The inquiry you answer in ten minutes is the one you win
Cleaning inquiries go to whoever replies first, and the price is knowable from four questions. Vandial answers immediately, quotes your real rate from bedrooms, bathrooms, frequency and extras, and books it — then absorbs the reschedules that make up the rest of your week.
From $99 a month · Robocalls are never billed
Incoming callLeila Mansour“The landlord needs it done before the checkout on Monday.”
Booked — Fri, move-out, oven + carpets
- More than one
- company is called on nearly every cleaning inquiry. Answering first is the whole edge
- 4 questions
- bedrooms, bathrooms, frequency, extras — then a real price
- Counted once
- a weekly customer is one customer, not fifty-two
This is what your callers hear
The same receptionist a cleaning company gets, answering as the trades we already run. Yours is in the middle — press play.
One cleaning call, and what it left behind
Answered on the second ring. Every field below was captured during the call — nobody typed it in afterwards.
“The landlord needs it done before the checkout on Monday.”
Classified0:14
- new job
- move-out
- one-off
Captured0:32
- 2 bed 1 bath
- empty Fri
- oven + carpets
Booked1:04
- Google Calendar
- Fri 9–3
- lockbox code stored
Booked — Fri, move-out, oven + carpets
Read the whole cleaning call, line by line
- 0:02Leila Mansour: The landlord needs it done before the checkout on Monday.
- 0:05Vandial: An move-out clean then. How many bedrooms and bathrooms?
- 0:12Leila Mansour: Two bed, one bathroom. It'll be empty by Friday.
- 0:14Classified — new job · move-out · one-off
- 0:20Vandial: Do you need the oven and the carpets doing as well? Those are usually what the checkout picks up on.
- 0:29Leila Mansour: Yes, both please.
- 0:32Captured — 2 bed 1 bath · empty Fri · oven + carpets
- 0:41Vandial: That's $325 including the oven and carpets, and it's about six hours with two cleaners.
- 0:56Vandial: Friday it is. How will the team get in — keys, a lockbox, or will you be there?
- 1:04Booked — Google Calendar · Fri 9–3 · lockbox code stored
Answered, understood, booked
One number, picked up on the second ring — at 2am, on a Sunday, while you're already working. By the time the caller hangs up, it is in your calendar.
It answers
Answered on the second ring, which in this trade is most of the sale — inquiries go to whoever replies first, not to whoever is best.
- 0:00Incoming call
- 0:02Answered by Vandial2 rings
- 0:05“Hello, Marlow Plumbing.”
It understands
Four questions produce a real quote from your own price list, plus the extras that are standard on an move-out and forgotten everywhere else.
- Job
- Water heater — leaking
- Where
- 14 Marlow Street
- Access
- Side gate, dog in yard
- Urgency
- Today if possible
- Still on
It books
Booked with the access arrangement confirmed, the team sized to the job, and a text to the customer with the window and the price.
Text to Dave · 13:01
You’re booked for today, 1–2pm. Reply R to move it.
It asks what you would ask
These are the questions the agent runs for cleaning companies, and the operational reason each one exists. Change them, add your own, or take them out — they are configuration, not code.
How many bedrooms and bathrooms?
The two numbers your whole price list is built on. With them, the quote is real; without them, it's a callback.
One-off, or regular — and how often?
A biweekly customer is worth twenty times a one-off, and the rate is different. It has to be asked on the first call.
First clean or ongoing?
A first deep clean takes far longer than the visits after it. Booking it at the regular length is how a team ends up staying two hours late unpaid.
Are there pets, and will they be in?
Changes the time, sometimes the products, and occasionally whether the team will take the job at all.
How do we get in — keys, lockbox, or will you be home?
The single biggest cause of a wasted visit in this trade, and it is never volunteered.
Anything extra — oven, windows, carpets, inside cupboards?
The upsells that are standard in an move-out and invisible everywhere else. Asked once, on the call.
More than a answering service for cleaning companies
An answering service takes a message and charges you for it. Vandial knows your prices, your patch and your diary — so it books the job, or puts a real emergency straight through to you.
It picks up out of hours, and while your line is busy
Cleaning inquiries are a race. The customer contacts three companies and books the one that gets back to them, and a two-hour reply time loses to a two-minute one regardless of quality. Vandial replies in seconds, with a price.
It knows your prices, your patch and your hours
Your rates are a table — bedrooms, bathrooms, frequency, extras. The agent reads from it rather than promising a callback, so the caller has a number while they are still on the phone and still comparing.
What it knows
2 bed, 1 bath clean
$140
Service area
12 miles
Extras
Oven $60, carpets $80
Access
Keys, lockbox, or someone home
What matters reaches you. The rest waits
The recurring book is where the calls actually come from: moves, skips, holiday weeks, changed codes, an extra room this time. All absorbed and written into the schedule, none of it reaching whoever is running the teams.
Your rule: if they say gas, flood or no heat — ring Sam, then me.
Every call written up, tagged and searchable
Every job carries the access arrangement, the pets, the extras and the time estimate. Your team arrives able to get in, which sounds trivial until it is the third wasted visit this month.
