Water through the hallway ceiling. Caller reports the water is off. Single storey, gate on the left.
The burst pipe call does not go to voicemail
A plumber answering service that sorts the urgency and helps get the water turned off at the street before you have even seen the job.
9:41
Monday, 31 August9:41
Urgent call routed to Dean under your call-handling rules.
Three calls that should never be handled the same way
A message service writes all three down the same and sends you all three at once. Your phone buzzes and you still do not know which one to open.
Now
Water is moving and it should not be
Burst pipe, hot water cylinder let go, water through a ceiling, a blocked drain backing up into a shower. The caller is walked through finding the toby and shutting it off, and you are rung, not texted.
Today or tomorrow
No hot water, a toilet that will not stop running, a tap you cannot shut off properly. Annoying, not flooding. It goes in the diary rather than dragging you off the job you are already on.
A quote, whenever suits
A new bathroom, a cylinder swap, a rough-in on a renovation. These are the calls you lose most often, because you are under a house when they ring and they have three other plumbers to try.
The questions that decide whether you have to ring back
This is the difference between a message and a job. Six things asked while the caller is still talking, so you are not spending your evening chasing details.
9:41
Monday, 31 August9:41
Water leaking through the hallway ceiling. Caller reports the water is off.
Single storey. Gate on the left. Caller is at the property.
Duty plumber contacted. Your team confirms availability.
Is it off
Is the water off at the toby, and does the caller know where the toby is. If they do not, they are talked to it. Usually under the letterbox or by the front boundary.
Where it is
Under the house, in the wall, in the ceiling, or out in the yard. It decides what goes in the van and whether you need a second pair of hands.
Getting in
Single or two storey, is there a dog, is the side gate locked, and is anyone home during the day. A job you cannot get to is a wasted trip you still paid for.
Hot water
Gas or electric, mains or low pressure, and roughly how old the cylinder is. On a no-hot-water call it is often the whole diagnosis.
Owner or renting
If they are renting, who signs off the spend and who the invoice goes to. Property manager details are taken there and then, not two days later.
Gas work
If there is any smell of gas the call stops being a plumbing job and the caller is told to get out and ring the gas emergency line. It does not try to talk anyone through gas.
What it will not do
It does not quote a job it has not seen, it does not diagnose down the phone, and it does not commit you to a time you have not agreed. It is reception, not a plumber.
It plugs into the things you already use every day
No new system to learn and nothing to install. The work turns up where you already look for it.
Simpro
Match the caller to a customer and site, then capture the job details.
Explore the connection →
Fergus
Put new enquiries and customer details into the job workflow your team already uses.
Explore the connection →
Tradify
Send the enquiry into Tradify by email. No customer lookup or direct diary booking.
Explore the connection →
iTrade
Capture the details and request a visit. Your team confirms the schedule.
Explore the connection →Your job system comes first. Talkify also connects to calendars, accounting tools and CRMs. Actions vary by system; we confirm the exact workflow with you. See more connections →
Connect the tools you already run. No need to change job software.
Running something else? Tell us what you use and we will quote the integration work.
The job is in Fergus before you are out from under the house
Most people selling you an answering service stop at the message. The point is the job being open on the right customer when you climb out, and for New Zealand plumbers that means Fergus.
Fergus
The customer is matched against your existing Fergus contacts, or created if they are new. The job is opened with the site address, the urgency and every one of the answers above written into the notes. Where you have asked us to, a time is held in the real diary while the caller is still talking, so you are not double booked by your own phone. Nothing to re-key when you get back to the ute.
Simpro
If you are running Simpro, which is more common on the Australian side and on bigger commercial maintenance work, the job is lodged against the right customer rather than opened as a stranger.
ServiceM8
Fair warning so you can compare properly. ServiceM8 sells its own AI phone agent, it is live in New Zealand, and using it means moving your number onto their phone add-on. We never ask you to move your number. If you are already living in ServiceM8, theirs is worth a look, and we connect to it regardless.
Tradify
One way only, by email. The enquiry arrives in Tradify off the back of the call. It cannot recognise your Tradify customers on the phone and it cannot read or book your Tradify diary, because Tradify does not make that available to anyone. Anybody telling you otherwise is selling you something.
Xero
Your Xero contacts are the phonebook. The property manager who rings you fourteen times a year is known by name the moment she rings, and the job goes on her account without anyone looking it up.
Running something else? Tell us what you use and we will quote the integration work.
Nine at night is where plumbers actually make money
Plumbing is one of the few trades where the phone rings hardest after the day is done, and where the caller will take the first person who picks up.
You choose what happens overnight. It can take the details and hold them until morning, or it can ring you, and keep ringing until somebody on the roster actually answers. Whichever you pick, the caller is told the truth about when they will hear back.
If out of hours cover is the only thing you want, there is a whole site about it at callanswering.co.nz.
Does it sound local
This is the first thing everyone asks and it is a fair question. New Zealand calls are answered in a New Zealand voice, Australian calls in an Australian one. You hear yours and sign it off before it answers a single customer, and if you do not like it you pick another.
Get set up
Give us the number and tell us how you like emergencies handled. We do the rest and ring you before it answers anything.
Your number
You keep it. You divert your existing number to us and you can turn that divert off from your own handset whenever you want.
Set up
Your account opens straight away. Your agent is built and trained within 24 hours, and we walk you through it first.
Emergencies
You tell us what counts as one for your business, and what you want done at two in the morning when it happens.
Stop losing the nine at night call
Your account opens straight away and your agent is built within 24 hours. No card, and nothing answers your phone until you have heard it and said yes.