Done-for-you AI receptionist and answering service
Optimal Automations builds and runs an AI receptionist for your home service business. It picks up when you can't, says only the prices you give it and books the visit on your Google Calendar while the customer is still on the line. Yes, it's an AI, and it says so as soon as it picks up. We're two founders, Andrei and Konnor, and we set it up, test it and tune it ourselves.
Free, no card, about 5 minutes. You enter your contact details, then your prices and rules, and call your own AI receptionist from your browser. Andrei or Konnor may follow up.
Source: Invoca Home Services Lead Conversion Benchmarks Report, July 2026, from calls to HVAC, plumbing, pest control, lawn care, restoration and other home service businesses. Invoca is a software vendor and the headline figures show no method, so read them as a guide, not a forecast.
An AI receptionist for a home service business is an AI voice assistant that answers your business line, asks the questions you set, gives only the prices you supply and books the visit on your calendar. It tells every caller it is an AI assistant and that the call is recorded. It doesn't diagnose problems or guess at prices.
New customers call while you're under a sink, up a ladder or halfway through a move. If nobody picks up, they call the next company on the list, and the job is gone before you see the missed call.
ServiceTitan's June 2022 data on more than 3,000 US and Canadian trade businesses that use its software shows the pattern. Shops with fewer than five technicians booked 24% of inbound calls. Shops with 25 or more booked 59%.
After 6 p.m. the small shops booked 9% and the large shops 21% (ServiceTitan). The data doesn't say why. A fair guess: bigger shops have someone whose whole job is the phone, and you don't.
An AI receptionist picks up day or night and books the job while the customer is still on the line.
Example call
Here's how it handles a typical pickup call for Sample Junk Co., a made-up junk removal company we use for demos. It asks the right questions, quotes from the price sheet and books a window that's open on the calendar. Yours answers as your business, in your trade's words. The example is shortened. The free demo call has no live calendar and no texting; on your real line the AI checks your Google Calendar and asks about texts.
Recording of a call to our AI
Prefer to try it yourself? Enter your details, answer three short screens and call your own AI receptionist from your browser.
Read an example call for your trade: HVAC, Plumbing, House cleaning, Remodeling and construction, Window cleaning, Moving, Junk removal, Handyman.
How it works
Calls you can't take forward to it: no answer after a few rings, a busy line, after hours. You keep your business number. It answers with your business name in a natural voice, and as soon as it picks up it says it's an AI assistant and that the call is recorded.
What's the problem or the job, how big, where, what access, and when. You decide what it asks and what it never promises.
Prices and fees come from your price sheet. For anything you didn't write down, it says the team confirms. Big or unclear jobs are booked as a look on site instead of a phone quote.
It checks your Google Calendar and offers only open times inside your hours. The job lands on your calendar with every detail.
If the customer said yes to texts on the call, they get a confirmation text. You get a summary of each customer call with the name, number, address and time, and every call is logged in a Google Sheet with its recording. Texts, your summary included, wait for carrier approval; until then your summary comes by email.
Sample Junk Co.Text message
Thu 3:41 PM
Sample Junk Co.: Booked! Junk pickup Tue Oct 13, 10am-12pm at 42 Oak St. Crew calls 30 min ahead. Reply R to reschedule or cancel, STOP to opt out.
Thank you!
If you want it, a caller who asks for a person, has a complaint or needs a commercial quote can be transferred to your cell during your business hours. After hours it takes a message.
Reminder texts
Booking is half the work. Customers forget, change plans or aren't home. The reminders keep in touch so your crew doesn't drive to an empty driveway.
For customers who said yes to texts: a confirmation text with the day, arrival window and address.
Sample Junk Co.: Reminder - your junk pickup is tomorrow, Tue Oct 13, 10am-12pm at 42 Oak St. Reply C to confirm or R to reschedule. STOP to opt out.
They reply C to confirm or R to change it.
That job's reminders pause. The customer gets a short note that you'll text them to reschedule or cancel, and you get an email so you can pick a new time.
