Published 8 August 2026 · Latitude Global Solutions
Don't hire. One person can't cover the hours you're actually losing — evenings, weekends, mid-job.
For a shop under five trucks the real choice is a live answering service (about $1–1.59 a minute) or an AI receptionist ($29–$349 a month, depending on included minutes). Our own, Call Inbox, is $297 a month with 1,500 minutes and a 30-day guarantee.
The breakeven is one job a month. At a $350 ticket, a single job you'd have missed covers the whole cost — so this isn't a question of whether you get enough calls.
The calls you're missing are at 6:40pm, on Saturday, and during dinner. A front-desk hire works 9 to 5. You'd be paying several thousand a month before payroll taxes to cover the window you were already covering, and the window that's actually costing you would stay open.
It answers the calls you miss — nights, weekends, mid-job — books the job during the call, and shows you every call afterwards in plain English. Not a message service: it takes the name, number, address and the actual problem, then puts the appointment on your calendar.
$297/month · 1,500 minutes included · overage $0.25/min · no contract
The demo line answers as the front desk of Summit Plumbing & Drain, a fictional Denver shop — it's the same software that would go on your line.
In practice there are four setups, and most shops are running one without having chosen it:
| Setup | What it costs | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Straight to voicemail | $0 | Most callers don't leave one — they dial the next shop |
| Recorded message with on-call tech's mobile | $0 | Pushes screening onto a tech who's asleep or with family |
| Live answering service | ~$1.00–1.59/min | Costs add up fast; they don't know your business |
| AI receptionist (general) | $29–$349/mo | Cheap tiers include few minutes; some don't book at all |
| Call Inbox (ours, built for trades) | $297/mo, 1,500 min | Home services only — we don't take other verticals |
For plumbing and HVAC specifically, evening and weekend calls skew toward real emergencies — burst pipe, no heat, no water. Those are higher-ticket and far less price-sensitive than a Tuesday-afternoon quote request. It's the best work you're not answering.
Which means the question usually isn't whether to cover nights. It's who or what covers them, without you personally taking the call at 9pm.
Don't pick from a list. Measure first. Call your own line from a number your team won't recognise — once just after 5pm, once around dinner, once on a Saturday. Log what happened each time.
If two of the three went to voicemail, you already have your answer. Put your own numbers into the missed-call calculator to see what the gap is worth — but be clear about how low the bar actually is.
At a $350 average ticket, a single job you'd otherwise have missed more than covers the $297. Not one a week. One a month. Everything after that is revenue that was walking out the door.
Which is why "do I even get enough calls for this?" is the wrong question. A two-truck shop taking a couple of calls a day, missing a few a week and converting one of them, is comfortably ahead. Call volume decides how much you gain — not whether it's worth doing.
And the part that never shows up in the arithmetic: you stop spending Saturday afternoon deciding whether to pick up. You get the evenings back. The phone stops being something you carry.
Set up on your existing number within 24 hours. 30 days — if you're not happy, you don't pay. No minimum call volume, no hoops. If we haven't booked you at least five jobs, just let us know you aren't satisfied and we'll refund everything you've paid — and you keep every booking it made.
The demo line answers as the front desk of Summit Plumbing & Drain, a fictional Denver shop — it's the same software that would go on your line.