Phones and calls
AI answering service for restoration companies
It answers the 2 a.m. flood call, gets the address, and gets the job to your on-call tech.
- From $49 a month
- Keep your number
- Spam calls never billed
- You set the spend limit
New job: mold checkPriya · (404) 555-0118
51 Oak Hollow Dr
Thinks there’s mold behind the bath. Wants someone to take a look this week.Not urgent
51 Oak Hollow Dr
Thinks there’s mold behind the bath. Wants someone to take a look this week.Not urgent
What is a restoration answering service?
A restoration answering service takes loss calls — water, fire, mold — whenever they come in, which is usually at night. A good one gets the address and what happened, tells the caller how to stay safe, and tries the on-call phone when it’s an emergency, so the job doesn’t go to the next company on the list.
Hear it answer
One call, start to finish, in under a minute
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. The example is a plumbing shop. On your line it answers as your business and asks about restoration work — it is set up for your trade and your own list of services.
Rather try it yourself? Call (503) 765-9727 and play the customer with an everyday job.
Wakeman, for Ridgeline PlumbingThanks for calling Ridgeline Plumbing. You're speaking with an AI assistant, and this call is recorded. What's going on?
CallerYeah, hi — there's water coming out from under my water heater. It's all over the garage floor.
Example call · synthesized voices, not a recorded caller
What one missed call costs
Google charges about $142 for each water-damage call or message from its ads, and nearly half of those calls go unanswered.
What Google charged per call or message
$142
Calls reaching a person
55.2%
Source: 99 Calls, an ad agency, September 2026 — its own clients, not the whole industry.
How these numbers were worked out
Both figures are from 99 Calls, an agency that runs Local Services Ads for contractors. The cost per lead is from its water-damage estimator in September 2026: the average across 9 client campaigns over the previous three months, after credited leads were removed. The answer rate is from 1,016 calls to its water-damage clients between September 2025 and August 2026. That is one agency’s clients, not the whole industry. We found no measured average job value or booking rate for restoration, so this page shows none.
From October 1, 2026, Google charges for some missed calls too: during your business hours, a Local Services Ads caller who waits more than 20 seconds counts as a lead even if nobody answers. What that costs
Four calls at 2am
How Wakeman sorts restoration calls
Not all of them should wake you. A generic answering service takes four messages and sends four texts. Wakeman works out which call is which — and it goes by what is actually wrong, not by how upset the caller sounds.
Emergency
“A pipe burst upstairs and it's through two floors”
Tells them where to shut the water off first, takes down the damage, and tries your on-call phone during the call.
Emergency
“We had a kitchen fire, the fire service just left”
Checks everyone is safe first, then takes the address and how bad it is, and tries your on-call phone during the call.
Emergency
“There's water round the breaker panel in the basement”
Water near electrics: it tells them not to touch anything, and only to use the breaker if they can reach it from a dry spot. Then Wakeman tries your on-call phone during the call.
Routine
“I think we might have mold behind the bath”
Taken as a normal assessment request. With booking on, it offers a time from the list you set.
- Rings your on-call phone: 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.
- How it knows: it listens for those words. A caller who describes it differently may be marked urgent instead.
- Urgent calls (no heat, or a leak that can’t wait) get a text, not a ring. So does an on-call phone that is the same line you forward to Wakeman.
- No on-call number set? It won’t tell the caller help is on the way.
- It’s a safety net. It doesn’t replace 911.
AI receptionist
An AI receptionist for restoration contractors
Call it an answering service or a virtual receptionist — the job is the same. Wakeman is set up for restoration work and your own list of services. It asks what a good dispatcher would: what’s wrong, how bad it is, the address and a number to call back. It checks the address, then texts you the job, or books it into Jobber on Pro and Max once you switch booking on. It says it’s an AI at the start of every call. There’s no call center behind it: a caller who needs a person is put through to your own on-call phone.
The restoration jobs it starts with
- Water damage
- Fire damage
- Mold
- Sewage cleanup
- Storm cleanup
Setup fills these in for restoration contractors, and you can change them. It also suggests flooded basement, smoke damage, water extraction, mold testing, odor removal and emergency board-up. It treats work close to your list as work you do, and turns down anything on your “Jobs you don’t do” list plainly, taking a message.
