OnCrew is a virtual receptionist for contractors, delivered as a 24/7 AI receptionist instead of a remote human on a per-minute meter. It answers in your business name, asks trade-specific questions, captures full job details, flags urgent calls, and alerts your on-call team so jobs do not slip into voicemail.
Plans start at $49/mo with 100 calls after trial. Pricing is shown before checkout.
We only use the call details you share to configure your AI answering script and team alerts.
Quick answer
Voicemail loses leads, generalist virtual receptionist floors miss trade context, and a full-time front desk is overkill for most shops.
Many callers will not leave a voicemail before dialing the next contractor they find. An AI receptionist keeps the conversation alive in your business name so fewer leads roll away.
A no-heat house, a sewage backup, and a routine quote request all sound the same in a missed-call list. Triage has to happen on the call, not the next morning.
A full-time receptionist adds salary, benefits, scheduling gaps, and limited coverage hours. Most contractor shops need coverage that scales with call volume, not headcount.
Three steps from a forwarded call to a callback-ready lead in your dashboard.
Customers keep calling the same number they always have. Calls roll into your AI receptionist when you cannot answer, around the clock or only after hours, your choice.
OnCrew greets callers as your company, asks the right trade-specific questions, and writes down the address, contact info, and a clear summary of the issue in the caller's words.
Urgent jobs route to your on-call crew with the caller details and issue summary. Routine calls get queued with notes so the morning starts with a prioritized list.
An illustrative sample of the alert OnCrew sends when an urgent call lands. Example only, not a real customer record.
Issue Summary
Caller heard water hammering, then found a leak under the kitchen sink. Closed the wall valve, but water is still spraying intermittently. Asked for the soonest available plumber.
Next action: Page the on-call plumber. Routine non-urgent callbacks queue for the morning with full notes attached.
Illustrative example. No real PII shown.
Try it on a real call first
Call the demo line and listen to the same kind of first conversation your callers would get, or start the trial and test it on your own business number. Starter is $49/month with 100 included calls after the trial, then $0.99 per call overage.
14-day free trial·No credit card to start·30-day money-back guarantee
Trade-aware triage, full job-detail capture, and team alerts that respect on-call rotation.
Day, night, weekends, and holidays. The phone gets answered when you cannot pick up so the caller hears a real conversation instead of a voicemail beep.
Trained on the calls each trade actually receives. The AI knows the difference between a no-heat call in January and a routine tune-up request.
Address, contact info, the issue in the caller's words, and trade-specific follow-up questions. Your team starts callbacks with the context they need.
Urgent calls trigger an alert with the caller's details and a clear issue summary so your on-call crew can call back fast without listening through a voicemail box.
Plans include a generous monthly call volume and overage calls are $0.99 each. A long emergency call is not metered by the minute.
OnCrew greets callers in your company name, follows your script and service area, and gives routine callers clear callback expectations.
OnCrew is trained on the calls each trade actually receives, so the AI knows which questions to ask and which calls to escalate.
No-heat calls, AC failure, gas smell, furnace lockouts, and routine service requests captured with the right urgency.
Burst pipes, sewage backups, water heater failure, and active leaks separated cleanly from quote and scheduling calls.
Power outages, sparking outlets, panel failures, and storm damage triaged so urgent calls reach your on-call electrician.
Active leaks during storms, blown-off shingles, emergency tarp requests, and routine inspection bookings handled in your voice.
Finish-trim callbacks, framing job-site missed calls, remodel walkthrough requests, punch-list questions, and bid-call capture on the dedicated carpenter answering service page for builders, carpenters, and general contractors.
Doors stuck open overnight, broken springs before work, and opener failures captured with full callback details.
Home and car lockouts, post-break-in rekey calls, and lost-key emergencies routed with location and contact info.
Fire, smoke, water, and mold emergencies that have to reach a real voice and your crew the moment the call lands.
Pest control, appliance repair, handyman, painting, flooring, and other home-service trades whose customers expect a real conversation.