Sample Junk Co.: Today's the day! Our crew arrives 10am-12pm at 42 Oak St and calls 30 min ahead. Reply C to confirm or R to reschedule. STOP to opt out.
About two hours after a reminder goes unanswered, you get one email, so you can call before a truck rolls to a house nobody's in.
One honest note: texting starts once the phone carriers approve your business texting number, usually one to four weeks after we file. Until then the AI answers calls and books jobs, every call is in your call log, and you get each summary by email. A reminder is skipped when the job was booked less than six hours before it was due. If you move a job on your calendar, its reminders follow the new time. The customer isn't told automatically, so give them a call or a text.
Your dashboard
You get a private dashboard that shows what your receptionist did, built to be read in a few seconds. Open the example and press Simulate a call to see a booking land.
The example is a made-up business with made-up numbers, and it needs no sign-in. Your numbers will differ.
Built for your trade
A no-cool call, a burst pipe and a first-time house clean are different calls. We tune the questions, the price sheet, the urgent-call rules and the safety wording to your trade. Read how it works for yours, or hear it now.
States your service-call fee before booking, treats no-heat and no-cool calls by your rules and sends gas or carbon monoxide calls to a fixed 911 message.
AI receptionist for HVAC companies → Hear your HVAC receptionistGives your service-call fee, or your emergency fee after hours, before it books. On an active leak it asks once if the water is shut off, and unsafe calls get one of three fixed messages.
AI receptionist for plumbers → Hear your plumbing receptionistQuotes from your price list by home size and type of clean, asks about pets and how your team gets in, and books the first clean on your calendar.
AI receptionist for cleaning businesses → Hear your cleaning receptionistBooks the estimate visit, quotes no price you didn't write, promises no start date and sorts customers from suppliers and subs. Danger calls get fixed 911 messages, and roof leaks get a safety line first.
AI answering service for contractors → Hear your remodeling receptionistQuotes per window from your own price sheet, passes third stories, skylights and storefronts to you for a look, and books the clean on your calendar.
AI receptionist for window cleaners → Hear your window cleaning receptionistGives your hourly rate, minimum hours and trip fee but never a binding price, asks about stairs and heavy items, and books the move or a survey.
AI receptionist for moving companies → Hear your moving receptionistSizes the load from what the caller says, quotes your truck-load prices, says no to paint and propane when they come up and sends estate cleanouts to a free on-site estimate.
AI receptionist for junk removal → Hear your junk removal receptionistTakes the whole honey-do list in one call, states your hourly rate and minimum visit, turns down the jobs you don't do and gives roof-leak callers a fixed safety message.
AI receptionist for handyman services → Hear your handyman receptionistPressure washing, landscaping and other trades: pick Other in the builder, type in your price list and hear how it would answer.
Hear it for your trade →Missed-call calculator
Change the numbers to match your business. The starting rates and average job come from published data, linked below.
Estimated jobs not reaching a person, per month
about 6
Estimated revenue at stake, per month
$1,560
That is revenue, not profit, and it leaves out the $997 setup. For scale, Starter is $497 a month.
If only half of those callers would have booked, that's about 3 jobs and $780 a month.
Or book a demo and we'll run this with your real call numbers.
How it's figured: calls per week × 4.33 weeks × share not answered × share that are leads × booking rate × average job. Starting rates from the Invoca 2026 home services report: 65% of calls longer than 15 seconds to home service businesses are answered by a person (52% of all calls), 38% of answered calls are leads, and 45% of those leads convert on the call. $241 is the national average that homeowners pay for junk removal, per Angi, updated September 30, 2026. We start from a low-ticket example so the number stays believable. Invoca's list of trades does not include junk removal, so type your own numbers. It assumes missed callers are just as likely to be leads, and to book, as callers who get through, so treat it as an illustration, not a forecast.
The same math with a typical job for your trade: HVAC, window cleaning, junk removal.
