Answering service for contractors, electricians and roofing companies
An answering service for contractors picks up the calls your crews miss on the job, separates the few that cannot wait (a roof leaking into a bedroom, power out with a burning smell) from the many that can (estimate requests, bids, scheduling), and either reaches the on-call lead or takes a message. Live services cost about $189 to $395 a month at 40 calls and $759 to $1,725 at 200 calls on their published plans. Phoner answers every call with your greeting for a flat $17 per user per month on Team, rings the on-call phone when the caller presses the urgent option and sends every estimate request to your inbox as text.
Contractors lose more work to a ringing phone than to a bad quote. The homeowner who wants three bids calls three companies, and the first one who calls back usually gets the walk-through. Most of those calls are not emergencies, so the phone setup that pays for itself captures every lead fast and only wakes someone for the handful that really cannot wait.
URGENT OPTION THAT RINGS THE ON-CALL LEAD ON TEAM, $17/USER/MO · ESTIMATE REQUESTS AS TEXT · SAME PRICE IN A STORM WEEK
01 · Pick your number
02 · Your phone menu
03 · Incoming call
Press a key to answer the menu yourself
Voicemail to text
transcribed · texted to you · 0:42
Call sheet
Today
Request this number today. It is usually assigned the same business day.
Recording consent laws vary by state and country. You are responsible for lawful use.
$51
Per month for three users on Phoner Team billed yearly, with an urgent option, a business hours schedule and voicemail to text, at any call volume
4x
How much a roofer's PATLive bill grows when a hail storm takes it from 40 to 200 calls a month: $189 to $759, from its own published plans
$99
Moneypenny's AI answering plan for 50 calls a month, the cheapest published per-call price we found for about 40 contractor calls
$0
What a storm week adds on Phoner. Calls are not metered, so the busiest week of the year bills like a quiet one
What a contracting company needs from its phones when the crews are on site
01
The urgent call reaches a person, not a mailbox
Your greeting offers one option for problems that cannot wait: water coming through the roof, power out to part of the house. Pressing it rings the on-call lead first, then a backup, then the owner, until someone picks up. Everyone else is routed somewhere that does not interrupt a crew on a ladder.
02
Estimate requests wait as text, ready for a fast callback
A homeowner who wants a quote on a panel upgrade, a reroof or a kitchen remodel leaves a message, and it lands in the shared inbox as a transcript with the caller's number. Your estimator calls back first thing, which is usually what wins the job when the homeowner called two other contractors too.
03
One number on every truck and yard sign
The company number rings the office and the app on each crew lead's phone. A foreman between jobs answers on the business line, customers never get a personal cell, and the number stays with the company when someone leaves.
04
A storm week does not show up on the invoice
After hail or high wind, a roofer's phone can ring five times as often for a week, and electricians see the same after an outage. Per-minute services bill every one of those calls plus the repeats asking for an arrival time. A flat per-user plan costs the same in storm season as in a quiet month.
How to set up contractor call answering in about 15 minutes
Set office hours and build the on-call group
Enter open and close times for each day. Create a ring group called on-call with this week's lead first and a backup second. When the rotation changes, change who sits first. The number on your trucks, signs and invoices never changes.
Record a greeting with one urgent option and one estimate option
Say the company name. Then: if water is coming into your home now, or you have lost power with no outage in your area, press 1. To request an estimate, press 2. If you see smoke, sparks or a downed power line, hang up and call 911. Everyone else can leave a message.
Send the estimate option to the person who quotes
Route option 2 to your estimator or sales voicemail so new leads never sit behind service calls. The transcript arrives as text with the caller's number, and a quick morning callback reaches the homeowner before the other bids do.
Test it from a personal cell after closing
Call the line at 7 pm, press 1 and confirm the on-call phone rings. Call again, press 2, leave a message, and check that the transcript lands in the inbox. Then put the number back on the trucks and the website.
Contractor answering prices in the vendors' own numbers
None of these services publishes a contractor price. You buy a monthly block of receptionist minutes or calls, and the trade pages lead to the same rate card. These figures come from each vendor's own pricing page.
About 40 calls
Is how PATLive itself describes its $189 plan of 100 minutes, which is 2.5 minutes per call. Its 500-minute plan is $759, and every plan starts with a 14-day free trial and no contract.
Source: PATLive, published pricing
$69 to $435
Moneypenny's US AI answering plans for 25 to 250 calls a month, with human escalation and no contract. Its live plans start at $165 for 50 minutes.
