You lose a day to rain and spend the evening on the phone
Vandial answers the maintenance calls, quotes your standing rate from lot size and frequency, and books design work as a site visit rather than a guess. When the weather takes a day, one reply from you moves every affected customer and tells all of them.
From $99 a month · Robocalls are never billed
Incoming callPeter Sandoval“We want to redo the whole back yard before summer.”
Booked — site visit Tue 10am, design consult
- On a mower
- is where the spring surge finds you, and why those calls go unanswered
- One reply
- reschedules a rained-off day and tells every customer on it
- Counted once
- a biweekly customer is one customer, not twenty-six
This is what your callers hear
The same receptionist a landscaping company gets, answering as the trades we already run. Yours is in the middle — press play.
One landscaping call, and what it left behind
Answered on the second ring. Every field below was captured during the call — nobody typed it in afterwards.
“We want to redo the whole back yard before summer.”
Classified0:18
- quote request
- design
- site visit
Captured0:36
- 200m²
- side gate, narrow
- lawn to full redesign
Booked1:07
- Google Calendar
- Tue 10am
- design consult
Booked — site visit Tue 10am, design consult
Read the whole landscaping call, line by line
- 0:02Peter Sandoval: We want to redo the whole back yard before summer.
- 0:05Vandial: That's a design job rather than something I can price on the phone — but I can get someone out to look. Roughly how big is the space?
- 0:16Peter Sandoval: About 200 square metres. It's mostly lawn at the moment.
- 0:18Classified — quote request · design · site visit
- 0:24Vandial: Is there access round the side for machinery, or does everything come through the house?
- 0:33Peter Sandoval: There's a side gate, it's fairly narrow.
- 0:36Captured — 200m² · side gate, narrow · lawn to full redesign
- 0:49Vandial: Have you got a rough budget in mind? It helps Peter come with the right ideas rather than the wrong ones.
- 1:00Vandial: Tuesday at ten, then. The consultation's free and it's about an hour.
- 1:07Booked — Google Calendar · Tue 10am · design consult
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 while you're on a mower with ear defenders on, which is where most of these calls currently go to voicemail.
- 0:00Incoming call
- 0:02Answered by Vandial2 rings
- 0:05“Hello, Marlow Plumbing.”
It understands
Maintenance is quoted from lot size and frequency. Design work is booked as a site visit with the access and the budget already captured.
- Job
- Water heater — leaking
- Where
- 14 Marlow Street
- Access
- Side gate, dog in yard
- Urgency
- Today if possible
- Still on
It books
Written into the route in the right order — and when it rains, one text from you moves the whole day and tells everyone on it.
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 landscapers, and the operational reason each one exists. Change them, add your own, or take them out — they are configuration, not code.
How big is the space, roughly?
The one number that makes a maintenance rate quotable on the phone instead of after a visit.
How often — weekly, biweekly, monthly?
Frequency is the price and the route slot. It is also what turns one job into a season.
Is there gate access wide enough for machinery?
A narrow side gate means everything is carried, which changes the quote and sometimes the whole feasibility.
Is there a dog, and will it be out?
The single most common reason a landscaping visit is abandoned on arrival.
Which day suits, and does anyone need to be home?
Route order. If nobody needs to be in, the visit can move freely when the weather does.
Maintenance, or a design and build?
Two different businesses sharing a phone number. One is quotable now; the other is a site visit.
More than a landscaping answering service
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
Nobody in this trade is near a phone. The crew is out, the machinery is loud, and the calls arrive during exactly the hours you cannot answer them. Vandial takes every one on the second ring and quotes the ones that can be quoted.
It knows your prices, your patch and your hours
Your maintenance rates are standing rates — lot size, frequency, and whether there is a gate. That is enough for a real number on the call, instead of a callback that happens two days later when they have already booked someone else.
What it knows
Biweekly mow
$65 up to 2,000 sq ft
Service area
10 miles
Design consult
Free, 1 hour
Never quoted or touched
Anything near power lines
What matters reaches you. The rest waits
The recurring book generates the calls: skips, moves, extra jobs, a gate code, a dog that will be out on Thursday. All absorbed, all written into the route, none of it reaching you.