Compare
What each way of answering the phone does with a call from a new customer, and what each costs.
| Feature | Optimal Automations | Voicemail | Answering service | AI receptionist app |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Answers calls 24/7 | Yes | Takes a message only | Usually | Yes |
| Books the job during the call | Yes, into your Google Calendar | No | Often just takes a message | If you connect a calendar |
| Quotes your price ranges | Yes, from your price sheet | No | Rarely | If you set it up |
| Confirmation and reminder texts | Day before and morning of, after carrier approval and a yes on the call | No | Usually not | Some apps |
| You hear it before you pay | Yes, build yours free in three screens | No | Varies | Varies |
| Who sets it up and fixes it | We do, and we keep tuning it | You | The service | Mostly you; some plans include onboarding help |
| Price | $997 setup, then $497 or $797 a month | Free | From $250 a month for 50 minutes (Ruby) | From $49 a month for 250 minutes (Rosie) |
| Contract | Month-to-month | None | Varies | Usually monthly |
Prices checked October 8, 2026 on Ruby's and Rosie's pricing pages. Rosie shows monthly and annual billing; $49 is the price shown on its page. 'Answering service' means a live-operator service. AI receptionist apps cost less each month than we do, and most are set up by you. Features vary by provider and plan.
Your rules
The fear is a receptionist that quotes the wrong price or says something that costs you a customer. So it's built to say less, not more, and you can listen to every call.
At a glance
The facts in one place, last checked October 8, 2026.
Pricing
For scale, a full-time receptionist earns a median $38,010 a year in the US (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025), about $3,170 a month in wages alone, for about 40 of the week's 168 hours. Optimal Automations is $997 once to set up, then $497 a month for Starter or $797 for Pro, and it answers nights and weekends too.
$497/ month
For owner-operators and small crews
For busy crews
$797/ month
For multi-truck teams and high call volume
$997
We build it and test it
What you commit to: $1,494 to start on Starter ($997 setup plus the first month) or $1,794 on Pro. After that it is month-to-month: cancel before your next billing date and you owe nothing more, apart from $0.25 for each minute over your plan.
What we need from you: answers to a few questions about your fees, service area and schedule, access to your Google Calendar, call forwarding from the number you already use, and the business details the phone carriers ask for before texting starts. We build, test and tune it.
No per-call fees. Extra minutes past your plan are $0.25 each. Prices in US dollars. Several locations or more minutes? We'll quote it on the call.
We are not the cheapest way to get a phone answered. AI receptionist apps start at $29 to $49 a month, and Ruby, a live answering service, starts at $250. You pay us for the part they leave to you: a receptionist built from your own prices, tested before it takes a call, tuned in the first month, with a founder you can reach and the guarantee below.
If your AI receptionist doesn't book at least 5 jobs in its first 30 days live, your second month is free. "Free" means we waive your plan fee for month 2. The $997 setup fee is not refunded.
Five average junk removal jobs ($241 each, per Angi) come to $1,205, more than twice the Starter price. Your jobs may be worth more or less.
Who you'll work with
We're Andrei and Konnor. We build every AI receptionist ourselves and test it before it takes a customer's call. We tune it through your first month; after that you send us a change and we make it, and Pro adds a monthly call review. You talk to one of us on the demo, and after launch you reach one of us directly, not a support queue.
We are new. There are no customer reviews or case studies to show yet, and we won't invent any. What we can show: you hear your own receptionist before you pay, every number on this page links to its source, and the guarantee puts our month-2 fee on the line.
Email us anytime: hello@automateai.agency
Andrei
Co-founder
Konnor
Co-founder
Questions
Updated
An AI receptionist is a phone assistant that answers a business line in a natural-sounding voice. It talks with callers, answers common questions, books appointments into a calendar and takes messages, 24 hours a day. Optimal Automations builds one for your home service business, loads your prices and rules, and runs it for you.
AI receptionist apps start at $29 to $49 a month: Rosie from $49 for 250 minutes, Dialzara from $29 for 60 minutes and Jobber's Receptionist at $29 for 30 conversations (included on its Plus plan). A live answering service such as Ruby starts at $250 for 50 minutes. Optimal Automations is done for you: $997 to set up, then $497 or $797 a month.
