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Why Contractors Lose Jobs Without a 24/7 AI Receptionist for Contractors

Emergency calls come at night. Estimate requests pile up during busy days. Commercial clients need fast responses. Without a 24/7 answering service, your office can’t answer immediately—and motivated customers move down their list and book with whoever picks up first. When your office can’t answer immediately, motivated customers move down their list and book with whoever picks up first.

After-Hours Emergencies Go to Competitors Who Answer First

A homeowner’s water heater fails at 9 PM, flooding the basement. She needs help tonight before the damage gets worse. She calls your business voicemail. She tries three more contractors. One has an AI receptionist for contractors that picks up, gets the details, and dispatches someone within the hour. By morning, when you check messages, she’s already been helped, and that $2,800 emergency repair went to your competitor.

Office Can’t Handle Multiple Calls During Busy Periods

Tuesday afternoon, your receptionist is on the phone getting details for a kitchen remodel estimate. Three more calls come in—a commercial property manager, someone needing roof repairs, and a homeowner asking about rates. All go to voicemail. None leaves messages. They call the next contractor who picks up. Without an AI answering service for remodeling inquiries, your office handles one call while three potential projects go to businesses with better capacity.

Estimate Requests Sit in Voicemail While Clients Book Elsewhere

A property manager needs bids for HVAC work across five buildings. She calls four contractors Friday afternoon. Your office is busy, and the call hits voicemail. She leaves a message. Monday morning you call back—she’s already received three bids and picked a contractor. A contractor phone answering service would have captured her details instantly. That commercial job was worth $45,000, but you never even got a chance to quote because your response came too late.

Welco – Your AI Answering Service for Contractors

Collect Job Scope Details Before You Drive to the Site

Welco gathers project specifics during every call through customizable intake forms : square footage, property age, access requirements, current system details, and customer budget expectations. “How old is your roof?” “Is the electrical panel accessible?” “What’s your timeline?” You arrive at estimates knowing the scope, avoiding wasted trips on jobs outside your specialty or budget range. Welco can also send SMS confirmations with your office address, appointment time, and any prep instructions—so customers are ready when you show up. Every lead is pre-qualified before you leave the shop.

Know Which Leads Fit Before You Call Back

Provide Ballpark Pricing Ranges Without Committing to Final Quotes

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Get Your AI Contractor Phone Answering Service Live in 15 Minutes

1

Quick Setup

We create your Welco account and assign a dedicated phone number to your contracting business. Choose a natural AI voice, then upload your service types (plumbing, electrical, HVAC, roofing, remodeling), coverage areas, and typical job types. Add crew schedules and on-call availability. Setup takes 15 minutes with no technical skills required.

Choose Your Phone Number

2

Configure Emergency Protocols and Service Information

Set up how Welco should handle emergency calls: define keywords like “burst pipe,” “no power,” “gas leak,” “flooding,” or “no heat,” and configure which crew member to contact for after-hours emergencies. Upload your service radius, pricing ranges for common jobs, project minimums, and frequently asked questions. All managed through a simple dashboard with no coding needed.

Add Your Business Details

3

Start Capturing Leads

Test a few calls to ensure everything sounds right—try emergency scenarios, estimate requests, and service area questions. Choose your AI model—GPT-4o or Realtime voices—to match your business tone. Once live, Welco immediately begins answering calls, triaging emergencies, booking estimates, and generating detailed records of every conversation with complete transcripts and project details.

Start Receiving Customer Calls

Hear is How Our AI Receptionist Handles Contractors Calls

Contractors

Mark

Contractors

Don’t Let Missed Calls Cost You Projects

Every unanswered call could be your next high-value repair, renovation, or long-term service contract. Welco responds instantly to urgent issues—whether it’s a leak, outage, breakdown, or storm damage—so you never lose work to a competitor who simply picks up the phone first.

From Missed Calls to Booked Jobs – How an Welco Solves Contractor-Specific Call Problems

Current Challenges for Contractors

  • Can’t tell which midnight calls are $3,000 emergency repairs vs. someone asking about a future bathroom remodel.
  • Drive 45 minutes to a job site only to find out it’s outside your service area or expertise.
  • Spend 20 minutes on the phone getting job details, then realize the customer’s budget is half what the job actually costs.
  • Show up to “fix a leaky pipe” and discover it’s a whole-house re-pipe requiring permits you don’t have time for.
  • Commercial property managers need fast responses for tenant emergencies, but your receptionist treats them like residential callers.
  • Office gets three HVAC calls, two electrical inquiries, and a plumbing emergency simultaneously—chaos trying to route each to the right crew.

How Welco Fixes It

  • Welco recognizes emergency keywords like “burst pipe,” “no power,” “flooding,” routes urgent work to on-call crews immediately, schedules routine estimates for business hours.
  • Welco qualifies every caller by collecting location, project type, and job details upfront. Your team only follows up on leads that match your coverage zone and specialties.
  • Welco collects square footage, property age, timeline, and budget expectations upfront, plus shares ballpark pricing ranges so unrealistic leads self-filter before booking.
  • Welco’s intake form captures full project scope during the call—age of systems, access requirements, extent of work needed—so you arrive prepared and properly equipped.
  • Welco identifies commercial vs residential callers and routes accordingly—commercial emergencies get priority handling, residential estimates get scheduled based on availability.
  • Welco automatically routes calls by trade type to the correct department or technician based on the work described, keeping each crew’s schedule organized.

What Contractor Business Owners Say About Welco

We’d get emergency calls at midnight—burst pipes, no heat, flooding—and they’d hit voicemail. By morning, those customers already had someone else fix it. Welco recognizes the emergency keywords and routes them to whoever’s on call immediately. We’re actually capturing those high-dollar night jobs now instead of losing them to competitors who just answered faster.

Mike R

General Contractor, Denver

Our receptionist would be on the phone with a commercial client getting details for a big bid, and three more calls would come in. We’d lose those. Nobody leaves voicemails anymore—they just call the next guy. Welco handles the overflow calls while our staff focuses on complex estimates and crew coordination. We’re not losing jobs just because we were busy.

Sarah T

Construction Company Owner, Portland

We’d drive 30 minutes to give an estimate, then find out the property was way outside our service area or the budget was completely unrealistic. Total waste of fuel and time. Welco asks about location and budget range upfront. Now we only roll trucks to jobs that actually make sense for us.

James L

Licensed Contractor, Chicago

Turn Every Inquiry Into Your Next Project

Every missed call could be your next renovation, emergency repair, or repeat client. With Welco, your phone line becomes a 24/7 contractor answering service that automatically captures plumbing leaks, HVAC breakdowns, electrical issues, storm damage calls, and more—so no opportunity slips away.

Book a Free Demo

FAQs About AI Receptionist for Contractors

How long does it take to get Welco live for my contracting business?

Setup takes about 15 minutes. We create your Welco account and assign a dedicated phone number from Twilio. From there, you choose an AI voice, upload your service types (plumbing, electrical, HVAC, roofing, remodeling), define emergency keywords like “burst pipe” or “no heat,” and configure on-call routing for after-hours emergencies. Add your crew schedules, coverage areas, and typical job details. No technical skills or IT support needed—everything is managed through a simple dashboard. You can start taking real calls the same day.

Can I try Welco before committing to a paid plan?

What if I need to cancel or change my plan later?

How do I update my services, crew schedules, or emergency contacts after setup?

Does Welco integrate with the scheduling tools contractors actually use?