Booking every estimate that asks for one is how you lose a week
The measure is the cost in roofing. Half a day, a truck, a ladder and somebody who could have been on a job. An AI receptionist that treats a survey request like a haircut appointment has not helped you; it has filled your Thursday with two enquiries that were never going to buy and one insurance job that is not yours to price.
From $99 a month · Robocalls are never billed
Incoming callGail Mercer“There's a leak in the back bedroom after last night's storm.”
Storm damage flagged · Insurance question asked · Survey booked
- Owner or tenant
- Asked before a survey is offered, because a tenant cannot commission a roof
- Insurance or private
- Established on the call. The two are entirely different jobs
- $0
- billed for robocalls and sales calls, on every plan
The call that separates a roofing agent from a voice
Every AI receptionist on this results page books appointments and speaks well. This is the roofing call where that stops being enough.
The caller says
“The wind took some tiles off last night, can someone come and look?”
What a generic AI receptionist does
A generic AI receptionist books the survey. It does not ask whether the caller owns the property, whether they are claiming on insurance, whether an adjuster has been out, or how many storeys it is. Your estimator drives out on Thursday to a tenant who cannot authorise anything, on a claim that has not been opened, on a three storey property that needs scaffolding nobody quoted.
What this one does
Four questions before a slot exists: is this your property, is it going through insurance, has an adjuster been, and how many storeys. Any of those can turn a survey into a phone call. That is the entire economic argument for having software answer a roofing line.
AI receptionist for roofers: what is actually configurable
Each of these is something the product does on a real call. Where it refuses to act, the refusal is the design rather than a limitation.
It qualifies hard enough to justify the truck
Ownership, storeys, roof type, age, whether there is active water ingress, and whether they have had anybody else out. Six answers that decide whether the estimate is worth half a day, asked before a date is offered rather than discovered in the driveway.
It handles storm calls without treating them all as emergencies
Active water coming into a room is a tarp job today. Missing tiles with a dry ceiling is a survey next week. Both arrive in the same hour after a storm, in the same worried voice, and a general purpose agent cannot tell them apart because nobody has told it what to ask.
It knows the insurance path is a different job
Whether a claim is open, whether an adjuster has attended, what the deductible position is. Insurance work has a different paper trail and a different sequence, and starting it in the wrong order costs everyone a fortnight. It asks, and it routes those calls the way you configured.
It prices nothing it has not seen, and says so
Roofing is the trade where phone quotes do the most damage, because the number a homeowner heard becomes the number they compare against. It states your survey terms and refuses the rest, out loud, with a reason.
What it asks on a roofing call
Not a name and a preferred time. Each of these has an operational reason behind it, and every one of them is yours to change.
“Is it leaking now, or are you after an estimate?”
The first branch. An active leak into a living space is today; an estimate after a storm is this week.
“Is an insurance claim in play, and have you spoken to them yet?”
Storm work is insurance work. Whether the claim is open changes the paperwork, the timeline and often who you are really selling to.
“How many stories, and is it tile, slate, flat or metal?”
Decides the access equipment and whether the inspection needs scaffolding — which decides whether it is worth going.
“Roughly how old is the roof?”
A twenty-year-old roof with storm damage is a replacement conversation. A five-year-old one is a repair.
“Can we get a ladder or a lift to it?”
A terraced house with no rear access is a different job and sometimes not a job at all. Better known before the van leaves.
“Are you the owner, or is this a rental or a managed property?”
Decides who signs, who pays, and how long the decision takes. Half the wasted visits in this trade are to people who cannot authorise the work.
What it will never do on a roofing call
You are handing your phone to software that talks to your customers when you cannot. These are the lines it does not cross, and the exact words it uses instead.
Water into a living space escalates
A leak coming through a ceiling now is not an inspection to be booked for Thursday. It is put in front of you, with the caller told what to do in the meantime — move what is underneath, contain it, do not go into the loft in the dark.
