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The plumber's phone, answered from under the sink.
Emergency call-outs, backed-up drains, are-you-licensed questions. She takes them from your own website, day or night, and books the ones worth a visit.
No card · No setup · Keep your number · No website? Start here
Can an AI receptionist answer a plumbing call?
Yes. She picks up your line 24/7, using what your own plumbing site taught her — the work you do, when you do it, and how far you drive. Drain and repair calls get booked into your Google Calendar. Anything her notes don't cover becomes a message with a name and a number.
The phone is where a two-person shop leaks money. ServiceTitan's 2022 data, drawn from more than 3,000 US and Canadian trade businesses, found the typical shop booking 42% of its inbound calls — and shops of fewer than five technicians booking 24%. Those are the rings that arrive while you're holding a wrench.
Plumbing calls open in a predictable order: can you come out tonight, are you licensed and insured, do you drive to my end of town, and what is this going to cost. The first three are already somewhere on your website. The fourth has a page of its own.
What do plumbing callers ask before they book?
Five questions open most plumbing calls. Where each answer comes from, and what happens when your site never said.
| What the caller asks | Where her answer comes from | If your site never says it |
|---|---|---|
| "Do you come out tonight?" | Your hours, plus the emergency call-out fact she keeps for a plumbing shop | A message, and a call-back to-do |
| "Are you licensed and insured?" | The line your site states, repeated as you wrote it | She won't guess: name and number, taken down |
| "Do you cover my end of town?" | The service area she read off your site | A message, with the town written down |
| "Do you snake it, or jet it?" | Your service list — up to 16, each with a line of detail | A message. She never widens what you offer |
| "Can somebody come today?" | Two or three real openings from your Google Calendar | If today is full, she offers the next times you have |
She says only what she was given. A blank fact is never spoken.
Decide with your ears — not a sales deck.
Paste your website and talk to your own receptionist, free, in your browser.
What does a backed-up drain call sound like?
Sat · 7:12 AM — forwarded call · you're two hours into a repipe
My basement drain backs up every time the washer runs. Can anyone get out here today?
I can get you on today's schedule. Is there standing water down there right now?
About an inch around the floor drain.
Noted. There's 11:30 AM open, or 2:00 PM. Which one do you want?
Eleven thirty. Owen Fitzgerald, and this number is the best one.
You're booked, Owen — drain clearing today at 11:30 AM, callback 6-1-6, 5-5-5, 0-2-0-7.
7:14 AM — on your Google Calendar: Drain clearing — Owen Fitzgerald (616-555-0207) · recap emailed
Conversation is illustrative.
What should her notes say that your website doesn't?
She builds three to six quick facts for a plumbing shop and fills in what your site states. A blank one is safer than a wrong one, and takes a minute to fix. These are the six a plumbing site usually leaves out.
- The service call fee, and whether it comes off the bill when the work goes ahead
- What after hours means on your line: which hours, and whether the rate changes
- Your license and insurance line, in the words you would say out loud
- The towns you drive to, and the ones you turn down
- Which drain work you actually do — snaking, jetting, camera — and which you don't
- Anything she must never offer: a brand you won't install, a service you dropped last year
Which questions should she ask before a plumbing visit?
Attach a short set of questions to a service and she asks them in the middle of the call, one at a time, before the booking is finished. Up to eight services can carry their own set, five questions each.
A water-heater visit wants gas or electric, tank or tankless, and roughly how old it is. A drain call wants which fixture, whether there's standing water, and when it started. A repipe wants the age of the house and what the old pipe is made of.
Those answers travel with the job — into the recap email, the call record, and your Appointments page — so the van is loaded before you pull out. The caller's side of it and the full mechanics each have their own page.
What she never does on a plumbing call
She never puts a caller through to your cell. Heyline has no transfer of any kind, so the 2 AM call becomes a message on your to-do list the moment she saves it — with the number to call back.
She never rings the customer for you and never texts anybody. No on-my-way message, no reminder the night before. The callback is yours to make.
She never takes a card to hold a slot. If a caller starts reading one out, she stops them there.
She never offers a time inside the next hour, and 14 days is as far ahead as she goes. A caller asking about next month hears the last date she can book.
Frequently asked questions
Can she tell callers my emergency call-out rate?
Only if you gave it to her. Emergency call-outs and your service call fee are two of the quick facts she keeps for a plumbing shop, and she reads them back exactly as you wrote them. Leave one blank and she never mentions it — she offers your free estimate instead, and takes down a message rather than guessing at a figure.
Can she book same-day drain cleaning?
Yes, when the day has room. She reads your Google Calendar and offers real openings — inside your bookable hours, at least an hour out — then books whichever one the caller takes. If today is full, she offers the next real openings instead, up to 14 days out, and a caller who only wants today can leave a message that lands on your to-do list.
Can she tell whether a call is an emergency?
No. She doesn't judge how bad a leak is, and she won't guess. What she does is ask the questions you set for that service, write the answers down word for word, and put the message on your to-do list the moment she saves it. You're still the one who decides what jumps the queue.
Will she tell callers I'm licensed and insured?
If your website says it, yes, in the same words you used. She repeats what your site and your notes state and never upgrades the claim. If it isn't written anywhere she can read, she won't invent it: she tells the caller she doesn't want to guess and takes their name and number for you.
Hear her take a plumbing call.
Paste your website, ask her what your callers ask, and judge the answers yourself.
No card · No setup · Keep your number · No website? Start here
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