Answers the calls you miss, sorts emergencies from routine jobs, and captures the whole job.
About half of calls to home-service businesses don’t reach a person, and 55% of those businesses don’t ask the caller to book the job (Invoca, 2026). Wakeman answers the calls you miss, works out what is actually broken, and alerts your on-call phone when it’s an emergency. Booking is off until you turn it on: it can’t see your Jobber calendar, so you choose which times it’s allowed to offer.
A contractor answering service answers a trades business’s calls when nobody in the shop can — at night, at weekends, or while everyone is on a job. A good one works out what’s wrong, takes the caller’s name, number and address, recognises an emergency, and gets the job to whoever is on call or onto the next day’s schedule. Wakeman is an AI one, built only for home-service trades.
A leaking water heater at night, taken the way it’s taken on a Wakeman line: what’s wrong, a safety check for water near electrics, the address read back, and — with booking on — a time in the on-call window.
Rather try it yourself? Call (503) 765-9727 and play the customer with an everyday job.
Example call · synthesized voices, not a recorded caller
A no-heat call and a sewage backup are not the same call. Most answering services read one script for every business. Wakeman is set up for your trade and your own list of services, so it listens for what matters in your line of work. For the dangerous calls — gas, fire, water near electrics — the safety words are written in advance, not made up on the spot.
A burst supply line doesn’t wait for Monday. Wakeman answers the calls you miss, day or night depending on your plan, works out what’s broken, and tries your on-call phone when it’s an emergency. Booking is off until you turn it on.
A heat wave doesn’t wait its turn. Wakeman can take several calls at once, sorts no-heat calls from maintenance questions, writes each job down, and tries your on-call phone when it’s an emergency. Booking is off until you turn it on.
Roofing work shows up the morning after a hailstorm. Wakeman can take several calls at once, writes down each inspection request, and flags active leaks. Once you turn booking on, it can offer inspection times from the list you set.
In restoration, the first call often comes at the worst possible hour. Wakeman writes down what happened and where, and tries your on-call phone when it’s an emergency.
Most after-hours electrical calls are a breaker that needs resetting. A few are dangerous. Wakeman writes the job down, listens for the dangerous ones, and tries your on-call phone when it hears one.
The safety rules are the same in every trade. These pages say what Wakeman does with each trade’s calls, and what it doesn’t.
Only need cover while you’re closed? The after-hours answering service answers nights and weekends on any plan, from $49 a month, and leaves your daytime calls ringing your team as they do today.
Answers while you’re closed, or any hour your team misses, and tries your on-call phone only for the dangerous calls.
Which calls count as emergencies, the safety steps written in advance, and how the on-call ring works.
Most shops choose between three things for the calls nobody can take. Here is how they compare on the ones that decide the bill and the 2am call. More on what an AI virtual receptionist does for a contractor.
| Wakeman (AI) | Live answering service | Voicemail | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $49 / $149 / $399 a month with minutes included, then $0.45 / $0.35 / $0.29 a minute | Roughly $2.76–$5.00 per included minute on published plans | Included with your phone |
| Who answers | An AI, which says so at the start of every call | A person, following your script | Nobody — the caller leaves a message, or hangs up |
| A dangerous call | Safety steps written in advance, and a ring to your on-call phone during the call | Depends on the script and escalation rules you set up with them | Waits until someone listens |
| Spam and robocalls | Never billed | Often counted like any other call — ask | Fill the mailbox |
| Into your schedule | Takes the job down; books into Jobber on Pro and Max once booking is on | Ask whether they write into your software | You call back and book it |
Live answering service prices are from vendors’ own published plans, checked October 21, 2026. What every answering service charges
Still working out whether this is a real problem for your shop? Start with how many calls contractors actually miss and what the whole market charges.
A service that answers a contractor's calls when the office can't — after hours, at weekends, or when everyone is on a job. Some just take a message. Others write down the whole job or offer a time. Ask where the times come from: if it can't see your schedule, the time it offers may already be taken.
Human answering services work out at roughly $2.76–$5.00 per included minute on their published plans. AI services run from free and $29 a month for general-purpose tools to $49–$789 a month for ones built for home services (Rosie to Sameday, checked 20–21 Oct 2026). Wakeman is $49, $149 or $399 a month for 100, 500 or 1,500 minutes, then 45¢, 35¢ or 29¢ a minute.
It varies a lot, and it's the question worth asking. Some cheaper products only text the caller a booking link. Wakeman writes the job down by default. It books a time only after you switch booking on, and then it offers only the time windows you choose; each booked job lands in Jobber with the customer and the checked address.
Plumbing, HVAC, roofing, restoration and electrical have the deepest pages, with sourced figures for what a missed call costs. Setup also takes garage door, pest control, landscaping, lawn care, pool service, cleaning, pressure washing, handyman, painting, remodeling, construction, junk removal, moving, propane and heating oil, home security, solar, auto repair, dealership service, interior design and pet sitting. The safety rules for gas, carbon monoxide, a downed power line, fire or smoke, a medical emergency, a child or pet locked in a car, water near electrics, a structural collapse, major flooding and sewage inside are the same in every trade.
CSR stands for customer service representative: the person at a home-services company who answers the phone, works out what the caller needs and books the job. An AI CSR does that part of the job on the phone. Wakeman is one built for shops without a call center: it answers the calls your team misses in your company’s name, says it is an AI, sorts emergencies from routine jobs, writes each job down, and books it into Jobber once you switch booking on.
It works best for service trades whose calls come from homeowners, and plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing and restoration have their own pages. A builder, remodeler or general contractor can use it to answer missed calls and write down estimate requests, and the safety rules for gas, fire, electrics and flooding still apply. There is no construction-specific triage: a bid invitation or a warranty question is written down as an ordinary message.
No. The number you already have stays yours — we never port it away at signup, precisely so that leaving is easy if the product does not work for you.
Page updated September 24, 2026.
What does a customer hear when I can’t pick up?
What should my business voicemail greeting say?
What are missed calls costing my shop?
What will Google charge me for calls I miss?
Where do I get a free invoice, estimate, change order, checklist or business plan template for my trade?
Try it on your own phone tonight. About ten minutes, and $0 today.
Hear it answer