Answering Service Setup Checklist for Home Service Contractors

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Why a setup checklist matters before you forward

Most setup pain comes from skipping the small decisions. If you forward your number before deciding what counts as urgent for your trade, the AI does not know which calls deserve a team alert. If you do not write down your business identity, the greeting feels generic. If you skip the test call, you find out about a misrouted alert from a real customer instead of a teammate.

This checklist is the order most contractors get the cleanest result in: pre-flight decisions, alert routing, forwarding, test calls, and a short trial review. Founder-assisted setup walks the same path with you on a short call if you want a second pair of eyes.

1. 1

   Decide when OnCrew answers

   Pick the coverage that matches how your shop already runs the phones. Most contractors choose all calls, after-hours and weekends, overflow on busy or no-answer, or emergency-only. You can change this later from your carrier portal without changing your number.

2. 2

   Define emergency vs routine rules for your trade

   Write down the calls that are urgent for your trade, like a no-heat HVAC call, an active leak for plumbing, sparking outlets for electrical, or storm damage for roofing. Everything else is routine quote or appointment work that can wait for a callback.

3. 3

   Add your business name, service area, trade, and callback number

   OnCrew greets callers in your business name and references your trade and service area. Confirm the legal business name, the phone number you want callbacks to go to, and a short list of cities or counties you cover so the AI introduces your shop the way you would.

4. 4

   Prepare the caller questions you want captured

   List the details a callback will need: caller name, the issue in plain language, address or service area, urgency, and a safe callback number. The AI uses these to build a clean job ticket so your team is not calling back blind.

5. 5

   Choose your team alert path and escalation rules

   Decide who hears about urgent calls and how. OnCrew supports a configurable alert channel for the on-call contact and an escalation path if the first contact does not respond. Your team handles the callback and customer commitments, the AI hands off the job ticket.

6. 6

   Forward your phone line and run a test call

   Configure call forwarding on your existing carrier or phone system, point it at the OnCrew forwarding target from your trial, then place a test call from a personal cell. Confirm the greeting, run a routine and an urgent test, and check the call summary in your dashboard.

7. 7

   Review trial results and upgrade the plan if call volume needs it

   After a few days of real calls, look at how many came in and how the AI handled them. If your shop trends past 100 included calls, move up to Pro at $149 with 400 included calls. Multi-Truck at $349 covers 1,000 included calls for busier crews. Overage calls are $0.99 each.

• Place a test call from a phone outside your business line

  Use a personal cell or a teammate's phone. Calling your own business line from a phone tied to it can route the call differently than a real customer.

• Confirm the AI greets in your business name

  Listen for your shop name in the greeting. If it is wrong, fix it in your OnCrew dashboard before forwarding stays on.

• Run a routine call: a quote request

  Pretend to be a homeowner asking for a basic quote. Confirm the AI captures name, callback number, address or service area, and the job description in plain language.

• Run an urgent call in your trade

  Try a no-heat call for HVAC, an active leak for plumbing, a sparking outlet for electrical, or a storm leak for roofing. Confirm the AI raises urgency and triggers the configured team alert.

• Check the message in your dashboard

  Open the call summary in OnCrew and confirm the transcript, caller details, and urgency level look right. Verify the alert reached your configured channel.

• Adjust hours and routing, then test again

  If anything is off, adjust forwarding hours, on-call contacts, or AI prompts in your OnCrew settings, then run one more test call before you lean on the system.

See full plan details on the pricing page.

Setup FAQ

Quick answers for contractors comparing how an AI answering service is set up against voicemail or a traditional service.