Six things real contractor owners check before pointing the business line at an AI receptionist or any other virtual receptionist for contractors. Use this as a side-by-side test on any vendor, including OnCrew.
Look for: An AI voice and script that greets callers in your company name, follows your service area, and uses contractor-friendly language. The caller should feel like they reached your shop, not a generic AI receptionist platform.
Walk away from: Robotic AI demos that read the same generic greeting regardless of trade, or platforms that brand the answering experience after the AI vendor instead of your contractor business.
Look for: Intake fields built for the calls your trade actually receives: system type and symptom for HVAC, location and active-leak status for plumbing, panel or outlet detail for electrical, storm-damage and active-leak status for roofing.
Walk away from: Form-style chatbots that capture name, number, and a one-line issue field, then call the conversation done.
Look for: Triage that recognizes a real emergency, flags the call as urgent, and sends a single alert with the caller's details and issue summary to your on-call contact. The AI captures intake and passes the alert. Your crew owns the callback and timing decisions.
Walk away from: AI receptionists that promise a visit before your team has confirmed it, make arrival commitments without your input, or commit to a callback window before your team has even seen the alert.
Look for: A clean issue summary on every call plus the full transcript, so a routine quote, a scheduling question, and an after-hours emergency all show up in the morning queue with the context your team needs to call back fast.
Walk away from: Per-call audio dumps with no summary, no urgency tag, and no easy way to tell which calls actually need a callback this morning.
Look for: A flat monthly plan with a clear included-call count and a single, published overage rate. OnCrew uses Starter at $49/month for 100 calls, Pro at $149/month for 400, Multi-Truck at $349/month for 1,000, and $0.99 per call after that.
Walk away from: Per-minute or talk-time pricing where one long emergency call quietly stacks the invoice during your busiest week, plus after-hours and holiday surcharges with no published cap.
Look for: Setup that lets you confirm your business name script, service area, after-hours and holiday rules, the exact escalation contacts for urgent calls, and the forwarding rules from your existing business number.
Walk away from: One-size-fits-all defaults you cannot edit, or vendors who lock down the script and route calls through their own rules without your input.
Buyer's deep dive
Trade triage, intake field examples, AI vs live coverage, setup walk-through, and the pricing math behind included calls vs per-minute billing for contractor shops.
Most contractor shops are choosing between three virtual receptionist coverage models. Here is what each one actually does on a contractor call, where each one still wins, and where each one quietly loses leads.
Trade-trained AI virtual receptionist
Picks up your business line 24/7 in your contractor company name, asks trade-specific intake questions, captures the address, contact info, and the issue in the caller's own words, then alerts your on-call crew on real emergencies.
Best fit: Solo contractors, small crews, and growing shops that want predictable monthly billing and a trade-aware first conversation on no-heat, burst pipe, sparking outlet, active roof leak, finish-trim callbacks, and after-hours job-site calls.
Watch out: Some callers will recognize they are talking to AI on the first hello. The trade-off is real coverage on nights, weekends, holidays, and overflow at flat monthly billing instead of a per-minute meter.
Remote human virtual receptionist
A live remote agent (Ruby, Smith.ai, Nexa, Posh, or contractor-focused floors) answers in your company name, follows your script, takes a message, and pages your team on a per-call or per-minute meter during covered hours.
Best fit: Daytime books that lean on warm, judgment-heavy client conversations: insurance restoration intake, custom remodel design intake, multi-stakeholder commercial bid coordination, and high-touch finish-carpentry consultations where a polished human voice still has a real edge.
Watch out: Per-minute and per-call billing climbs fast on a long bid walkthrough or a freeze-night surge. Most virtual receptionist floors are generalist, so a sparking outlet or active leak in live rain only triages as cleanly as the script training the floor received.
Hybrid coverage
Your in-house front-desk person, a daytime CSR, or a live virtual receptionist handles the warm daytime book. OnCrew's AI virtual receptionist takes nights, weekends, lunch breaks, and busy or no-answer overflow on the same business line.
Best fit: Established shops with a daytime phone person whose worst week is a freeze night, a heat wave, a hail event, or a remodel crunch when daytime calls also start spilling over. Forwarding rules send the call to OnCrew only when your team cannot pick up.