Your rule: if they say gas, flood or no heat — ring Sam, then me.
Every call written up, tagged and searchable
A rained-off day is one reply. Every affected customer is told, moved and confirmed automatically — instead of thirty apologetic phone calls made from a van in the dark.
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 spring surge, and every wet week after it
Spring is the one predictable surge in this trade: sustained, weeks long, and arriving exactly when your whole crew is already out. The other pattern is rain — a lost day is thirty customers who need telling, rescheduling and reordering, and it is why so many landscapers spend their evenings on the phone. One reply from you does all thirty.
When it happens · Spring, and every washed-out day
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 landscaping, and the words it uses instead.
It won't price a design over the phone
Maintenance is a standing rate and it quotes it. A redesign, a patio or a retaining wall is not — it depends on levels, drainage, access and what is already there. The agent books the site visit and captures the budget instead of inventing a figure someone has to walk back.
What it actually says
“I could give you a number now, but it'd be wrong. Let's get Peter out to look — the consultation's free.”
Trees near power lines are not our job
Anything within reach of a live line goes to the utility, not to a landscaping crew. The agent says so, does not book it, and flags the call. It is the clearest line in this trade and the one most often crossed by someone trying to be helpful.
What it actually says
“If it's that close to the power line we're not allowed to touch it — that has to be the electricity company. I'd ring them today.”
It doesn't promise a date the weather owns
A booked visit in this trade is conditional and everyone knows it. The agent says what it is booking and how you handle a washout, rather than committing to a Tuesday it cannot guarantee and leaving you to make the apology.
What it actually says
“That's Tuesday, weather permitting — if it's washed out we'll text you the moment we move it rather than leaving you wondering.”
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 landscapers say before they say yes
Three objections, in the words they are usually put in. Where the objection is right, it says so.
“Nobody here is anywhere near a phone.”
That is the whole case. The crew is out, the machinery is loud, and the calls arrive during exactly the hours you cannot answer them — so they go to voicemail, and then to whoever rang back first, which is rarely you.
“Rain wrecks the schedule and I spend the evening apologising.”
One reply to a text moves the whole day. Every affected customer is rescheduled in route order and told automatically, with a reason — instead of thirty phone calls made from a van in the dark. It is the single thing landscaping users say they bought it for.
“Design work can't be priced on a call.”
It isn't. Maintenance is a standing rate and it quotes it; a redesign, a patio or a retaining wall depends on levels, drainage and access, so it books the site visit and captures the budget rather than inventing a number your designer has to argue down.
Landscaping questions, answered
What landscapers ask before handing over their phone number — and what a landscaping answering service can and cannot do for you.
Can it quote maintenance?
Yes. Lot size, frequency and access are enough for a standing rate, so it gives a real number on the call. That is the difference between this trade and an emergency one — here the price genuinely is knowable from a few facts, so refusing to say it would just be unhelpful.
What about design and build work?
Booked as a site visit, not quoted. Levels, drainage, access and what is already in the ground decide the price, and a number invented on the phone becomes the number your designer has to argue with. It captures the size, the access and the budget so the visit is worth making.
What happens when we lose a day to rain?
You reply to a text. Every customer on that day is moved to the next available slot in route order and told automatically, with a reason. That single case is the most common thing our landscaping users say they bought it for.
Does it handle skips and one-off changes?
That is most of the recurring book's call volume. “Skip us this fortnight”, “can you come Friday instead”, “the gate code has changed”, “don't come round the back, the dog's out” — handled on the call, written into the route, never put on your phone.
What about trees near power lines?
It refuses and redirects to the utility. That is the one hard escalation in this trade and it is not negotiable — a crew near a live line is not a scheduling decision.
Can it handle commercial grounds contracts?
Yes, with different questions: site access hours, whether work has to happen outside business hours, insurance and documentation requirements. Those route to whoever handles commercial rather than joining the domestic route.
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 biweekly customer counts once, not twenty-six times a year. 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 landscaping 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.