Side by side
AI receptionists for restoration contractors, compared
Wakeman wrote this, and Wakeman is on the list. Each row comes from the company’s own pages, checked October 20, 2026.
| Price | How it bills | When a caller needs a person | Books into | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goodcall | $79 / $129 / $299 a month | Unique callers: 100 / 500 / 2,000, then 79¢ / 26¢ / 15¢ each | Transfers to the people you choose | CRM through Zapier |
| Jobber AI Receptionist Price and fit reviewed 2026-11-06. Sources | Included with unlimited usage on Plus; $29/month for 30 conversations on eligible other plans, then $0.79 each | Conversations: 30 or 100 included (its help pages differ); one says $0.79 each after | When it hears a trigger word you set, it transfers to your one escalation contact or texts you | Jobber, through Online Booking |
| Rosie Price and fit reviewed 2026-11-06. Sources | Professional $49 (250 minutes); Scale $149 (1,000); Growth $299 (2,000) | Minutes; moves you up a plan when you go over | Warm and live transfers from the $149 plan; the $299 plan tries several numbers | Your calendar, on Scale and up. Logs callers and calls in Jobber and Housecall Pro, without booking the job there; Zapier |
| Ruby (people, not AI) | $250/mo (50 min) to $1,725 (500 min) | Minutes; each call rounded up to 60 seconds, hold time counts | A person answers every call | Not named on its pricing page |
| Smith.ai Price and fit reviewed 2026-11-06. Sources | Free: 25 calls/month; Pro from $150 for 75 calls; Enterprise from $500 for 300 | Per call; $2.10–$3.00 an extra call | Can hand the call to a live receptionist, any hour | Lists Jobber (via Zapier), ServiceTitan and Housecall Pro |
| Wakeman (our entry) | $49/mo (100 min); $149 (500); $399 (1,500), day and night | Minutes included; then $0.29–$0.45/min by plan, with a monthly limit you set. Spam is never billed | Puts the caller through to your own people: your on-call phone, then the owner’s if nobody picks up. It does this on a dangerous call, a complaint or an angry caller, or when someone asks for a person twice. The AI answers every call; there’s no call center | Jobber on Pro and Max, once you switch booking on |
Where these facts come from · checked October 20, 2026
Checked October 20, 2026. Prices and policies change; the links are the authority, not this page.
- Jobber pricing — $29 add-on; Plus includes it
- Jobber help: Receptionist — 30 conversations, $0.79, escalation contact, Jobber number
- Jobber help: add-ons — 100 conversations a month
- Rosie pricing — and its terms, for going over
- Smith.ai AI Receptionist pricing
- Smith.ai and Jobber — through Zapier
- Goodcall pricing
- Ruby plans and pricing
- Ruby billing basics — 60-second rounding, hold time
All 16 AI receptionists for contractors · What every answering service charges
Why restoration specifically
Google charges restoration companies about $142 for each call or message from its ads — the highest of any trade we found (99 Calls, September 2026) — and nearly half of those calls go unanswered. Losses happen at night, in a panic, and the homeowner keeps calling until somebody answers.
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.
Field notes for restoration contractors
All field notes
Free tools for restoration contractors
Free line check
What does a customer hear when I can’t pick up?
Voicemail greeting generator
What should my business voicemail greeting say?
Missed call calculator
What are missed calls costing my shop?
Questions about an AI answering service for restoration companies
Does it answer restoration calls 24/7?
Every plan answers the calls your team misses at any hour, or only while you are closed if you switch on “Answer only while we’re closed”. Like any phone service it can have an outage. Each call starts by telling the caller they are talking to an AI and that the call is recorded.
What does it do in a fire or flood call?
It has safety words written in advance 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. When a caller describes one, Wakeman tries your on-call phone during the call. It is an AI speaking, so it may not say those words exactly, and we cannot promise the call to your phone gets through. It is a safety net, not an emergency service.
Can it capture insurance details on the call?
Not as a separate field. It writes down the caller’s name, callback number, the address and what happened. If they mention their insurer or a claim number, it may be in a call recording available with their consent. It never takes card details over the phone.
Is it an emergency restoration answering service or just a message line?
Major flooding, fire or smoke, sewage and water near electrics are treated as emergencies: Wakeman gives safety steps written in advance and tries your on-call phone during the call. A routine request, like a mold assessment, is written down for the morning. It is an AI speaking, so it may not say those words exactly, and we cannot promise the call to your phone gets through. It is a safety net, not an emergency service.
How much does a restoration answering service cost?
Human answering services work out at roughly $2.76–$5.00 per included minute on their published plans. Wakeman is $49, $149 or $399 a month with 100, 500 or 1,500 minutes included, then 45¢, 35¢ or 29¢ a minute by plan. Spam calls are never billed, and you set a monthly spend limit.
Is Wakeman an AI receptionist for restoration contractors or an answering service?
Both names describe the same job, and so does "AI CSR". Wakeman is an AI receptionist: it answers the calls your team misses in your company’s name, and says it is an AI at the start of every call. Like a restoration answering service or a virtual receptionist, it writes each job down; unlike a message-taking service, it tells an emergency from a routine call and alerts your on-call phone for the dangerous ones.
Read next
Pricing · How it works · After-hours answering service · Emergency answering service · Booking into Jobber · How it compares
Other trades
plumbing answering service For plumbers.HVAC answering service For HVAC contractors.roofing answering service For roofing contractors.electrical answering service For electricians.
Every trade Wakeman answers for
Page updated October 21, 2026.
Somebody’s always awake.
Try it on your own phone tonight. About ten minutes, and $0 today.
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