What it costs, in full, before you talk to us.
Every number is here — installation as well as monthly. If you can see the whole cost and still want the call, that is a better conversation for both of us.
After-hours pilot — $1,000, 30 days
For 30 days, the calls you would have lost after six get answered, qualified and put on tomorrow's schedule. Nothing to install and nothing to visit — a fifteen-minute video call, and it answers the same evening you put the forward on. We send you the number to forward to once your line is set up and you’ve heard it.
- Nights and weekends answered, qualified and booked into the schedule
- A transfer to a person when a number is set
- The Monday scorecard every week of the pilot
- Every call logged, transcribed and summarised in your portal
Credited in full against a Front Desk installation if you start one within 90 days of the pilot ending.
Cancel any time — the pilot fee is not refunded: the fee buys 30 days of a configured line whether you use it or not. The clock starts when you put the forward on, and the pilot lapses if that has not happened within 7 days.
Ring it before you pay for any of this. Our demo shop, Iowa Peak Heating & Cooling, is answered by the same assistant — call (563) 227-0923 and give it your worst 9pm call. Or ring our own line, (563) 723-4086.
Two locations? Both lines on the thirty-day pilot for $1,500 instead of $2,000 — the first two shops only, and it ends on 31 October 2026. The discount covers the thirty days; after that each location is priced the same as a single shop. Running two lines for one owner is the part I have not done before — each location gets its own line, set up the same way a single shop is, with its own scorecard.
After Hours — $1,000 per line, per 30 days
The pilot, kept. Nights and weekends answered, qualified and booked, month to month, nothing to install and cancel any time.
- Nights and weekends answered, qualified and booked into the schedule
- A transfer to a person when a number is set
- The Monday scorecard every week of the pilot
- Every call logged, transcribed and summarised in your portal
It is not credited against an installation — the $1,000 pilot is the one that comes off a Front Desk install. Priced per location — the same work and the same maintenance at each. The founding rate is one slot per shop, so it applies to your first location.
Operations Diagnostic — $2,500, two weeks
I'd rather find out you don't need me now than in six months. What your phone is actually doing, from your own call records, remotely — and if it is fine, the report says so.
- Call-flow analysis on your real phone records
- Built from your call records and one video call; nothing needs a visit
- Missed-call and after-hours leakage, quantified
- Booking-funnel review — what happens to the calls you do answer
- A written report with a prioritised roadmap
Credited in full against installation if you go ahead. If you don’t, you keep the report.
3 of 3 remaining, or until 31 October — whichever comes first. The first 3 installations are at 50% of the list price — $3,000 for Front Desk instead of $6,000 — in exchange for a documented case study and a reference call you’re willing to take. When the third one signs, this ends and the price is the price. We’re not going to keep a countdown running forever and call it a discount.
If you have done the pilot and the diagnostic, the larger credit applies — they don’t stack. Whichever it is comes off the price you actually pay, this founding rate included.
After the diagnostic
These lists are short because every line was checked against what the code does — three were rewritten in September when they were not. What it does not do is its own page.
Front Desk
Available now
Two weeks from signature to answering your calls. A form, a forward, test calls with you on the line, and a fifteen-minute handover.
The phone stops being the thing you worry about.
- Captures the number and the reason for every caller, including the ones who hang up before booking
- Answers every call 24/7 — nights, weekends, and holidays
- Books the job onto your schedule while the caller is still on the phone
- A text or an email to you the moment a job is booked — your choice
- A confirmation text to the customer once your business’s carrier registration clears
- Transcribes, summarises and tags every call
- A scorecard by email every Monday — and a call to go through it whenever you want one, from the link in it
Front Office
Not open yet — outbound messaging (reminders, review requests, reactivation) needs compliance work finished before we’ll run it on your customers.
The follow-up stops depending on someone remembering.
- Appointment reminders the evening before and the morning of
- Review requests after every completed job
- Reactivation campaigns to customers who’ve gone quiet
- A daily brief so you know what happened without asking
Full Operations
Not open yet — needs the same compliance work, plus the payment path rebuilt before we handle your customers’ card details.
The office runs whether you are in it or not.
- Invoicing by text with a pay-by-card link when the job is done
- Seasonal campaigns when the weather turns
- Job-completion follow-up
- A quarterly operations review with us
Not open yet — needs the same compliance work, plus the payment path rebuilt before we handle your customers’ card details.
What installation actually covers
A one-time project, not a signup fee — two weeks to go-live, and most of the work.
- Voice agent trained on your services, pricing, service area and escalation rules
- Number porting or forwarding, set up with your carrier
- Your schedule in the client portal — hours, technicians, slot capacity — so it books against real availability
- A scripted test set run before a single customer hears it
- Fifteen minutes with whoever answers your phone now
- 30 days of hypercare after go-live — we watch every call and fix what needs fixing
At $6,000 for Front Desk, that is roughly 2.4× the monthly — normal for done-for-you implementation.
What you’d otherwise be paying
Not against software you run yourself — against whoever is answering, or not answering, your phone today.
Work out what the unanswered calls are costing you — your numbers, and we make no claim about them.
Questions owners ask
I’ve seen AI answering apps for $49 a month. Why is this more?
Those are software; this is a service. With a $49 app you configure it, write the prompts, register with the carriers, and fix it yourself when it books wrong at 9pm. Here somebody else does all of that and answers the phone when it isn’t working.
Why does installation cost more than the monthly?
Because installation is where the work is — two weeks of it, listed above. The monthly is what it costs to run and keep tuning after that. Done-for-you implementation usually runs 2–3× the monthly; we’d rather show you the number than bury it in a custom quote.
What’s the diagnostic actually for?
To find out what your phone is really doing before either of us commits. If it turns out you don’t have a phone problem, we say so — and you’ll have paid $2,500 to find that out instead of paying us for a year to fix the wrong thing.
How long until it’s live?
Two weeks from kickoff, then 30 days of hypercare — day 1 to day 45. Nothing in that depends on carrier registration: from the first day the assistant answers and books, and tells you about every booking the moment it is made, by email or by text if you prefer. Texting your customers is the one piece that waits, because it goes out as your business and needs your business’s own registration with the carriers to clear.
Will it sound like a robot?
Judge it yourself before you pay anything: on our call you throw it your real scenarios — the 9pm no-heat emergency, the price shopper, the caller who won’t get to the point. It says it’s an AI in its opening sentence, because several states require that and because pretending otherwise is a bad way to start with your customer.
What if I already have an answering service?
Bring your last invoice to the call. Compare three things: the monthly, whether it covers nights and weekends, and whether it can book a job without ringing you first. If you’re better off where you are, we’ll say so.
Is the texting legal? I’ve heard about fines.
Yes, and we take it seriously because the fines land on you. Today we text none of your customers: a text to a homeowner goes out as your business, and your business has to be registered with the carriers first. That registration is yours to file — we hand you everything the form asks for. Once it clears, nothing promotional goes out before 8am or after 9pm in their local time, and a STOP reply removes them immediately and permanently.
Can I cancel?
Month-to-month after installation, 30 days’ notice either side. Your number is yours — we port it back within 10 business days at no charge — and so is your data: ask, and we export it for you. Both are in the terms, not just on this page.
What happens in a slow season?
Pause at 50% of the monthly for up to three months in any twelve: the system keeps running, we just aren’t actively managing it. Home services is seasonal and we’d rather that than lose you over a quiet quarter.
Start with the after-hours pilot.
30 days, $1,000, on your real line — and it comes off the installation in full if you go ahead. Want the written report first? The diagnostic is $2,500 and credited the same way.