The 24/7 AI HVAC answering service that answers “how much?” and books the job
2 a.m. no-heat call? It picks up on the first ring, gives your after-hours service fee straight from your price book, and books the visit on your board. Nights, weekends, Christmas morning. In your customer’s language, whichever one that is: 30+ included. Built for 1–10-truck shops, with plans from $99/mo and no contract.
2:14 a.m. · Incoming call
“Furnace died and it’s 12 degrees out. Can anyone come tonight?”
What is an HVAC answering service?
An HVAC answering service answers your company’s calls when you can’t: after hours, mid-install, during the busy season. A typical service takes a message or books a callback; Mercateer also answers the price question from your own price book and books the job on your schedule.
Every call answered 24/7
Picked up on the first ring: nights, weekends, and holidays, with no hold queue and no voicemail.
Price questions answered honestly
When a caller asks what something costs, the answer comes from your price book: your trip fee, your after-hours rate, your flat-rate items, spoken out loud on the call.
Jobs booked straight onto your board
Name, address, job type, and the quoted price the caller already said yes to. On your schedule, not in a message pad.
From $99/mo flat
No contract, no setup fee, and every feature on every plan. The only difference is volume.
What happens when your phone rings at 2 a.m.
A no-heat caller at 2 a.m. isn’t leaving a voicemail. They’re dialing down the list until someone answers, and the company that answers gets the job. Here’s the call, minute by minute.
Answered on the first ring
No hold, no menu, no voicemail. The caller describes a dead furnace. And there’s an infant in the house.
Runs your emergency triage
First question: any smell of gas? If yes, it escalates immediately and walks the caller through your safety protocol. You define what counts as an emergency; the agent applies it at 3 a.m. exactly the way it does at 3 p.m.
Quotes from your price book
It quotes your after-hours diagnostic fee straight from your price book: a number, spoken out loud, not “the tech will go over pricing.”
Books the job and texts your on-call tech
The on-call slot goes on your board, and your tech gets the text: name, address, job type, quoted price, full transcript. Enough to roll the truck without a callback.
You find out at 7 a.m., from the summary
You slept. And the Saturday no-cool call in a July heat wave goes the same way: answered natively in the caller’s language, quoted from the same price book, with the summary delivered to you in your language.
Answering services take a message. Mercateer answers the price question
A human answering service relays a message. An AI receptionist books a visit. Mercateer answers “how much do you charge?” from your real price book while the caller is still on the line, confirms your after-hours fees, and books the visit for anything that needs eyes on it first.
Price book
Service call: diagnostic
$89Capacitor replacement
$249Condenser fan motor
$549After hours: diagnostic $189
Your price book, spoken out loud
Upload your real price book (after-hours diagnostic, capacitor replacement, condenser-fan motor, maintenance-plan rates), and when a caller asks what something costs, your line item flows into a spoken number on the call.
You draw the quoting line
Trip fees, service calls, and flat-rate items you’ve priced get a number on the phone. Full system replacements (and anything that needs eyes on it first) get “the tech will confirm on site” and a booked estimate visit instead. You set that line once; the agent holds it on every call, at every hour.
Escalation rules
Live
Smell of gas
Run the safety protocol.
No heat after hours
Offer tonight or 8:00 a.m.
Anything else
Book the first open slot.
From phone call to booked job
It reads your real-time availability and puts the job straight on your calendar or board, with name, address, job type, and the quoted price attached. It works with the tools that run your schedule, or no software at all: it texts you the booking and you write it up the way you always have.
Every call on the record
Every call, booked or not, produces an SMS or email summary plus a full transcript, seconds after hang-up. Nothing disappears into a message pad; you can audit any call, any time, word for word.
Call record · 2:14 a.m. · 4 min
No heat: booked the after-hours diagnostic, $189.
“Furnace’s dead and it’s 12 degrees out.”
“I can have a tech out tonight for $189 after-hours.”
“Do it, please.”
Summary and transcript texted to the on-call tech.
One front office, every channel
One consistent voice on every channel
Set up in three steps
Upload your price book and set your rules
Your greeting, word for word. Your emergency definitions and on-call rotation. Which jobs get a spoken quote and which get a booked estimate visit.
Price book
Service call: diagnostic
$89Capacitor replacement
$249Condenser fan motor
$549After hours: diagnostic $189
Forward your line
Keep your number, the one painted on your trucks. Works with any phone setup or carrier, no hardware, no porting. Test it with your own calls before it goes live.
