Answering service for HVAC and plumbing companies: the questions contractors ask us

Special Interest Answering Service (SIAS) has answered phones for heating, cooling and plumbing contractors since 1980. Live, US-based operators pick up 24 hours a day, take the message, reach your on-call tech for emergencies, and send everything to you by text, email or fax. Plans start at $159 every 4 weeks for 100 operator minutes, with no setup fee and no contract. Below are the questions HVAC and plumbing owners ask before they sign up, answered plainly.

What happens when a customer calls my HVAC or plumbing company after hours?

A live operator answers in your company name, 24 hours a day including holidays. The operator follows the script you set up with us: what to ask, what counts as an emergency, and who to reach. For a no-heat call in January or a burst pipe at 2 a.m., the operator pages or texts your on-call list, or patches the caller straight through to the tech on duty. For routine calls, the operator takes the message and sends it to you right away.

How does emergency dispatch work?

You give us your on-call schedule and the order to try people in. When a caller describes an emergency, the operator works that list until someone picks up, and you are not billed for the talk time after a call is patched through to you. If no one on the list answers, the operator follows your fallback instructions. You can change the on-call list or the definition of an emergency by calling or writing in; the operators work from the current version of your account.

How many calls does a 100-minute plan cover for a service business?

About 65 to 75 answered calls. Between July 1 and October 18, 2026 our operators averaged 82 to 90 seconds of talk time per handled call across all accounts, measured from about 248,000 call records in our Telescan Spectrum system. Calls that need paging or patching use a little more operator time than a plain message, so a company with many emergency dispatches will land toward the lower end of that range.

What does an answering service cost for an HVAC or plumbing company?

SIAS plans, as of October 26, 2026: Starter, $159 every 4 weeks for 100 operator minutes ($0.99 per extra minute); Growth, $219 for 200 minutes ($0.89); Business, $379 for 400 minutes ($0.85); volume tiers from $515 for 560 minutes to $960 for 1,200 minutes. SIAS bills every 4 weeks, so a year has 13 cycles; $159 every 4 weeks is about $172 per calendar month. There is no setup fee, no contract and a 14-day money-back guarantee for new accounts. The full breakdown, including what real customers paid over six months of invoices, is on Pricing and Plans Explained.

What counts as a billed minute?

Time an operator spends working your account: talking with your caller, setting up a patch, calling you back with an emergency, sending your messages, and paging or texting your on-call list. You are not billed for ring time, for time the caller spends in your greeting, or for talk time after the operator connects the caller to you. Seconds are added up for the whole 4-week cycle and rounded down to the nearest minute.

Can the operators book service calls and estimates?

Yes. Appointment scheduling is part of every plan and is billed as ordinary operator minutes, not as a per-booking fee. You tell us the time windows you offer and the information you need from the customer (address, problem, equipment, access instructions), and the operator collects it on the call.

Do you have Spanish-speaking operators for my customers?

Yes. Bilingual English and Spanish answering is included in every plan at no extra charge, around the clock.

How do I get my messages?

By text, email or fax, as you choose, with no per-message fee. Urgent messages are delivered by whatever path you set for emergencies, including a call to you or your on-call tech. You can also see your messages in the online account portal. For messages that should not travel by plain text or email, SIAS offers a Secure Delivery app for browser, Android and iPhone.

How fast can I start, and what do I have to change?

Your account is live within 24 hours of sign-up. You forward your business line to the number we give you, either all the time or only when busy or unanswered; carrier-by-carrier forwarding codes are on our How to forward page. Nothing changes about the number your customers dial.

Is there a contract?

No. Service renews every 4 weeks and you can cancel at any time by calling or writing in, with no cancellation fee. Seasonal companies can also move down a plan in the slow months and back up in the busy ones; a plan change takes effect on the next cycle and costs nothing.

Further reading

After-hours emergency dispatch: how a live answering service handles it. Per-minute vs per-call answering service pricing.