Source: Moneypenny US, plans and pricing
30 seconds
Is the increment Moneypenny bills live calls in. Its own worked example counts a call of 1 minute 5 seconds as 1 minute 30, and overage minutes use the same increments.
Which contractor calls need a person tonight, trade by trade
Every trade has a few calls that cannot wait and many that can. Sort yours before you buy anything, because that split, more than the price, tells you whether you need a receptionist on the phone or a menu that reaches the right person.
| Trade | Calls that cannot wait | Calls that can wait until morning | Where the urgent ones should go |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electricians | Power out to part of the house with no utility outage, a breaker that will not reset | Panel upgrades, EV charger installs, lighting quotes, new construction bids | On-call electrician. Smoke, sparks or a burning smell: the greeting says call 911 first |
| Roofers | Water coming through the ceiling during or after a storm, tarp requests | Replacement estimates, insurance inspections, gutter and repair quotes | On-call crew lead for tarping, every estimate to the inbox |
| General contractors and remodelers | Almost none, except a problem on an active job | New project inquiries, bid requests, change orders | Existing clients to the project manager, new leads to the estimator |
| Handyman services | Rarely any | Small repair and install requests | Voicemail to text, callback the next morning |
| HVAC | No heat in a freeze, no cooling in a heat wave | Tune-ups and replacement quotes | On-call tech, priced on our HVAC page |
| Plumbing | Burst pipes and sewer backups | Water heater and repipe quotes | On-call plumber, priced on our plumbing page |
Swipe sideways for the full table
Electrical and downed-line guidance follows the standard instruction US utilities give: stay away and call 911 or the utility · Which calls count as urgent is your business decision, and many contractors change it by season
What an answering service for contractors costs at 40, 80 and 200 calls
The cheapest published plan, or plan plus overage, that covers each volume. 40 calls is a normal month for a small crew, 80 a busy one, and 200 is a roofer after a hail storm. Live services bill by the minute, so we used PATLive's own planning figure of 2.5 minutes per call for every live column. The Phoner column is Team billed yearly for three users and does not move.
| Calls a month | PATLive | Moneypenny live | Moneypenny AI | Ruby | AnswerConnect | Smith.ai AI | Phoner Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 calls, about 100 minutes | $189 | $265 | $99 | $395 | $350 plus $49.99 setup | $150 | $51 |
| 80 calls, about 200 minutes | $349 | $422 | $170.70 | $720 | $350 plus $49.99 setup | $162.50 | $51 |
| 200 calls, about 500 minutes | $759 | $985 | $418 | $1,725 | $760 plus $49.99 setup | $385 | $51 |
Swipe sideways for the full table
PATLive 100, 200 and 500 minute plans, read at the source October 14, 2026 · Moneypenny US live plans of 100, 200 and 500 minutes and AI answering plans of 50 calls ($99 plus $2.39 a call) and 100 calls ($199 plus $2.19 a call), read October 15, 2026 · Ruby 100, 200 and 500 minute plans · AnswerConnect Entry 200 minutes, and Standard 400 minutes plus 100 at $1.85, from its plans and pricing guide · Smith.ai AI Pro 75 calls at $150 plus $2.50 a call, or 150 calls at $270 plus $2.30 · AI plans answer with software that can hand the call to a person · Taxes extra everywhere
When a contractor should pay for a live answering service
An urgent option and voicemail to text cover a lot of small contractors. These are the cases where they do not, and where a receptionist or an AI receptionist earns its price.
You win the job by booking the estimate on the first call
A menu cannot open your calendar and offer Tuesday at 10. If homeowners in your market book whoever gives them a time first, pay for a service that schedules estimates into a connected calendar.
Storm calls need intake for insurance claims
A roofer working insurance jobs wants the address, the carrier and the damage described on every call. A receptionist with your intake script captures that; a voicemail leaves it to the caller.
Every call must create a job in your software
Phoner does not connect to field service management software. If each call has to land as a customer and job record automatically, choose a service that integrates with the software you run.
Nobody carries the on-call phone
An urgent option only helps if someone answers it. If you have no rotation, a receptionist who takes the details and promises a 7 am callback beats a phone that rings out.
Who runs an automated line for contractor calls
Electrical contractors
One option for power problems to the on-call electrician, one for estimates to the office, one number on every van.
