Published 8 August 2026 · Latitude Global Solutions
Five setups are in common use — answer mid-job, voicemail and call back at night, route to a spouse, a live answering service (~$1–1.59/min), or an AI receptionist ($29–$349/mo).
Answering with a wrench in your hand costs twice: a rushed first impression and the job you're being paid for slows down.
Whatever you pick, it has to capture four things: name, number, address, and what's wrong. Ours is $297 a month — one recovered job covers it.
Five setups are in common use. Most owners cycle through the first three before paying for either of the last two — usually after losing one job they can put a number on.
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.
| What people do | Cost | What it actually costs you |
|---|---|---|
| Answer mid-job, hands full | $0 | Rushed first impression, incomplete intake, and the job you're paid for slows down |
| Voicemail, call back at night | $0 | New leads have already called two other companies by then |
| Route to a spouse or family member | $0 (nominally) | Works until it doesn't; it's a real job being done for free |
| Live answering service | ~$1.00–1.59/min | Costs scale with your busy months; they don't know your business |
| AI receptionist | $49–$349/mo | Cheap tiers include few minutes; some don't book appointments |
It feels free, which is why it's the default. It costs you twice.
First, the caller gets a distracted two-minute conversation from someone who's clearly holding a wrench. That's a poor first impression, and the intake usually comes out incomplete — a name and a number, no address, no real description of the problem. You'll spend another call getting what you needed the first time.
Second, you interrupted the work you're being paid for. Owners who stop doing this consistently report the second cost was bigger than they expected.
They're fine for existing customers and for quoted work — those people are waiting for you specifically.
They convert badly for new inbound leads, because someone with an active problem doesn't wait. By 6pm they've called two or three companies and booked whoever picked up. You're not calling back a lead; you're calling back someone who's already sorted.
Whatever you use, the bar is the same. It has to capture four things:
Those four let you decide whether a job is worth driving to. Anything that only takes "a message and a number" is leaving out the information you need to prioritise, which means you're still doing the intake — just later, and twice.
The better setups go one step further and book the appointment during the call, so there's nothing left to chase when you finally look at your phone.
Find out how much you're actually missing. Call your own line from a number your team won't recognise, a few times across a normal week, and log what happens. Then run the numbers.
Whatever the total, keep the bar in view: at a $350 average ticket, one recovered job a month covers a $297 service. One. The question isn't whether you get enough calls — it's whether you're willing to keep answering them with a wrench in your hand.
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.