [street address], [town]. When would suit you?
Caller: Tomorrow morning if you can.
Your agent: I'll note tomorrow morning. The team sets the time when they call you back. And your name?
- They give their name, then the best number, read back digit by digit.
Your agent: So that's a leaking water heater in the garage, age unknown, at [street address] in [town], tomorrow morning 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
Your number stays yours, 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 water heater, the garage, the address, "tomorrow morning" in the caller's words, and the number to ring 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: plumbing shops where the person who answers the phone is also the one on the job. If a call comes in while you're under a sink or in a crawl space, your agent takes it down so you can ring back with the details in front of you.
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 the phone itself to get someone out the door at night. Your agent takes the call down for your callback. It doesn't dispatch.
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 licensed and insured in your words.
- 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 plumbers ask
No. It takes the request, reads it back and says someone from your business will call back, and you decide who goes out and when once you've read the write-up.
It does not give an arrival time or say anyone is coming.
No. 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, if you want it to: we can set your line so the next caller reaches your agent when you're already on a call. We test it with you before you rely on it.
If two calls reach your agent at once, it can take them at the same time, and each gets its own write-up.
It knows the towns you gave us, and by default it still takes down a caller from outside them so you can decide. If you'd rather, we set it to turn them away on the spot.
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.