2:14 a.m. · Incoming call
“Furnace died and it’s 12 degrees out. Can anyone come tonight?”
Calls get answered, priced by your rules, and booked
Run it after-hours only, on overflow, or on every call, and switch it on or off whenever you want. Every call is transcribed and summarized seconds after hang-up, so you can audit any call minutes later.
Last night
No heat
BookedGas smell
DispatchedHang-up
Textedevery call answered: nights, weekends, Christmas morning
flat to start, with every feature included
setup fee, and no contract to cancel
Mercateer vs. a human answering service
| Mercateer | Human answering service | Answering it yourself | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pickup speed | First ring, every call, even when calls surge | Depends on staffing; queues during surges | First ring, unless you’re elbow-deep in a condenser |
| Nights, weekends, holidays | Identical behavior at every hour | Covered, often at premium rates | Your cell on the nightstand, Christmas included |
| Answers the price question | A number, spoken on the call, from your price book | No, takes a message | Yes, nobody knows your numbers better |
| Books onto your board | Yes, with the quoted price attached | Sometimes, via their scheduling layer | Yes, if they wait for the callback |
| Caller’s language on every call | 30+ languages natively, no transfer | Only if a bilingual operator is on shift | Whatever you speak, no operator needed |
| Spam handling | Filtered, doesn’t cost you | Billed per minute like any call | You, out of the crawlspace for a robocall |
| Price model | Flat monthly plans from $99, with bundled minutes | Typically $300–500 a month plus per-minute fees | Free, minus whatever the missed calls cost |
Comparison reflects typical category positioning. Confirm current details with each vendor.
An AI receptionist for HVAC that answers the price question
Searching for an AI receptionist for HVAC and an HVAC answering service turns up the same need: a phone that gets answered and a caller who gets helped. Mercateer is both. It picks up like a receptionist and covers you around the clock like an answering service, then does the part neither one does: it answers “how much?” from your price book on the call, and books the visit for anything that needs eyes on it.
Answers like a receptionist
Your greeting, your questions, your tone. It scopes the call, checks your calendar, and books the visit, the way a good front-desk person would.
Covers you like an answering service
Nights, weekends, and holidays, every call on the first ring. No shift to staff, no hold queue, no voicemail for the 2 a.m. no-heat call.
Answers price questions honestly
The step neither a receptionist nor a message service takes: a real number from your price book, spoken on the call, by the rules you set.
One price, every plan
Flat plans from $99 a month, every feature in every tier. Compare the plans on the pricing page; only the minutes change.
HVAC answering service FAQs
Keep reading
Missed call revenue calculator
See what unanswered HVAC calls cost you each month, and the payback on answering every one.
AI receptionist for HVAC
The same engine, framed as an AI receptionist: how it answers, quotes, and books.
Plumbing answering service
Run more than one trade? The same setup covers burst-pipe calls.
Electrician answering service
No-power and sparking-outlet calls answered, triaged, and booked.
Contractor answering service
Bid calls captured and priced while you’re on site.
After-hours answering service
What happens to the 2 a.m. no-heat call while you’re asleep.
Bilingual answering service
Answer every caller in their own language, 30+ included on every plan.
Plans and pricing
Flat plans from $99 a month, every feature included. Only the minutes change.
Built for solo shops, not 20-person call centers
Much of the AI front-office category is built for operations with a room full of CSRs, sold through a sales demo, or tied to one enterprise field-service platform. Mercateer is built for the 1 to 10-truck shop: you sign up yourself, the price is posted in dollars, and it works with whatever runs your schedule, or nothing at all.
Self-serve, no sales call
Sign up, upload your price book, forward your line, and test it with your own calls. No demo gate, no seven-field form, no waiting on a rep to quote you.
Flat pricing, posted in dollars
Plans from $99 to $399 a month, every feature in every tier. No contract, no setup fee, no per-seat surprise. Compare the plans on the pricing page; only the minutes change.
No ServiceTitan required
It works with the tools you already run, or with no field-service software at all: it books the job and texts you the details, and you write it up the way you always have.
30+ languages, included
Every caller answered natively in the language they open with, on the first ring, with no bilingual operator to staff. Included on every plan at no extra charge.
Every call answered. Every price question answered. Every booking on your board.
Answers on the first ring, 24/7/365, in your customer’s language, with every call transcribed. Forward your line, upload your price book, and start free: no contract, no setup fee.
No credit card required