---
title: "How to Choose an AI Receptionist for a Home Service Company: 10 Questions and Published Prices"
description: "Ten questions to ask before you buy an AI receptionist for an HVAC, plumbing or roofing company, with the prices six vendors publish and how each charges."
url: "https://www.thequietprotocol.com/blog/choose-ai-receptionist-home-service-company-10-questions"
---

# How to Choose an AI Receptionist for a Home Service Company: 10 Questions and Published Prices

Ten questions to ask before you buy an AI receptionist for an HVAC, plumbing or roofing company, with the prices six vendors publish and how each charges.

![A scoring sheet with ten buyer questions, each scored 0, 1 or 2, from the emergency call to who fixes it when it is wrong.](https://www.thequietprotocol.com/images/editorial/choose-ai-receptionist-home-service-company-10-questions-cover.webp)

If you run an HVAC, plumbing or roofing company, you have probably seen a lot of AI receptionist ads this year. The category has gone from a handful of tools to dozens, the prices run from under $50 to well over $1,000 a month, and the demos all sound good for the first thirty seconds.

This guide gives you ten questions that separate the options, and the prices six vendors publish as of October 7, 2026, so you know what the market looks like before you talk to anyone. We sell one of these services, and we say so. The questions apply to any vendor, including us.

**The short answer** Vendors count differently: by minute, by unique caller or by call, so the same shop pays different amounts for the same calls. Ask ten questions, score each answer 0 to 2, and call the live line yourself. A vendor that goes quiet on emergencies, software or leaving has told you what you need.

## What the market charges, and how each one counts

The first thing to notice is that vendors do not charge the same way. One bills by minute, another by unique caller, another by call. A plan that looks cheap can cost more at your volume, and the reverse.

| Vendor | Published plans | How it counts | Contract |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Rosie](https://www.heyrosie.com/pricing) | $49 (250 min), $149 (1,000 min, adds calendar booking and transfers), $299 (2,000 min) | Minutes | Month to month, 7-day free trial |
| [Goodcall](https://www.goodcall.com/pricing) | $79 (100 unique customers), $129 (250), $249 (500), per agent | Unique customers, $0.50 each after the limit | Not stated |
| [Smith.ai](https://smith.ai/pricing) | $300 (30 calls), $810 (90), $2,100 (300) | Calls, $8.50 to $11.50 per extra call | Month to month, 30-day money-back |
| [Ruby](https://www.ruby.com/pricing/) | $250 (50 min), $395 (100), $720 (200), $1,725 (500) | Receptionist minutes | Not stated |
| [Sameday](https://sameday.ai/pricing) | From $449 (500 min), from $789 (1,000 min), custom enterprise | Minutes | Not stated |
| The Quiet Protocol | [Two plans with minutes included](https://www.thequietprotocol.com/solutions/ai-receptionist), custom plans scoped separately | Minutes included in the plan, prepaid top-up packs | No contract, free setup |

Smith.ai and Ruby include human receptionists, so they are not direct comparisons to the AI-only options. We include them because many companies compare them. Prices change often. Check each page before you decide.

Two things stand out. First, you can spend under $150 a month and get a tool that answers, takes messages and, on some plans, books appointments. If that is all you need, those tools exist and they are good at it. Second, the plans in the middle of the range add what the cheaper ones do not: in our case a CRM, a booking calendar, a starter website, a mobile app for estimates, invoices and payments, and a voice built on speech-to-speech models. Whether that is worth the difference is a question about your shop, not about the vendor.

## The ten questions

### 1. What happens on an emergency call?

Ask the vendor to walk you through a no-heat, burst-pipe or active-leak call. Who is told? How fast? By what channel? A good answer names your rules, not theirs: what counts as an emergency, who is called first, and what happens if that person does not answer. Safety calls, such as a gas smell, need a script you have approved in advance.

### 2. What does it cost when my volume goes up?

Pull last month's phone records and count calls and minutes. Then do the math under each vendor's counting method. A plan that counts unique customers behaves differently from one that counts minutes or calls. Ask what happens at the limit: does the agent keep answering, does it stop, and what do you pay?

### 3. Does it book the job, or take a message?

A message is a task for you. A booking is a job on your calendar. Ask where the booking goes, who can see it and what the customer receives afterward. If you use field service software, ask directly how the booking reaches it, and whether that is a feature or a custom project.

### 4. What do I get after the call?

At minimum: a summary of what the caller said, the address, the problem and the lane it belongs in. Better: a transcript you can read, a recording where the law allows it, and the job already created.

### 5. How does it sound on a real call?

Do not judge on the vendor's scripted demo. Call the live line and test it. Interrupt it. Change the address mid-call. Ask a question it should not answer, like a repair price. Ask for a person. Voices built on speech-to-speech models, which listen and speak in real time instead of converting speech to text and back, tend to handle interruptions and pace differently from older text-to-speech systems. Listen for yourself and decide.

