An AI receptionist for plumbers, electricians and builders
What trade callers need from the first answer, emergency and after-hours rules, the safety lines an AI must never cross, and what a good call sounds like.
A trade business gets different calls from a salon or a clinic. The caller usually has a problem right now, a place it is happening and a time they need it fixed. Sometimes it is a safety issue. An AI receptionist for a trade has to be set up around that.
What a trade caller needs from the first answer
- To know they have reached the right business. The greeting should say your business name and that it is answering for you.
- To be asked about the problem before their life story. "What is happening?" beats a list of form questions.
- To know what happens next. A booked time, a call back window, or honest advice to call emergency services.
The details worth capturing on every job
- The suburb and street, so you can plan the route.
- What kind of property it is, and whether there is access: gate codes, dogs, where to park.
- What is wrong, in the caller's words, and how long it has been happening.
- How urgent it is. Water through a ceiling is not the same as a dripping tap.
- The best number to reach them and a name.
- Photos, if they can send them by text. They help you quote before you arrive.
Set your urgency rules once
Decide in plain words what counts as urgent for your business, for example: burst pipes, no hot water with young children, power out, sparking or burning smells. Tell the receptionist what to do with each: book the next slot, flag it to you straight away, or give safety advice first.
Safety lines it must never cross
- It must never tell someone how to fix a gas or electrical fault themselves.
- If there is a smell of gas, sparking, fire or anyone in danger, it should tell the caller to leave the area and call 111, and flag the call to you.
- It should never promise a price it has not been given, or a time you have not made available.
After hours
Most trades lose their best paid work in the evening and at the weekend, when an urgent call goes to voicemail and the caller rings the next name. Decide whether after-hours calls should be booked for the morning, passed to an on-call number, or offered an after-hours rate you set.
What a good call sounds like
A caller rings about water under the kitchen sink. The receptionist greets them in your business name, asks what is happening, asks whether the water is turned off and where the toby is, takes the suburb and access notes, offers the next available slot, reads the booking back, and texts both of you the details. The whole call takes under two minutes, and you read the summary between jobs.
Getting it live
- Write your services, service area, hours and urgency rules in plain words.
- Ring it yourself with your three most awkward calls, and change anything it says differently from you.
- Forward the calls you miss. Your phone still rings first.
- Read the first week of calls and correct it. After that, most owners only check the calls it flags.
Where Aroha fits
Aroha's trade receptionist is set up around exactly this: urgency first, suburb and access notes, safety advice without diagnosis, and a booking read back to the caller. You can ring the trades receptionist from the website before you sign up.