Contractor phone systemRoofing companies
Tarp requests ring the crew lead, and the flood of estimate calls after a storm lands as text at no extra cost.
Contractor phone systemRemodelers and general contractors
Existing clients reach their project manager, new inquiries reach the estimator, nobody on a jobsite gets interrupted.
Small business phone systemMulti-trade home services
Press 1 for electrical, 2 for heating and cooling, 3 for plumbing, each to its own on-call tech.
Contractor phone systemHow to choose between a menu and a live contractor answering service
Count last month's calls in the trade buckets above. Most contractors find that urgent calls are a small share and estimate requests are the bulk, and that what wins those estimates is a fast callback, not a receptionist reading a script. If that matches your count, an IVR phone menu with an urgent option and an estimate option, plus voicemail to text, covers the month for a flat price. Heating and cooling shops will find their version of this page under HVAC answering service, and plumbers under plumbing answering service.
If you do need people, price them for your busiest month, not your average one, because a storm season is where per-minute bills jump. The answering service cost breakdown lists every published tier with its real cost per minute, and our Moneypenny pricing analysis covers the one vendor that sells both live and per-call AI answering on the same card.
Plenty of contractors run both. Keep the number on a phone system you control, let the menu answer every call, and use business call forwarding to send only unanswered or after hours calls to a live service. The live plan stays small because daytime calls never reach it, and in a storm week the menu absorbs the estimate calls that would otherwise burn receptionist minutes.
Answering service questions contractors ask
A contractor answering service answers a contracting company's calls when the crews are on site or the office is closed. A live service uses receptionists who follow your script, take estimate requests and reach your on-call lead for urgent jobs. An automated service plays your greeting, rings the on-call phone for the urgent option and sends every other message as text.
A live answering service for contractors costs about $189 to $395 a month at 40 calls and $759 to $1,725 at 200 calls on published plans, because most bill per receptionist minute. AI answering runs about $99 to $150 at 40 calls and $385 to $418 at 200. An automated line on Phoner Team is $51 a month for three users at any volume.
Most contractors need every call answered or returned fast, because homeowners usually call several companies and hire the first one who responds. Whether that takes a person depends on whether you book estimates on the call. Many contractors send urgent calls to the on-call lead and return estimate requests first thing in the morning.
For live coverage at low volume PATLive has the lowest published prices, $189 for about 40 calls, with a 14-day trial. For AI answering, Moneypenny's per-call plans start at $69 for 25 calls. If only true emergencies need a person, an automated line that rings the on-call lead costs $51 a month.
Electricians benefit from one when they work alone or run small crews, because they cannot answer from a panel or an attic. The calls that cannot wait are few, mostly power loss inside the home, while panel upgrades and EV charger quotes can wait for a callback. Smoke, sparks or a burning smell should always go to 911 first.
The best answering service for roofers is one priced for storm weeks, because call volume can jump several times over after hail or high wind. Per-call AI plans and flat-priced phone menus hold up better than per-minute live plans. Roofers working insurance claims often keep a live service for intake because it captures the carrier and the damage on every call.
Live services such as Ruby, PATLive and AnswerConnect can book estimates into a connected calendar, and AI receptionists can too. Phoner cannot: it greets the caller, routes the call and transcribes messages. Contractors who need booking on the call often forward unanswered or after-hours calls from Phoner to a live service.
An AI answering service suits contractors with many short, similar calls, such as estimate requests after a storm, because it bills per call and answers instantly at any volume. It is weaker on unusual jobs and on calls where the caller is upset. Moneypenny and Smith.ai both sell AI plans that hand difficult calls to a person.
Yes. Phoner ports your existing local or toll-free number, so the number on your trucks, signs and listings keeps working. If you also use a live service, your phone system forwards that same number to it when you want, and you can change services without reprinting anything.
Keep reading
HV-01
HVAC answering service
HVAC call coverage priced for a slow month and a heat wave.
HVAC answering servicePL-01
Plumbing answering service
Plumbing call routing and bills at 30, 60 and 120 calls a month.
Plumbing answering serviceAC-01
Answering service cost
Every published tier with the real cost per minute worked out.
Answering service costCN-01 Contractors · Your line is open
Answer every contractor call tonight, at a flat price
A business hours schedule, one urgent option that rings the on-call lead, an estimate option that lands as text. $17 per user per month on Team, the same in storm season as in a quiet month.
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