Dave Whitfield · Sunday, 4m 12s
Water heater, leaking
Leaking from the base. Booked for Tuesday 1–2pm. Side gate open, dog in the yard. Asked whether the service call fee applies — told $99, waived on repair.
The end-of-month checkout rush
Leases end on the last weekend of the month, so move-out inquiries arrive in a block and every one of them is urgent, price-sensitive and shopping around. It is also the week your regular customers are moving visits for the bank holiday. Both hit at once, and both go to whoever answers first.
When it happens · The last week of every month
A normal month, then a surge month
- Billed per minute
- Your baselineTriples with the calls
- The bill peaks in the same week your phone does.
- Billed per call, like a human service
- Per call, every callEvery extra call, billed
- Including the robocalls and the wrong numbers.
- Vandial
- From $99 a monthThe same
- Call flows are unlimited on every paid rung, and there is no per-minute billing. The rungs differ only in how many unique customers you answer for — and a surge is mostly more calls from the same people.
Robocalls and sales calls are identified and zero-rated on every plan. They never count toward your included customers and never create a customer record.
What it will never do
You are handing your phone to something that talks to your customers when you are not there. These are the lines it does not cross in cleaning, and the words it uses instead.
It quotes your rate, not an estimate it invented
Bedrooms, bathrooms, frequency and extras map onto a price list you gave it, so the number it says is your number. If a caller describes something outside that list — a hoarded property, a post-construction clean, a biohazard — it stops and takes a message rather than extending the list on your behalf.
What it actually says
“That one's outside what I can price properly — let me take your details and have someone ring you back today with a real number.”
It won't commit your team to an unsafe job
Post-incident cleaning, mould remediation, needles or animal waste at scale are not domestic cleans and are not booked as one. The agent captures the description and routes it to you to decide, rather than sending two cleaners into something they were not told about.
What it actually says
“That sounds like specialist work rather than a standard clean — I don't want to send the team into something they're not equipped for. Someone will call you back.”
Key handling is confirmed, never assumed
Access is settled on the call — keys, a lockbox code, or someone home — and recorded on the job. It never assumes last time's arrangement still holds, because in this trade it frequently does not, and a locked door is a paid team standing on a doorstep.
What it actually says
“Same lockbox code as last time, or has it changed? I'd rather check than have the team stood outside.”
The job lands where you already work
Google, Outlook, Apple, Exchange, CalDAV — whichever calendar you already keep. Then your payments, your CRM, and whatever you automate with.
…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 cleaning companies say before they say yes
Three objections, in the words they are usually put in. Where the objection is right, it says so.
“Cleaning inquiries go to whoever replies first.”
Which is why a two-minute reply beats a two-hour one regardless of who is better. The customer contacts three companies in one sitting and books whoever came back with a price — and it comes back in seconds, with your price.
“Our quotes need a walk-round.”
For a hoarded property or a post-construction clean, yes — and those it refuses to price, taking a message instead. For the ninety per cent that are bedrooms, bathrooms, frequency and a couple of extras, it reads your own table and gives the real number.
“The team turning up to a locked door is our biggest cost.”
So access is confirmed on every booking rather than assumed from last time. Keys, lockbox code, or someone home — recorded on the job and sent to the team, because two paid cleaners on a doorstep is the most expensive routine failure in this business.
Cleaning questions, answered
What cleaning companies ask before handing over their phone number — and what a answering service for cleaning companies can and cannot do for you.
Can it actually give a price?
Yes, from your price list. Bedrooms, bathrooms, frequency and extras are the inputs your rates are already built on, so the agent asks those four things and quotes your real number. In this trade that speed is most of the sale — the customer is comparing three companies while they are on the phone to you.
What about jobs that don't fit the price list?
It stops and takes a message. A hoarded property, a post-construction clean or anything biohazardous is not priced by extending your table on your behalf. Those come to you with the description captured.
Does it handle the recurring customers?
That is most of its work here. Skips, moves, holiday weeks, an extra room this time, a changed lockbox code — handled on the call, written into the schedule, and never put in front of whoever is coordinating teams.
How does it deal with keys and access?
It confirms the arrangement on every booking rather than assuming last time's still applies. Keys, lockbox code, or someone home — recorded on the job and sent to the team. A locked door with two paid cleaners outside is the most expensive routine failure in this business.
Can it upsell the extras?
It asks about them, which is not the same thing. Oven, windows, carpets and inside cupboards are standard on an move-out and are what the checkout inspection actually looks at — mentioning them is a service to the customer as much as a bigger job for you.
Does it do commercial and office cleaning too?
Yes, with its own questions: square footage, after-hours access, frequency, and whether they need proof of insurance or a COI. Those route separately from domestic inquiries.
What does it cost?
Three paid rungs — Starter, Professional and Business — differing only in how many unique customers you answer for in a month. A weekly customer counts once, not fifty-two times. Robocalls are identified and never billed.
Already decided you want AI to answer it?
Then the question is which one, and that is a different page: what a generic AI receptionist gets wrong on a cleaning call, and what is configurable about this one.
Not your trade?
The agent's questions, urgency rules, escalations and vocabulary are all configuration. Nothing about a trade is hard-coded, which is why there are 31 of these and not one.