Smith.ai AI Receptionist
Free: $0 for 25 calls. Pro: $150/month for 75 calls.
Pro additional calls: $2.50 each; check escalation and optional service charges.
Owners who need integrations or an AI service with human escalation.
Last updated
Yapper answers plumbing calls in 3 rings, captures the job, flags emergencies, and texts you who called. Works while you are under a sink, driving to the next job, or already talking to a customer. Plans start at $99/mo for the first 10 customers (normally $199/mo). 7-day free trial. No credit card required to start a trial.
Hear a plumber callSet up in about 5 minutes, or I'll help you get it live. See all plans
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The basics
An AI receptionist for plumbers is software that answers your business phone 24 hours a day, captures each caller's problem and urgency, and texts you a summary after the call ends. It detects real plumbing emergencies, like burst pipes or no water, and transfers those calls live to the owner's cell with a quick briefing.
Most callers do not leave voicemails. They hang up and call the next business on Google. According to Invoca's call tracking research, 46% of customers will stop buying from a business whose calls repeatedly go unanswered. An AI receptionist closes that gap for the price of a few missed jobs a year.
Common Challenges
You can't answer the phone when you are elbow-deep in a pipe repair. By the time you call back, that customer already booked someone else.
Burst pipes and water heater failures happen at midnight. If nobody picks up, homeowners call the next plumber on the list.
Most callers won't leave a voicemail. They hang up and call your competitor. Every unanswered ring is lost revenue.
A full-time receptionist costs tens of thousands a year. That's a lot for a small plumbing shop. And they still go home at 5 PM.
According to BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor, 66% of small and medium-sized businesses rate phone calls as a good or excellent source of leads, ahead of online forms (58.2%), in-person (54.1%), and email (43.7%). For trade work, phone is not a fallback channel. It is the channel.
“Calls have always been highly valued by small businesses, and now the notion of calls as currency has accelerated in the smartphone era.”
How It Works
AI that knows your trade and talks to your customers like you would.
Yapper picks up within three rings, 24 hours a day. Callers get a real conversation, not a recording. It handles drain cleaning quotes, service scheduling, and basic troubleshooting questions.
Burst pipe? Sewer backup? Yapper hears the urgency and transfers the call to your cell with a whispered briefing so you know what you're walking into.
Callers share what they need and when they want service. Yapper sends you the details so you can confirm the job quickly.
After every call, you get a text with who called, what they need, and what they asked for. Full transcripts are searchable in your dashboard.
Watch it work
A call comes in while you're on a job. Yapper answers, gets the details, and texts you a summary. Setup takes about 5 minutes: paste your website, then forward your calls.
Integrations
Yapper captures appointment requests and preferred times from callers, then sends the details to your dashboard. You stay in control of final pricing, dispatch, and exact appointment confirmation.
If you run a larger shop on ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, FieldEdge, or Service Fusion, Yapper is not the right fit yet. Yapper is built for solo operators and small crews that need a phone answered, not a full dispatch system. If that describes you, we will tell you up front instead of selling you something that does not match.
For everyone in between, you keep using your existing calendar. Yapper captures the request and can text your booking link. You or your scheduling tool confirm the visit; Yapper does not write directly to your calendar.
Demo · Plumbers
Here's a recorded plumber call. Play it, read the transcript, and see the text the owner gets when the call ends.
Customer rings your business line. Day, night, weekend, holiday.
Picks up in three rings. Real conversation, never a recording.
Collects the request for follow-up, or routes urgent calls to your cell.
(Add your booking link in Settings and Yapper texts it to callers.)
Caller, ask, outcome. Hits your phone seconds after the call ends.
Post_Call_Summary
Every call ends with a summary text: who called, what they needed, and whether it was transferred. No more "how did that call go?".
Pricing
Choose monthly or annual. 7-day free trial with 50 minutes of calls. No credit card required to start a trial.
7-day free trial with 50 minutes of calls. No credit card required.
7-day free trial with 50 minutes of calls. No credit card required.
New product guarantee
Yapper is new, so we are still earning our first public customer reviews. The product is live now with a 7-day free trial and no credit card required to start a trial. You can test the receptionist before forwarding your real business calls. If something does not fit your business, email me directly and I will help fix it or tell you honestly if Yapper is not the right fit.