Sources: Rosie pricing, Dialzara pricing, Jobber Help, Receptionist, Ruby pricing
The service isn't free, but the demo is. On the builder page you enter your name, email and mobile, pick your trade, answer three short screens and call your own AI receptionist in your browser, with no card. It answers as your business, with your prices. If you want it on your real phone line, plans start at $497 a month after a $997 setup.
Some do. A Gartner survey of 5,728 customers (December 2023, published July 2024) found 64% would prefer companies not use AI for customer service; the top worry was reaching a person. So ours says what it is in its opening greeting and, if you turn it on, transfers the call to your cell during business hours. Otherwise it takes a message.
Source: Gartner survey, July 2024
Yes. You keep your business number and forward calls to your AI receptionist. We recommend forwarding the calls you can't take: no answer after a few rings, a busy line and after hours. The guarantee needs at least 40 calls to reach the AI in 30 days, so on the demo we check your call volume first.
Yes, the prices you give us. It states them as ranges or fees from your price sheet, such as the $200 to $400 that Sample Junk Co., our made-up demo company, lists for half a truck, and says the crew confirms the final price on site. Anything you didn't write down, it says the team confirms.
About a week until it answers calls. Texting starts once phone carriers approve your business texting number, usually one to four weeks after we file, and we file as soon as we have your business details. The first month is $1,494 on Starter or $1,794 on Pro: the one-time $997 setup plus your first month.
Not today. It books into Google Calendar and logs every call, with the recording, in a Google Sheet. It doesn't schedule inside Jobber, Housecall Pro or ServiceTitan. If you schedule there, bring it up on the demo and we'll tell you exactly what we can connect today.
Yes. You get a private dashboard with the jobs booked this month, the calls waiting for a call back, and each call's summary, transcript and recording. You can name your job sizes and set your own prices. You can try an example with made-up numbers first, with no sign-in.
No long-term contract. Plans are month-to-month, and you can cancel anytime before your next billing date. The $997 setup fee is one-time. Starter includes 1,000 AI minutes a month, about 500 two-minute calls, and Pro includes 2,500. Extra minutes are $0.25 each and there are no per-call fees.
Every call is recorded and logged, so nothing is hidden, and you get a summary of each customer call, by email at first and by text once texting is approved. It says only the prices and rules you gave it, so most fixes take one message to us with the change. During your first month we review calls and adjust what the AI says.
Yes. The AI receptionist answers 24/7 and only books into the time windows you choose. You decide what it does after hours: book the job or take a message for you. Calls it can't safely handle, like a gas smell or a carbon monoxide alarm, get a fixed message that sends the caller to 911.
Businesses use AI to answer their own calls, but recording, disclosure and texting rules differ by state. Ours says it's an AI assistant and that the call is recorded in its opening greeting, texts only customers who said yes, and makes no outbound calls to your customers. The FCC ruled in 2024 that AI voices count as artificial voices under the TCPA. We're not lawyers, so ask yours.
Not yet. We're a new company run by two founders, so there are no customer reviews or case studies to show, and we won't invent any. What we can show: build and call your own receptionist for free, read the sources behind every number on this page, and use the guarantee, which puts our month-2 fee on the line.
HVAC, plumbing, house cleaning, window cleaning, moving, junk removal, handyman work and remodeling, plus other home service trades. Each trade gets its own questions, price sheet, urgent-call rules and safety wording. If yours isn't listed, pick Other in the free builder and type in your price list to hear how it would answer.
Free 20-minute demo
20 minutes on Zoom with Andrei or Konnor. You'll leave with:
If you go ahead and it doesn't book 5 jobs in its first 30 days live, your second month is free. Conditions apply: see the terms.
No long-term contract. If it's not a fit, we'll tell you on the call.
Thanks, there. Pick a time for your 20-minute Zoom.
Calendar not loading? Open it in a new tab or email hello@automateai.agency.