Answering Service for Plumbers
New callers are asked who they are before your phone rings. Every call to your cell comes to VettedCalls first. We answer in your business name, put real callers through to you, and ring you right away when a caller says a priority word. On Receptionist, a call you don't pick up goes to an AI receptionist with instructions written for plumbers, unless it's a priority call or a saved contact, which go to voicemail.
Get started with VettedCallsOne night on a plumber's line
Say it's January and you went to bed an hour ago. A homeowner goes down to the basement, finds water spraying from a pipe, and calls the number on your truck. Here's what happens to that call, and to the others that come in before morning.
11:50 pm: the call reaches us first
Your cell forwards every call to us, so it doesn't ring yet. We answer in your business name: "Thanks for calling [your business]. Who's calling, and how can we help today?" The homeowner has 4 seconds to start talking. They give their name and say they've got a burst pipe in the basement.
A moment later: the call is flagged
An AI model reads what they said and returns their name, a short topic, and whether it's a priority call. "Burst pipe" is one of the plumbing priority words your account starts with, so the call is flagged as one. A priority call skips the press 1 or 2 question other callers get, and your phone rings right away, for up to 40 seconds.
You pick up
The call rings in the Cloud Softphone app with the homeowner's number on the screen. When you answer, you hear "Priority call," their name and the topic, then a beep, and then you're talking to them. You know what the job is before they hear your voice.
Or you sleep through it
A missed priority call goes to voicemail on every plan, even on Receptionist, where most other missed calls go to the AI receptionist. The caller can leave up to two minutes. You get a text alert, plus an email with the transcript and a link to play the message. Our voicemail to text page shows what that email looks like.
11:58 pm: they call again
Anyone who left a voicemail in the last 4 hours skips screening, so the second call doesn't get the greeting. There's no fresh name or reason to read out this time, so when you answer you hear only the beep.
12:40 am: a slow drain
A caller's bathroom sink has been draining slowly for a week. None of your priority words come up, so they hear the question every other caller gets: press 1 to connect and get texts about their inquiry, or press 2 to connect without them. After that, it depends on your plan. On Receptionist, a caller who passes screening outside your business hours goes straight to the AI receptionist. It gets their name and what's going on, confirms their callback number by its last four digits, and asks what days work. On Pro there's no AI receptionist, so the call rings you, and after 25 seconds it goes to voicemail.
2:15 am: a robocall
If the number is already on the spam registry we share across every customer, it hears "This number does not accept unsolicited calls. Goodbye." and never reaches the greeting. If it isn't on the registry yet, it gets the greeting, plays its recording, never presses 1 or 2, and the call ends there. Your phone doesn't ring for either one. Each still counts toward your minutes, usually as one minute.
7:00 am: the morning text
On Receptionist, a text comes in at 7am your time with yesterday's tally: calls, spam blocked, calls connected, calls the AI answered, voicemails and priority calls. The drain caller's conversation with the AI is in your dashboard, with a summary and a transcript, and you call them back from your own cell. On Pro the summary comes once a week, on Mondays.
Two things to set up in your first week
Phrases your callers actually use
The plumbing defaults further down this page catch "burst pipe", "sewage backup" and "overflowing toilet". Someone standing in water won't always put it that way. You can add up to 20 keywords of your own, and the defaults stay on underneath them. A few worth adding:
- pipe burst
- water everywhere
- water main break
- water heater leaking
- sewer backup
The people who send you work
Property managers, the builders you rough-in for, a landlord with a few rentals: make them saved contacts, which skip the greeting and ring you any time of day. Your phone's contact list doesn't carry over by itself, so type numbers into the dashboard, import a list, or save someone from your call log after they ring.
Both of those work the same on every plan. The plan only changes where a call goes after it passes screening: to you, to the AI receptionist, or to voicemail. Compare the plans, see how our after-hours answering service handles the calls you'd rather return in the morning, or look at the other trades on our home services page.
Priority Passthrough
Priority Passthrough lets customers who say one of your selected priority words ring straight through to you, regardless of the time of day. Every account starts with six priority words: urgent, emergency, help, asap, right now, today.
An account set up for plumbers also has these trade priority words, on by default:
- leak
- flooding
- gas smell
- burst pipe
- sewage backup
- overflowing toilet
- no hot water
- no water
- water shut off
You can add up to 20 of your own in the dashboard, and the trade defaults stay on. When a caller says one, the AI flags it as a priority call. It skips the text question and rings you right away, for up to 40 seconds, in or out of business hours, on every plan.
Miss a priority call and it goes to voicemail, on Receptionist as well as Pro. You get a text alert. The caller isn't texted, because a priority call skips the press 1 question.
Common calls for plumbers
Each one tagged by how soon it needs you.
- Burst pipe or active leak emergency
- No water in the house emergency
- Sewer backup or sewage smell emergency
- Toilet overflowing emergency
- No hot water soon
- Clogged drain or backed-up sink soon
- Water heater replacement quote routine
- Fixture install routine
- Slow drains or running toilet routine
- Remodel rough-in / new construction routine
The work it knows about
On Receptionist, the AI receptionist answers with instructions written for plumbers. They cover this work:
Interior
- Leak repair
- Fixture install
- Water heater service and replacement
- Drain cleaning
- Sewer line repair and replacement
- Sump pump install and repair
- Repipe
- Slab leak detection
- Bathroom and kitchen rough-in
Outdoor
- Water main repair
- Hose bib and outdoor faucet repair
- Backflow preventer install and testing
- Sewer line excavation
What it asks callers
The AI receptionist gets the caller's name and reason, confirms the callback number by its last four digits, and asks what days work. Its instructions for plumbers list more to gather:
- Service address
- What's happening
- When did it start
- Is water actively damaging anything right now
- Has the water been shut off at the main
Sample replies
A few of the example replies in the AI receptionist's instructions for plumbers.
What the AI receptionist won't do
- It doesn't book appointments. It asks what days work, and you confirm the time when you call back.
- It doesn't ask callers for their email.
- If a caller asks whether it's an AI, it neither confirms nor denies.
- It confirms the callback number by its last four digits.
The AI receptionist comes with the Receptionist plan. Pro has no AI receptionist, so a call you miss on Pro goes to voicemail. Receptionist is coming soon, and Pro is available now.
Questions about VettedCalls for Plumbers
If I'm on Pro, will a burst pipe call still wake me at 3 am?
Yes. Priority calls ring you right away on every plan, in or out of business hours, for up to 40 seconds, and "burst pipe" is one of the plumbing defaults. Where Pro differs is the calls that aren't priority calls: it has no AI receptionist, so a missed one goes to voicemail.
Can the AI receptionist put a water heater install on my schedule?
No. It gets the caller's details, asks what days work for them, and tells them someone from your team will reach out to lock in a time. You set the install when you call them back from your own cell.
A customer from last week's repair calls about the same leak. Do they hear the greeting again?
Not if they passed screening in the last 60 days. They skip it, and every call from them restarts the 60 days. In business hours the call rings you. On Receptionist, a caller on that 60-day list who calls outside your business hours goes to the AI receptionist.
My cell number is painted on the truck. Do I have to change it?
You don't. You keep your cell number. Each account gets its own new VettedCalls number, and your cell forwards every call to it once you dial your carrier's forwarding code. Your customers keep dialing the number they already have.
What does a caller hear when my voicemail picks up?
A greeting in your business name: "[your business] can't take your call right now. Leave a quick message, your name and what you need, and someone will call you back as soon as possible." The message can run up to two minutes.
Related trades
The AI receptionist has instructions written for 58 trades and professions, plus a general set for everyone else. Here are a few of them.