AI answering service for solar installers

Tells an inverter light from sparks on the roof.

  • Free
  • Your phone won’t ring
  • Takes about a minute
  • From $49 a month
  • Keep your number
  • Spam calls never billed
  • You set the spend limit

Hear it answer a call

Line drawing of a toolbox with a hammer and a wrench in it, beside a phone that is ringing
Text message · Tue 6:12 PM
New job: solarAlex · (312) 555-0110
12 Elm St
“The inverter is showing a red light”
Not urgent
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 solar 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

Four calls at 2am

How Wakeman sorts solar 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

“There are sparks coming from the panel on the roof”

Its fire script tells them to get out and call 9-1-1 first, then Wakeman tries your on-call phone during the call.

Routine

“The inverter is showing a red light”

Written down as a service call. With booking on, it offers a time from the list you set.

Routine

“I want a quote for a battery”

Taken as an estimate request with the address.

Admin

“I have a question about my last invoice”

A message for the office.

  • 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 solar installers

Call it an answering service or a virtual receptionist — the job is the same. Wakeman is set up for solar 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 solar jobs it starts with

  • Solar estimate
  • Panel repair
  • Inverter problem
  • Battery storage

Setup fills these in for solar installers, and you can change them. It also suggests solar panel cleaning, low solar production and solar monitoring. 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 solar installers, compared

Wakeman wrote this, and Wakeman is on the list. Each row comes from the company’s own pages, checked October 20, 2026.

PriceHow it billsWhen a caller needs a personBooks into
Goodcall$79 / $129 / $299 a monthUnique callers: 100 / 500 / 2,000, then 79¢ / 26¢ / 15¢ eachTransfers to the people you chooseCRM 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 eachConversations: 30 or 100 included (its help pages differ); one says $0.79 each afterWhen it hears a trigger word you set, it transfers to your one escalation contact or texts youJobber, 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 overWarm and live transfers from the $149 plan; the $299 plan tries several numbersYour 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 countsA person answers every callNot 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 300Per call; $2.10–$3.00 an extra callCan hand the call to a live receptionist, any hourLists Jobber (via Zapier), ServiceTitan and Housecall Pro
Wakeman (our entry)$49/mo (100 min); $149 (500); $399 (1,500), day and nightMinutes included; then $0.29–$0.45/min by plan, with a monthly limit you set. Spam is never billedPuts 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 centerJobber 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.

All 16 AI receptionists for contractors · What every answering service charges

Why solar specifically

Solar companies take two kinds of call: new customers comparing quotes, and owners worried about a fault. Both come in the evening, when people are home and looking at the bill or the app.

Most solar calls are quotes and inverter lights. A few are sparks. Wakeman answers the calls you miss, writes down the routine ones, and tries your on-call phone for the dangerous ones.

Field notes for solar installers

All field notes
Free tools for solar installers

Questions about an AI answering service for solar installers

Does Wakeman have solar-specific emergency rules?

It uses one set of safety rules in every trade, so nothing dangerous slips through a trade-specific gap: 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 gives safety steps written in advance and tries your on-call phone during the call. A caller with no heat, cooling or hot water, an empty oil or propane tank, a leak that can’t wait, a blocked drain, no power, a stuck garage door, a break-in or a door that won’t lock, or a lockout is marked urgent and texted to your on-call phone at once. So is a driver who needs a tow now, and any caller who mentions a baby, an older person or someone on oxygen at home. A slow drip, or a leak the caller says can wait, is written down as a routine job unless the water is spreading, doing damage or won’t stop. Everything else solar installers get asked about is written down as a job, using the list of jobs you give it in setup. 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 solar answering service cost?

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. There is no setup fee and no minimum term, spam calls are never billed, and you set a monthly spend limit. Human answering services work out at roughly $2.76–$5.00 per included minute on their published plans.

Is Wakeman an AI receptionist for solar installers 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 solar 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.

Somebody’s always awake.

Try it on your own phone tonight. About ten minutes, and $0 today.

We look it up on Google. Then you’ll hear how Wakeman would answer your calls.

  • Free
  • Your phone won’t ring
  • Takes about a minute
Hear it answer