After-hours call answering for Burnaby HVAC contractors

A Tuesday in Burnaby

Tuesday at 9am you're loading the truck in Burnaby. The first call of the day is a furnace short-cycling every few minutes. You're already booked solid by the time it's transcribed and sent back to your inbox. The phone goes to voicemail because both of yours are pinned. You don't see it until you're back in the truck.

The 4pm call is a homeowner whose AC stopped on the hottest day of the year. You can't take it. By 6:30pm there's an after-hours job too, a elderly homeowner without working heat overnight. Two missed calls, one half-day of revenue, no way to triage from a ladder.

What changes

Avidra answers your phone, however you've wired it. Live with AI voice, or text-back if the call goes missed, or both running together. The caller gets a real response. You get the captured lead.

The Tuesday morning call still happens. You still can't answer mid-job. Now the homeowner gets a text in under five seconds asking the basics. By the time you're back in the truck the lead is qualified and sitting in your inbox.

Two ways to set it up

Two setup paths. Path one is forwarding: your existing business number stays the front door, calls ring to your phone, and Avidra only catches the unanswered ones. Path two is direct: the Avidra number is the front door, AI picks up every call live, and it transfers to your cell when the caller asks for a human. Most one-truck shops use path one. Larger shops with reception coverage usually move to path two.

Both pickup modes run on the Free tier. AI voice answering and SMS text-back are included at $0, with 30 voice minutes a month.

What it costs

Free for 14 days. No card to start. Plans after the trial run from a flat monthly rate, not per-call. Most HVAC contractors pay less per month than the value of one recovered job. See the pricing page for current numbers.

Where Avidra stops

Avidra handles the intake call, the back-and-forth qualifying, and the relay messages you ask it to send to your customers. The phone is the part it owns. The work past it stays with you and your existing tools.

The script will disclose your service-call fee if you tell it to, but it won't volunteer a price you haven't approved. It won't diagnose a no-cool by symptom. It won't tell a homeowner whether their compressor is shot. Equipment make and model gets captured. What you do with that information is your call.

Calls HVAC contractors in Burnaby actually take

Most of these will look familiar. AC blowing warm air after the contactor stuck. Annual maintenance booking for spring or fall. Low refrigerant suspected after a long cooling run. Condensate line clogged and dripping onto a hallway floor. Pick up first and you book the job. Pick up second and you don't.

Off-hours calls run differently. Tighter, more urgent, less willing to wait until morning. No heat at 2am in February with kids in the house. No AC during a heat advisory. The shop that picks up fast keeps the work.

What the year looks like

Two peaks. Heat advisories drive AC emergency calls May through August. Cold snaps and first-frost weeks drive no-heat calls late October through February.

For most HVAC contractors, the call volume isn't flat. You probably already plan staffing and on-call coverage around the peaks. Avidra runs the same in busy season as in slow. No per-call charges, no surge pricing when the inbox gets loud.

How setup actually works

Setup is forwarding plus a script. Your existing business number forwards to Avidra so the AI picks up live calls and catches the ones that ring through to voicemail. You edit the default intake script in both directions. Voice and SMS share the same questions.

Most owners are live the same day. The test is a single call from another phone. The AI answers the call, walks the caller through the intake script, and captures the lead. After that, ring busy and watch the text-back fire.

Why speed matters more than channel

The lead is warm for about five minutes after the call. After that, the caller has scrolled to the next name and most likely already dialed. Email lands too slowly to matter for booking decisions made in that first five minutes. A text-back inside seconds keeps the caller engaged through a short intake while you finish the current job. By the time you call back, the lead is qualified and already expecting your voice.

After-hours and on-the-ground in Burnaby

Heat advisories in Burnaby bring the AC-emergency wave you already know. A call might originate in Brentwood or three neighborhoods over. The text-back chain runs the same way in either case. Technical Safety BC permits are required for gas appliance install and service. Most contractors carry their gas ticket and pull permits as part of the quote.

Common questions

Try Avidra on your own number

Try Avidra on your real business number for 14 days. No card. See pricing and start when you're ready. Start free in 2 minutes. AI picks up calls you miss. AI picks up calls you want it to. The shop decides which.