After a storm the whole market calls in one morning
Vandial answers every one of them at once, separates the active leak from the insurance estimate, finds out whether a claim is already in play, and books the inspection with the roof type, the storey count and the access already captured.
From $99 a month · Robocalls are never billed
Incoming callGreg Kowalski“I found roof shingles in the yard this morning.”
Booked — inspection Thu am, insurance claim flagged
- Every one
- answered on the morning after, with no busy signal while a rival's line rings
- One morning
- is where a storm puts a month of demand
- Never quoted
- a roof nobody has climbed on. The inspection is free
This is what your callers hear
The same receptionist a roofing company gets, answering as the trades we already run. Yours is in the middle — press play.
One roofing call, and what it left behind
Answered on the second ring. Every field below was captured during the call — nobody typed it in afterwards.
“I found roof shingles in the yard this morning.”
Classified0:14
- quote request
- storm damage
- inspection
Captured0:31
- no claim opened
- photos required for insurer
Booked1:10
- Google Calendar
- Thu 8–11
- photos for claim
Booked — inspection Thu am, insurance claim flagged
Read the whole roofing call, line by line
- 0:02Greg Kowalski: I found roof shingles in the yard this morning.
- 0:05Vandial: Sounds like last night's wind. Is any water coming into the house at the moment?
- 0:12Greg Kowalski: Not that I can see. There's a bit of a stain on the landing ceiling though.
- 0:14Classified — quote request · storm damage · inspection
- 0:22Vandial: Have you spoken to your insurer, or is this the first call you've made?
- 0:28Greg Kowalski: First call. I didn't know if it was worth claiming.
- 0:31Captured — no claim opened · photos required for insurer
- 0:40Vandial: Greg will take photographs you can send them either way. Is it a two-storey house, and is it tile or slate?
- 0:52Greg Kowalski: Two storey, concrete tiles. Twenty years old maybe.
- 1:02Vandial: Thursday morning for the inspection, and it's free. If it starts coming in before then, ring us straight back.
- 1:10Booked — Google Calendar · Thu 8–11 · photos for claim
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
Every call at once on the morning after a storm, when a voicemail box fills in twenty minutes and stays full.
- 0:00Incoming call
- 0:02Answered by Vandial2 rings
- 0:05“Hello, Marlow Plumbing.”
It understands
Leaking now or estimating later, claim open or not, roof type, stories, access — captured before anyone agrees to a visit.
- Job
- Water heater — leaking
- Where
- 14 Marlow Street
- Access
- Side gate, dog in yard
- Urgency
- Today if possible
- Still on
It books
The inspection booked, the photograph requirement explained, and a confirmation text with what to do if it starts coming in first.
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 roofers, and the operational reason each one exists. Change them, add your own, or take them out — they are configuration, not code.
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.
More than a roofing 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
Storm demand is not spread across a week. It is one morning, and it goes to whoever picks up — which is why the company with the best reviews often loses to the one with the answered phone. Vandial takes every call in parallel.
It knows your prices, your patch and your hours
A site visit is half a day. Qualifying on the phone — owner or tenant, claim or cash, two stories or four, access or scaffolding — is what stops you spending that half day on a job that was never going to happen.
What it knows
Inspection
Free
Service area
20 miles
Roof types
Tile, slate, flat, metal
Storm damage
Photographed for your insurer
What matters reaches you. The rest waits
Water coming through a ceiling reaches you now. An estimate for a garage roof does not. You set where the line is, and the estimates queue neatly instead of interrupting a job.
Your rule: if they say gas, flood or no heat — ring Sam, then me.
Every call written up, tagged and searchable
Every inquiry written up with the roof type, the age, the access and the claim status. Your estimator arrives knowing what they are looking at and who can sign for it.
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 forty-eight hours after a storm
VERTICALS.md puts it plainly: after a storm the entire market calls at once. That is not a busy week, it is a single morning containing a month of demand, and it is the one morning when the company that answers takes a disproportionate share of the year. It is also when the storm chasers arrive, so being reachable and sounding measured is worth more than usual.
When it happens · The morning after every storm
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 roofing, and the 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 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 roofers say before they say yes
Three objections, in the words they are usually put in. Where the objection is right, it says so.
“After a storm we couldn't answer the phone if we tried.”
A month of demand arrives in one morning and goes to whoever picks up — which is why the company with the best reviews routinely loses that week to the one with an answered phone. Every call is taken in parallel, so there is no fortieth caller hearing an busy signal.
“A wasted site visit costs me half a day.”
So it qualifies before booking one: leaking now or estimating later, claim open or not, stories, roof type, age, access — and whether the caller actually owns the property. Most of the wasted visits in this trade were avoidable on the phone.
“It'll promise the insurance will pay.”
It refuses to, and explains why. Coverage is between the homeowner and their insurer, and a customer who agrees to work believing it is free is a complaint waiting to happen. It commits to what you can actually deliver: proper photographs of the damage, either way.
Roofing questions, answered
What roofers ask before handing over their phone number — and what a roofing answering service can and cannot do for you.
Can it handle the volume after a storm?
That is the case it exists for. Calls are answered in parallel rather than queued, so the fortieth caller on the morning after a storm gets the same pickup as the first. In a trade where a month of demand arrives in a single morning, that is most of the value.
Will it tell someone whether their insurance will cover it?
No, and it says why. Coverage is between the homeowner and their insurer, and a wrong answer on the phone produces a customer who agreed to work believing it was free. It captures whether a claim is open and explains that your estimator will photograph the damage properly either way.
Does it qualify hard enough to be worth a site visit?
It asks the six things that decide it: leaking or estimating, claim status, stories, roof type, age and access — plus whether the caller actually owns the property. A roofing site visit is half a day, and most wasted ones were avoidable on the phone.
What happens if water is coming in right now?
It escalates rather than books. The caller is told what to do in the meantime and the call is put in front of you, because an active leak into a living space is not a Thursday appointment.
Will it quote a roof?
Never. It books the free inspection instead, and it explains why — a number given over the phone for a roof nobody has seen is exactly the practice that makes homeowners distrust this trade.
Can it follow up on quotes that go quiet?
Quotes are tracked as a job state rather than as a piece of paper, so the ones that have gone quiet are visible and can be chased by text on the schedule you set. In a trade with a long sales cycle that is often where the recovered revenue is.
What does it cost?
Three paid rungs — Starter, Professional and Business — differing only in how many unique customers you answer for in a month. There is no per-minute billing, which matters when a storm produces a year's worth of calls in a morning. 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 roofing 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.