After-hours lead response
Missed calls get a text back, and web or Google Business Profile messages get a reply that asks your intake questions and offers open slots. Urgent requests go straight to whoever is on call.
- Home
- Industries
- Home services
Industry · Trades & home services
Automation for home service businesses, so the office keeps up.
You're on a roof, under a sink or in an attic when the phone rings. We build AI for contractors that answers after-hours leads, drafts quotes, fills the schedule, sends reminders and chases invoices inside the software you already use, so fewer jobs slip away while your hands are full.
Where the time goes
The work after the work.
HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, landscaping, pest control, cleaning and general contractors all describe the same thing: the job itself is the easy part. The hours disappear into the phone, the paperwork and the follow-up that happens at the kitchen table at night.
- Missed calls and after-hours leads
- A homeowner with a broken AC calls three companies. The first one to reply usually gets the visit, and at 8pm that is rarely the crew that was still on a job.
- Quoting
- Estimates get written from memory, photos and scribbled notes after the last job of the day. Some go out late. Some never go out at all.
- Scheduling and dispatch
- Booking a visit means checking calendars, drive times and who has the right skills, then calling the customer back to confirm.
- Reminders and no-shows
- A tech drives across town and nobody is home. A quick reminder the day before and an on-my-way text prevent most of that.
- Job notes and photos
- What the tech saw, what was used and what was recommended lives in a phone camera roll until someone types it up.
- Invoicing and collections
- Invoices wait for the office to catch up, and unpaid ones wait for someone to feel comfortable asking again.
- Review requests
- Happy customers would leave a review if someone asked at the right moment. Usually nobody does.
- Seasonal reactivation
- Last spring's tune-up customers are sitting in your software, ready for a reminder that never gets sent before the busy season.
What we build
What we automate for home service businesses.
Each of these runs inside your existing tools and follows the rules you set. Start with one, add more when it's earning its keep.
Quote drafting
The agent turns the customer's description, photos and the tech's notes into a draft estimate from your price book. Someone reviews it, adjusts it and sends it, the same day.
Scheduling and dispatch help
New jobs land in the right slot based on service area, job type and who is qualified. Your dispatcher approves the plan instead of building it from scratch.
Reminders and on-my-way texts
Confirmations, day-before reminders and arrival texts go out automatically, and anyone who needs to reschedule is offered new times instead of just not answering the door.
Job notes to invoice
A tech's voice memo and photos become clean job notes, the invoice is drafted in QuickBooks or your field software, and polite payment reminders follow on a schedule you choose.
Reviews and seasonal reactivation
Paid, happy customers get a review request at the right moment. Before each season, past customers get a reminder to book maintenance while there are still open days.
Watch it work
The 9pm lead, answered.
This is the kind of activity log an after-hours lead agent produces. It reads the request, records it in your field service software, offers times and flags anything that sounds dangerous to a person right away.
It does not diagnose problems or promise what the repair will cost. It collects what your office would collect, and it hands off when a human should take over.
Example workflow
One water heater call, start to paid.
An illustrative example of how the pieces fit together for a plumbing company. Your version is built from your own process, rules and tools during the audit.
- 01
The request comes in after hours
A homeowner fills out your website form at 9:05pm: no hot water, tank is about twelve years old. Nobody in the office sees it until morning, but the agent does.
- 02
The agent asks what your office would ask
A text goes back within a minute confirming the address, asking whether there is any leaking water and requesting a photo of the tank label. The answers are attached to the request.
- 03
Client and job are created
The customer and request are recorded in your field service software, and the earliest slot that fits your rules for replacements is offered and held.
- 04
The office reviews in the morning
Your office manager sees a short queue of overnight leads, each with notes and photos. One click confirms the visit. The draft estimate for a standard replacement is ready to adjust.
- 05
Reminder and arrival text
The customer gets a reminder the evening before and an on-my-way text when the tech leaves the previous job.
- 06
Invoice, payment and review
The tech's notes and photos become the invoice. Payment reminders follow if needed. Once it's paid, a review request goes out, and the customer is tagged for a flush reminder next year.
Your tools
Built into the software you already run.
We connect tools like these rather than asking you to switch. These are tools we commonly see in the trades; exact integration options for your accounts are confirmed during the audit. If you still run on a calendar and a notebook, that works too, and we'll suggest the lightest setup that fits.
- Jobber
- Housecall Pro
- ServiceTitan
- QuickBooks
- Google Business Profile
- Google Calendar
- Gmail & Google Workspace
- Outlook & Microsoft 365
- Google Sheets
- Excel
- Stripe
- Square
- Zapier & Make
Your customer list
Your customers stay yours.
Your customer list is one of the most valuable things your business owns. Everything we build runs in accounts you control, customer data stays in your systems, and you get plain-English documentation of what each automation does. If we part ways, it all keeps running without us. Read more about how we work
Good fit
Signs you're ready.
- You check voicemail at night and wonder how many callers already booked someone else
- Estimates go out days after the visit, if they go out at all
- Someone spends Friday afternoons chasing unpaid invoices
- You know you should be asking for reviews and running maintenance reminders, but nobody has time
FAQ
AI for contractors: common questions.
Do I have to switch from Jobber, Housecall Pro or ServiceTitan?
No. We build around the field service software you already run. Agents create clients, requests and jobs in your system so your office keeps working in the screens it knows. Exactly how we connect to your account is confirmed during the audit.
What happens when an emergency call comes in after hours?
You decide what counts as an emergency, such as no heat in winter, active water leaks or anything mentioning gas or sparks. Those requests skip the normal booking flow and go straight to whoever is on call, with the customer's details and description attached.
Will the agent quote prices to my customers?
Only if you want it to. Most owners have the agent collect the details and photos, then draft a quote from their price book for someone to review and send. If you publish trip fees or standard service prices, the agent can share those.
Can an AI agent answer the phone for my business?
We usually start with text-back on missed calls and fast replies to web and Google Business Profile messages, because customers respond well to them and they are simple to review. Voice options exist, and we will talk through whether one makes sense for your calls during the audit.
We are a small crew. Is automation worth it for us?
Often it matters most for small crews, because the owner is usually the one answering the phone between jobs. We start with the one or two workflows that cost you the most time or lost work, and we agree the scope and timeline in writing before anything is built.
Related
The services behind it
AI agents & assistants
The lead-response and intake agents that reply while you're on a job.
ExploreCRM & follow-up
Estimate follow-ups, review requests and seasonal reminders that go out on time.
ExploreWorkflow automation
Job to invoice to payment, without re-typing anything between apps.
ExploreLocal to Wilmington, NC
We meet contractors across the Cape Fear region in person, at the shop or the office.
ExploreFree workflow audit
Stop losing jobs to voicemail.
We'll look at how leads, quotes, scheduling and invoices move through your business today and show you which steps an agent could take over first. No cost, no obligation.
or email tom@columbusinnovate.com