Watch out: Hybrid setups need clean forwarding rules and a single set of escalation contacts so callers do not bounce between two voices. OnCrew can be configured to match the daytime script so the handoff sounds consistent.
See how an HVAC virtual receptionist compares to an AI HVAC answering service on no-heat, AC failure, gas-smell, and furnace-lockout calls.
Open the HVAC pageSee how a plumbing virtual receptionist compares to an AI plumber answering service and an after-hours AI dispatcher on burst pipes, sewage backups, and water heater calls.
Open the plumbing pageSee how a contractor virtual receptionist works for general contractors, builders, remodelers, finish carpenters, and subs on bid walkthrough requests, schedule callbacks, and after-hours job-site issues.
Open the contractor pageThe honest 2026 contractor comparison: where a live virtual receptionist still wins, where a trade-trained AI receptionist fits cleanly, and the hybrid setups shops use during the day plus after hours.
Read the comparisonOnCrew answers, captures, triages, alerts, and summarizes the call. It does not promise truck arrival times, assign technicians, run project management, or commit your team on the call. Your on-call crew still owns the schedule, the routing, and the work on site.
How an AI receptionist compares to the two coverage options most contractors are stuck choosing between, plus the live virtual receptionist for contractors that sits in between.
Pick the included call volume that matches your shop. Overage calls are $0.99 each so usage above the limit is visible before a busy storm week.
Starter
$49/mo
100 included calls
$0.99 per call after
Solo operators and small crews who need a 24/7 AI receptionist without staffing a dedicated phone person.
Pro
$149/mo
400 included calls
$0.99 per call after
Growing shops handling steady call volume across multiple trucks and service areas.
Multi-Truck
$349/mo
1,000 included calls
$0.99 per call after
Multi-crew operations that need full daytime overflow plus dedicated nights and weekends.
See full plan details on the pricing page.
A virtual receptionist for contractors answers your business phone in your company name when your team cannot pick up so callers reach a real conversation instead of voicemail. The classic model is a remote human agent on a per-minute or per-call meter. OnCrew is a 24/7 AI virtual receptionist for contractors: it answers in your business name, asks trade-specific questions for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, and carpentry calls, captures the address, contact info, and the issue in the caller's own words, and alerts your on-call crew on real emergencies. Plans start at $49 per month for 100 calls.
A live virtual receptionist is a remote human agent who answers your business line in your company name, follows your script, takes a message, and pages your team on a per-call or per-minute meter during covered hours. An AI receptionist like OnCrew handles the same first conversation 24/7 in your business name on a flat monthly plan, captures the same caller details, and alerts your on-call crew on real emergencies. Live receptionists tend to win on long, warm, judgment-heavy daytime calls. AI tends to win on after-hours coverage, trade-specific urgency triage on no-heat or burst pipe calls, and predictable monthly billing during a freeze night or storm surge.
OnCrew's AI virtual receptionist for contractors starts at $49 per month for 100 included calls, with Pro at $149 per month for 400 calls and Multi-Truck at $349 per month for 1,000 calls. Calls beyond your plan are $0.99 each. A live virtual receptionist service typically costs $200 to $500 per month base fee plus per-minute or per-call billing on top, with after-hours and holiday surcharges that climb fast on long emergency calls.
Yes. OnCrew works as a virtual receptionist for carpenters, finish-trim contractors, framers, remodelers, and general contractors who run calls from the truck and the job site. The AI captures finish-trim callbacks, framing job-site missed calls, remodel walkthrough requests, punch-list questions, change-order follow-ups, and after-hours job-site issues with the project name, address, and contact info already pulled together for your PM, foreman, or estimator.
OnCrew is built for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, garage door, locksmith, restoration, and other home-service contractors, plus general contractors, builders, remodelers, finish carpenters, and subcontractors who run construction work. The AI is trained on the calls each trade actually receives, so a no-heat call, a burst pipe, a sparking panel, an active roof leak, a finish-trim callback, or a bid walkthrough request gets the right urgency level and the right details captured.
