AI Receptionist for Plumbers
It’s 6pm, there’s water through the kitchen and you’re under a sink. The caller isn’t leaving a voicemail, they’re ringing the next plumber on the list. Johnni picks up on the first ring, works out whether it’s an emergency or a Tuesday, and books it into ServiceM8 around the run you’ve already got.
Plans start at $44/mo No contract.
It’s a real Johnni receptionist. Throw a blocked drain at it.
Why plumbers miss the calls that matter
Plumbing is the one trade where nobody waits. Water through the ceiling, no hot water or a blocked drain gets a call to the next plumber within seconds of your voicemail.
Emergencies do not leave messages
A burst pipe caller will ring down the list until someone answers.
Johnni answers on the first ring, 24/7, and books the job before they try the next plumber.
Every job is urgent to the caller
Water everywhere and a dripping tap can sound the same on the phone.
It triages the job: whether the water is isolated, one fixture or the whole house, clean water or waste. Then it applies your rules on what counts as urgent.
You are under a sink when it rings
Most calls land while your hands are full on the job before.
It takes the address, the fault and the access, and books around the run you already have.
After-hours work is where the margin is
Emergencies happen at night and on weekends, when nobody is in the office.
It follows your after-hours rules: quote the call-out fee, book it, or put the caller through to you.
Plumbing is the one trade where nobody waits.
A sparky’s customer will leave a message. A plumber’s customer has water coming through the ceiling. If you don’t pick up in the first thirty seconds, that job belongs to someone else. And emergency work is where the margin is.
Burst pipes & leaks
The highest-value call you get, and the one most likely to come at 6pm on a Friday.
- Walks them through isolating the water before you arrive
- Sorts tonight-at-the-after-hours-rate from first-thing-tomorrow
Blocked drains
Spikes after every storm, and half of them ring three plumbers before one answers.
- Asks whether it’s one fixture or the whole house, which changes the truck
- Takes three at once without any of them hearing an engaged tone
Hot water systems
Dies in the first cold snap, and everyone rings on the same morning.
- Captures make, age and electric-or-gas so you turn up with the right unit
- Quotes the callout, not the job, which is yours to price on site
An AI receptionist that triages like a plumber
Johnni asks what you would ask, talks the caller through shutting the water off, and books the job with the details attached.
- Answers every call 24/7 in your business name
- Triages emergencies from routine jobs on your rules
- Talks callers through isolating the water while they wait
- Checks the suburb and books around the run you already have
- Quotes your call-out fee and puts urgent calls through to you
- Talks to website visitors and rings back new enquiries on the Solo and Starter plans
It triages before you’re even in the ute.
The difference between a good plumbing receptionist and a message-taker is whether they ask the questions that change what you do next.
Johnni asks them. Is the water off. Is it one fixture or all of them. Is it clean water or sewage. Is anyone at the property. By the time you read the job you already know whether it’s a tonight job, and what to put on the truck.
And it tells the customer how to isolate the water, which stops a $400 job becoming a $4,000 insurance claim while they wait for you.
Talks them to the stop tap. Damage stops climbing immediately.
Isolated fixture or main line. That decides the truck and the time.
Sewage changes the gear, the rate and the urgency.
You read four lines and know exactly what you’re walking into.
It books around the run you’ve already got.
Drag a radius around your patch once. From then on Johnni knows whether a suburb is yours, so it never books you a Gympie job when you work the Sunshine Coast.
Then it reads your existing ServiceM8 jobs, works out what’s near what, and offers three slots that keep your day tight instead of sending you back across town at 2pm.
The whole lookup happens inside the conversation, in the pause a person would leave anyway. No hold music, no “I’ll ring you back to confirm”.
Transfer you, and catch the call when you don’t answer.
You’re under a house with your phone in the ute. Most AI receptionists put the call through, get nothing, and drop your customer into a dead line, which is the exact thing you bought it to stop.
Johnni notices, comes back on the line, and carries on. Nobody gets dropped.
Regular customer, asks for you by name.
Warm transfer, with the context whispered to you first.
You’re under a house. Phone’s in the ute.
“He’s under a house. I can take the details and get him to call you back.” Books it in.
Jobs land in ServiceM8, not in a spreadsheet you have to re-key.
Most plumbers run ServiceM8, Simpro or Tradify. Google Calendar is included on every plan, and job software connects as a custom integration scoped to how you work.
If your software has an API, Johnni can usually work with it. Ask us about yours.
Two service lines. 179 jobs booked.
A New Zealand plumbing and electrical business runs each trade as its own receptionist, with its own script and pricing. After hours, the call-out fee is quoted before the caller is put through.
Simple plans. No lock-in contract.
Start with phone answering, then add your website and follow-up calls when you need them.
Phone
24/7 answering, Google Calendar bookings, warm transfers and your full call history.
60 minutes included, then 50c a minute
Phone and website
Everything in Pay As You Go, plus a website assistant your visitors can type or talk to.
200 minutes included, then 45c a minute
Phone, website and follow-ups
Adds outbound calls: new lead callbacks, quote follow-ups and reminders.
600 minutes included, then 40c a minute
Every plan has a 7 day free trial and no lock-in contract. Pay annually and plans start at $44 a month. Growth ($899) covers bigger call volumes. Outbound calling is included from Starter, or add it to Pay As You Go or Solo for a one-off $750. SMS confirmations are a $50 a month add-on, and job software connections are quoted to your setup. See full pricing
Straight answers
Will it try to quote the job over the phone?
Only what you tell it to. Most plumbers have it give the callout fee and the after-hours rate, and leave the job price for you on site, because you can’t price a blocked drain without seeing it.
If you’d rather it quoted nothing at all, that’s a rule we set at kickoff.
What about gas fitting and anything licensed I don’t do?
We build it as a hard rule. “We don’t do gas” means it says so and doesn’t book it, rather than taking the job and leaving you to ring back and cancel.
Same for roof plumbing, commercial, or anything else outside your ticket. You can add to that list yourself in the portal any time.
Can it tell an emergency from a job that can wait?
That’s the main thing it’s built to do. It asks whether the water’s off, whether it’s one fixture or the whole house, and whether it’s clean water or waste. Then it applies your rules about what counts as after-hours work.
You decide where the line is. It just asks the questions every time, including at 2am when a human would be guessing.
What happens if three people ring at once after a storm?
All three get answered on the first ring. There’s no queue and no engaged tone. That’s the single biggest difference between this and a human answering service on a big day.
Do I have to change my number?
No. Your number stays yours. You choose the rule: everything, after-hours only, or just the calls you don’t pick up within four rings.
How much does it cost?
A custom build plus a flat monthly. The build depends on how complicated your call flow is. A one-van operation and a shop with six vans and three service areas aren’t the same job.
We’ve written up what actually drives the price in our cost guide, and you’ll get a real number on the first call. No lock-in.
Is this just the same AI receptionist with “plumber” written on it?
No. The triage flow, the isolation instructions and the emergency rules are built for plumbing specifically. The underlying receptionist is the same one, and you can see the full product on our AI receptionist for tradies.
Hear it answer as your plumbing business.
Give me your website and I’ll build a demo receptionist trained on your actual business: your services, your rates, your area. Then I’ll send you a recording of it handling a burst pipe call.
No calendar invite. No sales call to sit through.
Free, and no contract at the end of it. Back to you within a day or two. And if you’d rather hear the generic one first, ring 07 4519 7035 any time.