What it actually says
“If it's coming through the ceiling I don't want to leave it until Thursday. Move anything underneath it and let me get Greg on the phone now.”
It never says whether the insurer will pay
Whether damage is covered is between the homeowner and their insurer, and a wrong answer on the phone becomes a homeowner who agreed to work believing it was free. The agent captures the claim status and says what it can do — take photographs — rather than predicting an outcome.
What it actually says
“I can't tell you what they'll cover — that's between you and them. What we can do is take proper photographs so you've got the evidence either way.”
It won't price a roof from a description
Nobody can, and the ones who do are the reason this trade has the reputation it does. The agent captures the roof type, the stories, the age and the access, books the inspection, and leaves the number to the person standing on the ladder.
What it actually says
“I'm not going to quote you a roof I haven't seen — you'd be right not to trust that number. The inspection's free and you'll have a written figure after it.”
The four things it answers from
Configuration rather than something a model has been asked to remember. Change one at eight in the evening and the next call uses the new value.
Inspection
Free
Service area
20 miles
Roof types
Tile, slate, flat, metal
Storm damage
Photographed for your insurer
What roofers say before they say yes
In the words they are usually put in. Where the objection is right, it says so.
“Roofing leads are expensive. I do not want AI filtering them.”
It is not filtering them out, it is filtering them into order. Nothing is refused unless you configured a refusal. What changes is that the estimator's Thursday is three qualified surveys rather than five appointments, two of which were never viable and one of which was a tenant.
“Storm season is the whole year's money.”
And it is the week your phone is unusable. Every call answered at once, sorted by whether water is coming into the property, with the ownership and insurance position already established. That queue is worth more than the same calls in the order people redialled.
“Customers want a ballpark on the phone.”
They do, and every roofer who gives one regrets it. The agent explains why the number comes after the survey, states your survey terms, and books. That is the same answer you would give, delivered without the fatigue of giving it for the ninth time that day.
It books into the calendar you already keep
Google, Outlook, Apple, Exchange, CalDAV. An AI receptionist that emails you a summary has built a nicer voicemail; this one creates the appointment and texts the caller.
…and a lot more besides
- Warm transfersWarm transfersAnnounced — who is calling and why, before you take the line.
- Spam never billedSpam never billedRobocalls are spotted, zero-rated, and never become a customer.
- A number per sourceA number per sourceVan, yard sign, Google listing — see which line brings the work.
- Team & on-callTeam & on-callTries you, then a second number, then whoever is on call.
- Run it by textRun it by textReply to a text to move a job, block a morning, clear a day.
- Clear a day, everyone toldClear a day, everyone toldCall off a wet Tuesday; every customer is told and re-offered.
- Never invents an answerNever invents an answerNo price or slot it was not given. It takes a message instead.
- Any trade, no codeAny trade, no codeGoal, questions and guardrails are settings, not a rebuild.
What does it ask before booking a survey?
Whether the caller owns the property, whether it is going through insurance and how far that has got, how many storeys, the roof type and age, and whether water is coming in now. Those decide whether the visit is worth making and what goes on the truck.
Will it quote a roof?
No. It states your survey terms and explains that the price follows the inspection. That refusal is configured rather than left to the model.
Can it separate an emergency from an estimate?
Active water ingress is treated differently from missing tiles on a dry roof, and you set where the line sits. One reaches you; the other is booked and written up.
Does it handle insurance claims?
It establishes whether a claim is open and whether an adjuster has been out, and routes accordingly. It does not attempt to advise on coverage.
What does it cost?
From $99 a month, flat, with unlimited call flows and a monthly talk time allowance. Robocalls are never billed, and there is a free tier for testing the agent first.
Comparing against a human answering service instead?
That is a different question with a different answer, and it has its own page: the roofing answering service, with a full roofing call played second by second.
Trades that answer the phone the same way
The same archetype, which is what the product actually branches on. Every trade has one of these pages.