No. OnCrew is a virtual receptionist that answers, captures, triages, alerts, and summarizes the call. It does not promise truck arrival times, assign technicians on the call, route trucks, run project management, or commit your team before your team has confirmed it. Those decisions stay with your owner, your office manager, your estimator, and your on-call crew. The AI replaces voicemail and after-hours dead air for the first conversation, not your team's judgment on what to do next.
Yes. Plenty of contractor shops blend coverage: an in-house front-desk person, a daytime CSR, or a live virtual receptionist during business hours, with OnCrew on nights, weekends, lunch breaks, and busy or no-answer overflow. Forward your business line to OnCrew only when your team cannot pick up so the lead does not roll to the next contractor. OnCrew can be configured to match your daytime script so the handoff sounds consistent in your business voice.
Yes. OnCrew serves contractors across the United States. The AI answers in your business name and respects whatever service area you set up, so a contractor in Texas, Florida, California, or anywhere else can run OnCrew on their existing business number.
Setup is guided. You share your business name, service area, hours, and the kinds of calls you take. We configure your AI virtual receptionist and walk you through call forwarding from your existing business number. There is no hardware to install and no software for your crew to learn.
OnCrew answers in your business voice and is designed to sound natural. Some callers will recognize it as an AI assistant and that is fine. The point is that the caller hears a real conversation, gets their issue acknowledged, and ends the call knowing your team will follow up rather than getting routed to voicemail.
Honest, contractor-built guides on AI vs live virtual receptionist coverage, trade triage, and the cost math behind included calls.
The cross-trade virtual receptionist page: how the same AI answers HVAC, plumbing, electrician, and contractor lines with each trade's own intake patterns, urgent-call handoffs, and transcripts.
Read the guide
Honest 2026 comparison of an AI phone agent and a contractor virtual receptionist on job-site calls, after-hours emergencies, estimate requests, scheduling, dispatch boundaries, and per-minute pricing.
See the comparison
Why solo and small contractor shops are switching from voicemail and per-minute live virtual receptionist plans to a flat-rate AI virtual receptionist on the same business line.
See the comparison
Deeper buyer's guide for contractor owners: trade-aware triage, AI vs live coverage, setup walk-through, and pricing breakdown across the major options.
Read the guide
Smith.ai, Ruby, Nexa, traditional call centers, and AI-first options like OnCrew compared on trade triage, pricing, and after-hours coverage for contractors.
See the comparison
Side-by-side breakdown of AI receptionists, live virtual receptionists, and traditional answering services so you can pick the right coverage model for your shop.
Read the guide
Honest 2026 breakdown of AI receptionist cost vs in-house human receptionist cost for solo and small contractor shops, with the staffing math and the urgency-triage tradeoffs.
See the comparison
When hiring a front-desk person beats AI coverage, and when an in-house receptionist quietly costs three to four times what an AI virtual receptionist runs each month.
Read the guide
Forwarding rules, on-call calendar, escalation contacts, and trade-specific scripts to lock in before go-live on any virtual receptionist or answering service.
Read the guide
Start a 14-day free trial of OnCrew and let the AI virtual receptionist answer your business phone in your company name. Your team only gets pinged for calls that actually need a callback.
Tell us about your shop. A real teammate follows up to set up call forwarding, urgency rules, and team alerts. This is a setup request, not an instant trial start.
© 2026 OnCrew · Serving contractors nationwide
Abe
Founder, OnCrew · Los Angeles, CA
“I built OnCrew after watching my brother’s plumbing crew miss two urgent jobs in one night because their answering service kept callers on hold. Every pilot launches with me on the call. I won’t hand you off to a sales rep, and I read every refund request myself.”
Read the full story30-day money-back guarantee
If OnCrew doesn’t earn its keep in your first 30 days, email hello@oncrew.ai and we refund every dollar. No phone tree, no retention script.
90-second urgent handoff target
Urgent calls are tagged for fast configured handoff with transcript and caller details. Your team still owns callback, assignment, ETA, and field decisions.