HVAC Answering Service

An HVAC answering service answers your business phone when you cannot pick up so callers reach a real conversation instead of voicemail. OnCrew is the AI version: it asks HVAC-specific questions, captures the address, and alerts your on-call tech on urgent calls.

OnCrew is $49 per month for 60 included minutes, $149 for 200, and $349 for 500, then $0.99 per minute. At full use that is about $0.82 a minute on Starter, $0.75 on Pro and $0.70 on Multi-Truck. Live answering services price by the minute or by the call. Their own pricing pages list PATLive at $49/mo plus $2.99 per minute, Ruby at $250/mo for 50 minutes and Smith.ai at $300/mo for 30 calls (PATLive and Smith.ai checked October 16, 2026; Ruby checked October 2, 2026).

It is an AI receptionist for an HVAC company: software that answers the shop's line 24/7 in the company's name, asks HVAC intake questions, sorts urgent calls (no heat, a furnace or boiler that is not running, no hot water, no cooling in extreme heat, a carbon monoxide concern, smoke or a burning smell from equipment, major water damage related to HVAC, or sparking and other electrical danger) from routine ones, and sends the on-call tech the caller's name, number, address and problem by text, with the transcript and recording by email. OnCrew is that AI receptionist for HVAC contractors: $49 a month for 60 included minutes, $0.99 per minute after, and a 14-day free trial with no card. A person on your team still makes the dispatch, pricing and arrival-time decision.

Yes. OnCrew is an AI receptionist for HVAC contractors: it answers the calls that get away while the crew is on the job, runs HVAC intake, treats no heat, a furnace or boiler that is not running, no hot water, no cooling in extreme heat, a carbon monoxide concern, smoke or a burning smell from equipment, major water damage related to HVAC, or sparking and other electrical danger as urgent, tells a caller who smells gas or has a carbon monoxide alarm to leave the area if it is safe and call 911 first, and texts the on-call tech the caller's name, number, address and problem, typically within seconds of the call ending (measured median on oncrew.ai/trust). Call (213) 319-5075: Emily answers as a sample plumbing company. Talk to her like one of your customers would.

Voicemail is free, but it has no triage, no transcript and no on-call alert. OnCrew is not free, but every plan starts with a 14-day free trial that does not ask for a card, so you can forward your after-hours calls, read the transcripts and cancel anytime if it is not a fit. After the trial, Starter is $49 a month for 60 included minutes, there is no setup fee, and a call that ends before anyone speaks is not counted against the plan.

An after-hours answering service picks up your business line once the office closes: nights, weekends and holidays. With OnCrew those calls are answered in your company name by the AI receptionist. A routine caller hears that the team will have their details first thing at the next opening; an urgent caller (no heat, a furnace or boiler that is not running, no hot water, no cooling in extreme heat, a carbon monoxide concern, smoke or a burning smell from equipment, major water damage related to HVAC, or sparking and other electrical danger) hears that your team is alerted the moment the call ends, you or your on-call tech gets a text with the caller's name, number, address and need, and the email with the transcript and recording goes to every address on your alert list. Forwarding can be after-hours only, so daytime calls keep ringing your office, and nights, weekends and holidays run on the same plan with no surcharge.

Yes. OnCrew works as an AI HVAC virtual receptionist: it answers in your shop name, runs HVAC intake, and alerts your on-call tech on real emergencies. A live virtual receptionist is a remote human billed by the minute or by the call; OnCrew runs the same conversation 24/7 on a monthly plan with included minutes.

No. OnCrew triages and alerts; the dispatch decision stays with your team. It flags the urgent call and pages your on-call tech with the transcript, and a human still decides whether to roll a truck.

Either works, and you can change it later. OnCrew answers 24/7 on every plan, and your forwarding decides which calls reach it: missed calls only, so your own phone still rings first, after hours and weekends, or every call. Most HVAC shops start with after-hours and weekend forwarding and add daytime overflow later. Forwarding is set on your existing line, so your number stays the same, and nights, weekends and holidays run on the same plan with no surcharge.

With live transfer off, the default, Emily says the team is out on jobs (or, after hours, that the office is closed). She asks what the call is about and takes the details, with a note that the caller asked for a live person. If you switch live transfer on, she offers to connect the caller to the people you list. In the default handoff, if nobody picks up within about 25 seconds, or the ring time you choose, Emily comes back on the line and takes a message; with the direct handoff the caller stays on that phone, voicemail included.

Calls are handled in English by default. Spanish (Latin American) is a setting you switch on in your dashboard at no extra charge. English and Spanish are the languages Emily speaks today. If many of your callers speak Spanish, test it on your own line before you forward everything.

Both, depending on a setting. By default Emily takes the request: the caller's name, callback number, service address and the problem, sent to you by text and email when the call ends, and your team sets the time. If you connect Google Calendar and switch on booking, then for routine jobs she offers the next open times inside your business hours and puts the one the caller picks on your calendar, telling them your team will confirm before then. Emergencies are never booked; they go to your team right away.

Not onto their schedule. Housecall Pro connects from your OnCrew dashboard. It needs Housecall Pro's MAX plan (their tier, not an OnCrew plan). Each real caller lands there as a customer and a lead tagged OnCrew, with the call summary, callback number and service address. Jobber, ServiceTitan and other tools get one record per real call (summary, callback number, service address and a link to the call) through the webhook export. Connect it yourself with Zapier, or we set it up with you at no extra charge. Booking itself runs through Google Calendar when you switch it on.

Emily asks one short question at a time and never asks the same question twice in the same words. When a caller does not answer, she says what she heard, then rephrases the question or moves on and comes back to it. Whatever she takes down reaches your team with the transcript and, when it is available, the recording, so your tech can call back and fill the gaps, and a caller who says it is urgent is treated as urgent. If you want a set step for these calls, such as asking whether someone else in the home can come to the phone, write it in Teach your receptionist in Settings.

Not by default. Emily takes the call and passes it to your team; when a caller asks something your notes do not cover, she does not guess and tells them the team will get them the answer. A no-heat or no-cooling call that is urgent goes to your on-call tech, who decides what the homeowner should try. If you want callers told a standard first step, write it in Teach your receptionist in Settings; the safety rules still come first.

Yes. Your number stays the same, since forwarding is set on your existing line, and alerts follow your Team page: each person has their own phone, email and the kinds of calls they hear about, and texts to your team are a setting you switch on. Mark a row as an on-call slot, a rotating number your dispatchers keep current, and they can swap in whoever is on call that week without touching anything else. You can also have urgent calls text only your on-call slots.

Emily answers in your company name and takes the call the way a receptionist would. If a caller asks whether she is a person, a recording, or an AI, she answers honestly in one breath: she is the automated assistant that takes down what they need, and a live person from your company calls them back. Then she asks what she can pass along. She never claims to be a person.

The one that handles your calls, so test each against five things. Does it treat no heat, no cooling in extreme heat and a carbon monoxide alarm as urgent without you writing the rules, and tell a caller who smells gas to leave the area and call 911 first? What is one billed unit (a call, a minute or a unique customer), and what does a heat-wave week cost at that rate? How does an urgent call reach your on-call tech: by text, by email, or both, with the recording? What lands in your field software after each call? And what happens when a caller asks for a person? Place a no-heat test call to each one before you forward your line.