Every spam filter on the market operates on one principle: unknown number = probably spam. For consumers, that's fine. For tradespeople, it's catastrophic.
The unknown-caller paradox
Your best leads - the ones who pay emergency rates - are always unknown. The homeowner with a burst pipe at 11pm isn't in your contacts. The facility manager whose AC just died doesn't have your name saved. The retiree whose breaker won't reset is calling because her son Googled "electrician near me" at 9pm.
Every one of those calls looks identical to a spam call before anyone answers.
Keyword-based triage
The breakthrough is content-aware routing. Instead of asking "is this number trustworthy?" - an impossible question before the call - ask "what are they calling about?". That question has a definitive answer within the first 5 seconds of speech.
VettedCalls listens for emergency keywords configured per-trade:
- Plumbers: flood, leak, burst, sewage, gas, no water
- Electricians: sparking, smoke, burning smell, no power, breaker, tripping
- HVAC: no heat, no AC, gas smell, carbon monoxide, furnace, condenser
When any of those words appear in the caller's first sentence, the AI skips the vetting step entirely and rings your cell directly, overriding DND, Focus mode, and off-hours schedules.
What legacy services miss
Even paid AI receptionist services - the ones that start at $200+/mo - don't do this by default. They're optimised for "book the appointment" flow, not emergency passthrough. If you're running on one of those today, the question to ask your provider: "When a caller says 'my pipe just burst,' do you ring my cell immediately, or do you still put them through the booking script?"
If the answer is anything but "ring your cell immediately," you're losing money.
VettedCalls' emergency override is on by default, on every tier - from $19.99/mo.