The AI receptionist for contractors that knows your prices and follows your rules
Mercateer answers your business line around the clock, by phone, web chat, or text, and works each call the way you would: it scopes the job, quotes standard work from your price book, and books it on your calendar. It only says what you let it say, and you hear it on your own test calls before it ever talks to a customer. Plans run $99–399/mo, with 30+ languages on every call.
7:40 a.m. · Incoming call
“Storm leaned my fence over. Can you replace the section?”
What is an AI receptionist for contractors?
An AI receptionist is software that answers your phone with a natural voice, holds a real conversation, and gets work done while the caller is still on the line. For a contracting shop, that means greeting callers with your script, asking the scope questions you would ask, pricing standard work through a construction-estimating engine loaded with your price book, and putting the job on your calendar. You stay in control of everything it can say and do.
A voice on your line, not a widget on your site
It answers actual phone calls (plus web chat and text) in a natural voice, on the first ring, at any hour.
Built on your price book
A construction-estimating engine turns your own line items into spoken quotes. The numbers are yours, never guessed.
Runs by your rules
You decide what it can quote, when it escalates, and who gets woken for an emergency. It never improvises outside them.
Everything on the record
Every call produces a transcript and a summary, so you can audit exactly what was said and what was promised.
What it actually does on a contracting line
Not a phone tree and not a chat window: a receptionist that works the whole call, start to booked.
Price book
Door hang, prehung interior
$350Drywall patch, per opening
$250Fence section replacement
$650Emergency after hours × 1.5
Quotes standard work, live
Unit-priced jobs come out of your price book as spoken numbers (a $189 after-hours call-out stays $189), with your minimums and dispatch-fee handling built in. Custom projects get scope intake and a booked estimate visit, never a guessed price.
Dispatches by your escalation rules
Urgent words and situations trigger the order you set: who gets called, in what sequence, with the scope and the quoted figure attached to the wake-up.
Escalation rules
Live
Storm or water damage
Page the on-call lead now.
Remodel or addition
Book the estimate walk.
Anything else
Book the first open slot.
Covers the hours you can’t
First-ring pickup at 6 a.m. and at midnight, on weekends and holidays, with simultaneous callers both answered.
Texts back every missed call
If a call slips past your forwarding window, the caller gets a text within moments and the conversation continues there.
Speaks 30+ languages
The same receptionist greets, quotes, and books in the caller’s language, included on every call and every plan.
Leaves a paper trail
Transcripts, recordings, and summaries for every call, so you know exactly what was asked and what was agreed.
A trades-trained receptionist vs. a chatbot vs. you
| Mercateer | A generic AI chatbot | Answering it yourself | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answers a phone call | Yes: voice, first ring, 24/7 | No: a chat box waiting on your website | When your hands and your day allow |
| Knows your prices | Quotes from your loaded price book, inside your guardrails | Improvises or deflects; it has no price book | Cold: nobody prices your work better than you |
| Books the job | Onto your real calendar, with confirmations sent | Captures an email for a follow-up | Yes, if the caller hasn’t moved on to the next number |
| Handles an emergency | Flags it and dispatches by your escalation order | Has no idea your on-call lead exists | You take the call, whatever the hour costs you |
| Reads a hesitant caller | Escalates to a person when your triggers fire | Keeps typing | Better than any software: that judgment is yours |
| Follows up a missed call | Automatic text-back; the conversation continues by SMS | Never knew your phone rang | A callback list that waits for the evening |
Chatbot column reflects typical generic website chat tools, which vary by product. Confirm details with any vendor you evaluate.
How it gets onto your line
Point your number at it
You choose when calls reach the receptionist: after-hours only, overflow when the crew is slammed, or all day. Your number stays the one on the trucks, there is no porting, and there is nothing to install. Forwarding is a phone setting you flip yourself.
7:40 a.m. · Incoming call
“Storm leaned my fence over. Can you replace the section?”
Teach it your shop
Load your price book and mark what is quotable over the phone. Write your greeting, your minimums, your dispatch-fee handling, and your escalation order: who gets called for what, and in what sequence. Connect your calendar, or run it with no software at all.
Price book
Door hang, prehung interior
$350Drywall patch, per opening
$250Fence section replacement
$650Emergency after hours × 1.5
Hear it before your customers do
Call the line yourself and throw your hardest calls at it. Adjust the script until it sounds like your office, then go live. From the first real call, bookings land on your calendar and a transcript and summary of every conversation lands with you.
Last night
Kitchen remodel
BookedStorm board-up
DispatchedHang-up
TextedAI receptionist questions, answered straight
Put it on your line and listen
Start free, call it yourself, and judge it with your own ears. No new number, no hardware, no contract: when it sounds like your office, flip forwarding on.
No credit card required