### 6. What will it refuse to do?

It should not diagnose a problem, promise an arrival time or quote a repair you have not approved. It should tell the caller it is an AI assistant. Ask for the list of what it will not do and check that it matches how you work.

### 7. How does it connect to the software I use?

Some vendors integrate with field service tools and charge for it. Some, including us on standard plans, do not, and handle connections as a custom plan. Neither is wrong. What matters is that you know before you buy, and that you are not promised an integration that is really a spreadsheet export.

### 8. What do I keep if I leave?

You should keep your phone number, your customer list and your call records. Ask whether the plan is month to month and whether there is a cancellation fee. Ask what the setup fee is and whether it is refundable.

### 9. What is included besides the calls?

A call answered is only the first step. Ask what happens next: follow-up on the estimate, reminders, review requests, a way to send an invoice from your phone. Some vendors are only a phone agent. Others bundle a system around it. Price both the phone part and the rest if you would otherwise buy them separately.

### 10. Who fixes it when it is wrong?

The first week always reveals a gap: a service area it should refuse, a phrase it keeps misreading, an emergency rule that was too loose. Ask who tunes it, how fast, and whether that is included or billed.

## A short scoring sheet

Score each vendor 0, 1 or 2 on each question, where 0 is a bad or vague answer and 2 is a clear, written one. You are not looking for a perfect score. You are looking for the questions where a vendor goes quiet.

## What we would do in your position

- Pull a month of phone records and count missed and after-hours calls first. That is the number that decides how much you should spend.
- Pick two or three vendors from the table, including one at each price level.
- Run the five-minute call test on each: interrupt, change the address, ask a price, ask for a person.
- Ask each one question 7 and question 8 in writing.
- Start on the smallest plan, give it two weeks, and read the call summaries.

If you want to hear our line, call +1 855-916-4334 and play a customer, or [book a demo built around your company](https://www.thequietprotocol.com/demo). If you want to see what is in each plan first, read the [plans and what they include](https://www.thequietprotocol.com/solutions/ai-receptionist). If you also run paid ads, read [how Google Local Services Ads charge for leads](https://www.thequietprotocol.com/blog/google-local-services-ads-home-service-companies-guide). For a side-by-side of answering services and AI voice agents, see the [HVAC comparison](https://www.thequietprotocol.com/blog/hvac-answering-service-vs-ai-voice-agent). We also publish a trade-specific guide for [HVAC companies](https://www.thequietprotocol.com/industries/hvac-emergency-service), [plumbers](https://www.thequietprotocol.com/industries/plumbing) and [roofers](https://www.thequietprotocol.com/industries/roofing-exterior).

Hear ours before you decide

AI voice agents: From $449/month, free setup, no contract. Call the demo line, play a customer and score us on the same ten questions.

**Keep reading**

- [Affordable Answering Service: AI or Another Hire?](https://www.thequietprotocol.com/blog/ai-receptionist-vs-hiring-receptionist-cost-comparison)
- [Goodcall vs Smith.ai](https://www.thequietprotocol.com/blog/goodcall-vs-smith-ai)
- [What Can an AI Receptionist Do? Calls, Booking and Follow-Up](https://www.thequietprotocol.com/blog/what-is-an-ai-receptionist-responsible-for)
- [HVAC Answering Service or AI Voice Agent?](https://www.thequietprotocol.com/blog/hvac-answering-service-vs-ai-voice-agent)

## Frequently asked questions

### What should an AI receptionist do for an HVAC, plumbing or roofing company?

Answer every call, ask your approved questions, book the visit and send real emergencies to your on-call phone. It should not diagnose, quote a repair or promise an arrival time you have not approved.

### Why do AI receptionist prices look so different?

Vendors count differently: by minute, by unique caller or by call. Price your own call log under each method before you compare plans.

### How do I test an AI receptionist before buying?

Call the live line, interrupt it, change the address mid-call, ask a repair price and ask for a person. Score what happens against the ten questions above.

*Prices and plan details for other companies come from each vendor's published pricing page, read on October 7, 2026. They change, and we do not control them. Where a page did not state a contract term, we say so.*

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

By [Vikram Roy](https://www.thequietprotocol.com/authors/vikram-roy) Published October 7, 2026 7 min read

Vikram Roy is the founder of The Quiet Protocol, a Toronto-based AI and marketing agency serving service businesses across the Greater Toronto Area, Canada, and the United States. He works directly with professional firms, home service companies, dental practices and clinics. He connects their website, local search, social media, intake, booking, reviews, follow-up and practical AI into one clear front door.

[Author profile](https://www.thequietprotocol.com/authors/vikram-roy) [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/vikroy/)

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