An answering service for plumbers that separates a burst pipe from a dripping tap
You are under a sink with both hands full and the phone is ringing. Here is what a missed call costs a plumber, and how each way of answering handles “water is coming through the ceiling.”
No card needed. Keep your number. One code undoes it.
The problem
A caller with water on the floor calls until someone answers. If you don’t, the next plumber on the map gets the job, and many callers won’t leave a voicemail. Other calls aren’t urgent at all: a slow drain, a new fixture, a quote for a bathroom. Those callers want a time and a price, not a rush.
These are the calls a plumber misses.
The calls you’re missing
- “A pipe burst and there’s water everywhere. Can you come now?”
- “My water heater is leaking in the garage.” on a Sunday.
- “What’s your service-call fee, and do you charge extra at night?”
- “Can someone give me an estimate to replace a toilet?”
- “The kitchen drain is backing up. Can you fit me in this week?”
What a missed call may cost
About $2,288 a month in missed revenue
An estimate, using the missed-call calculator’s sum with example numbers: 5 missed calls a week, 80% who never call back, 33% of them who would have booked, 400 dollars for the average plumbing job, times 52 weeks, divided by 12 months.
An average job of $400 is the calculator’s home-services example. Use your own average: a drain clearing and a repipe are very different tickets. These are not your numbers and not a promise of what any service wins back. GotItDesk is $99 a month ($79 for our first 100 customers): at that average, 1 booking a month brings in revenue equal to the subscription price, before your own costs.
Your four options, side by side
| Voicemail | Answering service | GotItDesk | Front-desk hire | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Answers when you’re under a sink | Records only | Depends on the plan | Yes, 24/7 | Office hours |
| Knows your service-call fee | No | If it’s in the script | From the prices you set | Yes |
| Books the visit or estimate | No | Some do | Yes: its own calendar, Google Calendar or Outlook | Yes |
| Leaks and burst pipes | Waits in a mailbox | Passes it on, if scripted | Put through to the numbers you chose, or a message | Yes, in hours |
| Typical cost | Free | Per call or per minute: ask each provider | $99 a month, 1,000 minutes | Wages |
Answering-service prices vary a lot by provider and plan; check each one.
When another option is the better pick
- Voicemail is fine if you work out of a shop with someone on the phone and the calls are few.
- An answering service is the better pick if you want a person to take every emergency call and relay it to you.
- A dispatcher or office hire is the better pick if you run several trucks and need someone to route them live. GotItDesk books visits; it doesn’t dispatch.
How GotItDesk handles the call
- Greets the callersays it’s the plumber’s virtual assistant
- What is happening?a leak, a blocked drain, a fixture to fit or an estimate
- Listens for trouble“burst pipe”, “flooding”, “sewage” go to your on-call numbers
- Gets the addressasks where the job is before booking
- Quotes your feethe service-call fee and any price on your list
- Books the visita column per plumber or truck, spells the name back and emails you the booking
Listen to the sample call: a recorded, scripted ceramic-coating call in the live voice. Your own business is one click away, below.
What’s particular to this trade
- Emergencies first. “Burst pipe”, “flooding”, “water coming through the ceiling” and “sewage backing up” are put through to the numbers you chose, or taken as a message if nobody picks up. It doesn’t send a plumber. For a gas smell, callers should dial 911.
- Your service-call fee, not a guess. It quotes the fee on your price list, and any after-hours rate you wrote down. A job it has no price for becomes a message for your team, not a made-up number.
- Estimates are a visit. Add an estimate as a service with its own length. It books the time at the address, and you give the price on site. It doesn’t quote a job from a description.
- The address on every job. It asks where the job is before it books, so the visit has it and the booking email shows it.
- No repair advice. It doesn’t tell callers how to fix or shut off anything. If you want a line such as where the main shut-off usually is, write it in setup and it repeats your words.
Set up in about ten minutes, and the price
Paste your website and it suggests your hours, services and prices. You choose a voice, call your new GotItDesk number to hear it answer, and only then dial one code to forward the calls you miss. It says it’s a virtual assistant in its first sentence.
The free trial is your first 10 bookings, up to 14 days or 59 minutes, no card. Then $99 a month with 1,000 minutes ($79 for our first 100 customers). No overage bills. See pricing.
What it doesn’t do yet
Connections to field-service software (ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber and the like), texts to customers, payments and deposits are not live. Nothing is dispatched. Bookings go to GotItDesk’s own calendar or your Google Calendar or Outlook, and every booking and message is emailed to you. We’d rather you know now.