The emergency answering service that gets the dangerous calls to your on-call tech
Most after-hours calls can wait until morning. A few can’t. Wakeman gives the caller safety steps 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 (sparks or arcing count as fire), and tries your on-call phone while they’re still on the line. A safety net, not an emergency service.
- A customer calls with an emergency.
- Wakeman tells them to get safe.
- It rings and texts whoever is on call.
- From $49 a month
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- A customer calls with an emergency.
- Wakeman tells them to get safe.
- It rings and texts whoever is on call.
What an emergency answering service does
An emergency answering service answers a contractor’s calls when the office can’t and gets the urgent ones to someone who can act — usually the on-call tech — instead of leaving them in voicemail until morning. The two things worth checking in any of them: how it decides what counts as an emergency, and what it tells the caller while they wait.
Which calls are emergencies, and which only feel like one
It goes by what is actually wrong, not by how upset the caller sounds. Every call is sorted into one of four kinds.
| Kind of call | For example | What Wakeman does |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency | 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, with sparks or arcing counted as fire | Safety steps written in advance, then a ring to your on-call phone while the caller is still on the line |
| Urgent | No heat, no cooling, a leak that can’t wait | Written down and sent to your on-call phone as an urgent text, without ringing it |
| Routine | A repair, an estimate, a slow drip, a maintenance visit | Written down with the address checked; booked into your times once you switch booking on |
| Admin | A billing question, a sales call | Taken as a message for the office, not sent to your on-call phone |
It listens for particular words, so a caller who describes a hazard differently may only be marked urgent. It answers in English and Spanish.
The safety steps are written before the call, not made up on it
This is what it is given to say when a caller smells gas:
Gas smell
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, and not a substitute for 911.
How the on-call ring works
- You name one on-call tech. On a dangerous call Wakeman tries their phone, then the owner’s. If nobody is on call, it tries the owner’s phone.
- If the on-call phone is the same line that forwards to Wakeman, that phone gets an urgent text instead of a ring.
- If you haven’t given an on-call number, it won’t tell the caller that help is on the way.
- An account can’t go live without a reachable on-call contact.
- A caller who asks for a person a second time is put through to your on-call phone.
- Review any call summary and recording available with the caller’s consent. Emergencies sit at the top of your morning screen, in red.
Write the on-call rules down first
Most of the value is in the rules, not the phone. Decide who is on call each night, what counts as worth waking them for, what the after-hours call-out fee is, and what happens when the on-call tech doesn’t pick up. Then pick coverage that follows those rules at 3am. The after-hours playbook for plumbers goes through it rule by rule.
Emergency calls, trade by trade
Closed at night and only need cover then? After-hours answering service
Emergency answering service questions
What is an emergency answering service?
A service that answers a contractor's calls when the office cannot and gets the urgent ones to someone who can act — usually the on-call tech — instead of leaving them in a voicemail box until morning. The part worth checking is how it decides what counts as an emergency, and what it tells the caller while they wait.
Which emergencies does Wakeman recognise?
These ten: 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. Sparks or arcing count as fire. Each has safety steps written in advance, and each tries your on-call phone while the caller is still on the line. It listens for particular words, so a caller who describes a hazard differently may only be marked urgent. It answers in English and Spanish.
Is Wakeman an emergency service?
No. It is a safety net, not an emergency service, and not a substitute for 911. On a dangerous call it gives the caller the safety steps first — for a gas smell or a fire, that means getting out and calling 911. It is an AI speaking, so it may not say the written steps exactly, and a phone call to your on-call tech can fail.
What happens if my on-call tech doesn't answer?
It tries the on-call tech's phone during a dangerous call, then the owner's. If nobody is on call, it tries the owner's phone. If the on-call phone is the same line that forwards to Wakeman, that phone gets an urgent text instead of a ring. Review any call summary and recording available with the caller's consent. Emergencies sit at the top of your morning screen in red.
Does Wakeman call 911?
No. It doesn’t call 911 itself. On a dangerous call it gives the safety steps written in advance — for a gas smell or a fire, that means telling the caller to get out and call 911 themselves — and then tries your on-call phone.
Will a no-heat call wake my on-call tech?
It reaches them as an urgent text on the on-call phone. No heat and no cooling are marked urgent; a ring during the call is kept for the dangers above.
Can an account go live without anyone on call?
No. An account cannot go live without a reachable on-call contact. If you haven’t given an on-call number, Wakeman won’t tell a caller that help is on the way.
Page updated September 24, 2026.
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