Where a contractor's calls get missed
Not at the desk. The calls that go to voicemail are the ones that ring while the work is being done:
- On a roof or in an attic, where the phone stays in the truck.
- Under a sink or behind a unit, with both hands busy.
- Driving between jobs, where answering is the wrong thing to do.
- On the other line, when the office is already talking to a customer.
- After hours, when nobody is meant to be answering at all.
A caller who reaches voicemail can try the next number on the list, and the one who does is the one you never hear about.
Count yours first
Whether an answering service pays depends on your own numbers, not an industry average. The missed-call calculator takes last month's missed calls from your phone bill, the share you think booked elsewhere and your average ticket, shows every step, and says plainly when the answer is "not worth it yet". What a missed call costs an HVAC shop, and what it does not, is in the missed-call cost guide.
What happens to the call instead
Pickwick answers at once, at any hour, and says in its first sentence that it is automated and that the call is recorded. Then it does what the office would:
- Takes the details and reads them back: the callback number, and the address with the house number said digit by digit, so a misheard digit is caught on the call, not at the door.
- Sorts it: a named hazard (gas, carbon monoxide, smoke, sparks) hears a fixed 911 line first; an emergency in your trade is flagged to the people you list at once; the rest is urgent or routine.
- Pencils the job in from your hours and bookings, and by default holds it for your yes, one tap in the dashboard app.
- Hands it to a person you name when a caller asks for one, and takes a message for a call back when nobody picks up.
Your phone still rings first
You do not have to give up answering. Forward your number only when you cannot pick up: on no answer after a few rings, when the line is busy, or after hours. Your phone rings as it always has; the call reaches Pickwick only when it would have gone to voicemail. Each setting is one code from your phone, and the same code switches it back. The codes for each carrier are in the forwarding guide, and the order to set them in is in forwarding your line.
Not live yet: texting the caller back
Sending a text to a caller you missed, and approvals by text, wait on carrier registration for business texting (A2P 10DLC). Until it completes, Pickwick answers the call instead, which is the better outcome anyway, and every request reaches you in the dashboard app. We will say so here when texting is live.
Set up for these trades
HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Garage doors, Roofing, Appliance repair. Each trade page shows how its calls are sorted. Other businesses go live through a guided setup: book a demo. The broader page for this search is the answering service for contractors.
What it costs
By the minute, with no setup fee: $149 a month for 600 minutes (about 200 three-minute calls), then $0.49 a minute; $349 for 1,000 minutes; $749 for 2,500. No setup fee, month to month, Spanish included, and the first 14 days on your own number are free with no card. The numbers are on the pricing page, and the billing models of the market are compared in what an answering service costs.
What it will not do
- No pretending. It says it is automated in its first sentence and never claims to be a person.
- No invented prices or times. Your fee in your words, or a callback; an arrival window only from your hours and bookings.
- No repair advice beyond checking a thermostat or resetting a tripped breaker.
- No selling past a hazard. A caller who names gas, carbon monoxide, smoke or sparking hears a fixed 911 line before anything else.