Chimney Calls and the Details Sarah Takes Down
A chimney sweep answering service answers your business line when you cannot pick up, so the homeowner reaches a conversation instead of voicemail. OnCrew is the AI receptionist version: Sarah answers in your company name, takes the caller's details and what they need in their words, flags the call urgent on the caller's own word, and sends your team the summary, transcript and recording.
Safety boundary: OnCrew does not inspect a chimney, quote a job, send a sweep, commit to an arrival time, or guarantee a callback window. Your team still owns the schedule and runs the work on site.
Details Sarah takes on a chimney call
- Caller name and best callback number
- Service address, confirmed once as it is given
- The issue in the caller's own words
- Whether the location is a home or a business
- How urgent it is, in the caller's words
- A preferred time for the callback or visit
- Anything more your notes ask for on routine calls, such as wood or gas and how many flues, one short question at a time
- Full transcript, recording and summary for your team
How a call gets flagged urgent
- The caller says the matter is urgent or an emergency
- Or describes something that clearly cannot wait for a routine callback
- No fixed chimney emergency list decides for the caller; the flag follows their own words
- If anyone is in immediate danger (fire, smoke, a medical emergency), Sarah tells them to call 911 first
- On an urgent call she takes only the name, callback number, address and what is happening
- Urgent requests are flagged so your team sees them first
Also service heating equipment? At signup a company picks HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Roofing or Multiple trades. A chimney company that picks Multiple trades runs the general rules above. A line set up as HVAC carries the HVAC built-in urgent examples instead, such as no heat, a carbon monoxide concern, and smoke or a burning smell from equipment. Pick the trade that describes the work you actually do.
Your notes carry the chimney specifics
Sarah knows your business from the notes you write under Teach your receptionist in Settings: the services you offer, the areas you serve, what happens after hours, and the details you want collected on routine calls, such as wood or gas, how many flues, or when the chimney was last swept. She answers from those notes plainly, in her own words. When a question is not covered, a price, a policy, whether you do a specific job, she does not guess: she says the team will get the caller the answer, and you see every question she could not answer so it can go in your notes next time.
Example notes for a chimney company
An example written for this page, not a customer's notes: what a chimney company owner might write under Teach your receptionist.
- Services: chimney sweeping and inspections for fireplaces, wood and pellet stoves and inserts; cap, crown, damper and liner repair.
- Areas we serve: [your towns or counties].
- On a cleaning or inspection request, ask whether it burns wood or gas, how many flues there are, and when it was last swept.
- If the inspection is for a home sale, ask for the closing date.
- Prices: the office gives prices on the callback.
- After hours: nobody goes out at night. The office follows up when it opens.
- If a caller says a carbon monoxide alarm is going off, tell them to leave the house if it is safe to do so and call 911 first.
Sarah asks the questions in notes like these on routine calls only, one short question at a time, skipping anything the caller already said. On an urgent call she takes only the name, the callback number, the address and what is happening; the rest waits for your callback. The general safety line names fire, smoke and a medical emergency. Carbon monoxide is not named in it, so the last note above is yours to add if you want it.
Want the wider trade view? See the answering service for contractors overview, compare options in the AI vs live vs voicemail side-by-side, or open pricing to size the plan to your call volume. If your crew also does brick and stone work, see the masonry answering service page.