Each plan includes a monthly minute allowance. On monthly plans, minutes beyond the allowance cost $0.75 each and appear on your next invoice. After 300 extra minutes in one month, answering pauses until the next month or until you upgrade, so a busy month cannot run up an open-ended bill. We email you at 80% and 100% of your allowance.
The cost of missed calls
When a call goes unanswered, most people don't leave a voicemail. They hang up and call the next business on Google. According to Invoca's call tracking research, 46% of customers will stop buying from a business whose calls go unanswered. That is the job, gone.
For a service business, that lost call is usually a job worth a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Slide the numbers below to see what your own missed calls add up to.
Missed calls per week
Average job value
lost every month
lost every year
per month to stop missing calls
One missed call could pay for a full year of Yapper.
Start My 7-Day Free TrialFree tools
Run the numbers before you change your phone setup. These tools help you spot missed-call risk, local profile gaps, and the cost of different answering options.
The math
Plumbing service calls run $175 to $450 in the United States, with most homeowners paying around $320 for a standard call. Emergency calls (burst pipe, sewage backup, no water) run 1.5 to 3 times that, because the homeowner can not wait.
A solo plumber that misses 5 calls a week loses roughly 5 × 4 × $320 = $6,400 in monthly bookings to the next plumber on Google. Over a year, that is around $76,800 in revenue you did not earn from work you would have done. One missed water-heater install ($1,000 to $3,000) pays for a full year of Yapper.
Yapper — Starter: $199/month for 200 minutes. Pro: $349/month for 500 minutes. Launch sale: the first 10 customers pay $99/month for Starter for their first 12 months, then $199/month. Monthly billing only. Checkout applies the sale price while spots remain. Lower-price AI options exist. Compare the included unit, required transfers, and what still needs your follow-up.
Yapper captures appointment requests and can text your booking link. It does not write directly to your calendar or dispatch system. You or your scheduling tool confirm the visit and arrival time.
Each plan includes a monthly minute allowance. On monthly plans, minutes beyond the allowance cost $0.75 each and appear on your next invoice. After 300 extra minutes in one month, answering pauses until the next month or until you upgrade, so a busy month cannot run up an open-ended bill. We email you at 80% and 100% of your allowance.
Free: $0 for 25 calls. Pro: $150/month for 75 calls.
Pro additional calls: $2.50 each; check escalation and optional service charges.
Owners who need integrations or an AI service with human escalation.
Lite: $29/month for 60 minutes. Pro: $99 for 220 minutes.
Lite: $0.48/additional minute. Pro: $0.45/additional minute.
Owners seeking a lower entry price with metered extra minutes.
Starter: $79/month per agent for 100 unique customers.
$0.50/additional unique customer; unlimited minutes and tokens.
Businesses with repeat callers or long calls that benefit from customer-based billing.
Published by Yapper. Provider facts checked . Prices and product terms can change. Smith.ai’s human-first service is a separate product.
Compare AI and live answering in the contractor buyer guide.
How the options compare
Here is how the four ways plumbers typically handle incoming calls compare on cost and coverage. For a full price breakdown across providers, see the AI receptionist pricing guide.
| Feature | Yapper | Voicemail | Answering service | Hiring |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | Starter: $199/month for 200 minutes. Pro: $349/month for 500 minutes. Launch sale: the first 10 customers pay $99/month for Starter for their first 12 months, then $199/month. Monthly billing only. Checkout applies the sale price while spots remain. | Free | Varies by product, call/minute package, coverage, and add-ons | Illustrative wages: $1,560/mo at 20 hrs/week and $18/hr, before taxes and benefits |
| After-hours coverage | Yes, answers 24/7 | No live answer | Varies by plan and provider | Scheduled hours only |
| Captures job details | Yes, every call | Only if a message is left | Yes, a live agent takes details | Yes, while on shift |
| Emergency handling | Detects urgency, live transfer with a spoken brief | None, caller has to call back | Varies by provider | Only if the receptionist is available |
| Response speed | Answers in a few rings, 24/7 | Most callers hang up before leaving a message | Live during covered hours, wait times vary | Immediate, but only during scheduled hours |
FAQ
Last reviewed
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