AI missed-call textback for service pros

The idea

A plumber under a sink cannot answer the phone, and 60-plus percent of callers who hit voicemail just call the next listing — the lead is gone in ninety seconds. Home service pros know this and hate it; they can quote you the value of a lost water-heater job from memory. Answering services are expensive and script-bound, and the pro’s own follow-up happens hours later, after dinner, when the caller has already booked someone else.

Chat Setter proved businesses pay monthly for AI that answers inbound leads and books appointments unattended — but it chases Instagram DMs for coaches and info-product sellers. Trades live on phone calls. SMS textback is a better channel than DMs anyway: no Meta API fragility, no platform review, and the caller’s number is already in hand the moment the call drops. The product’s job is simple to state — turn missed calls into booked estimates — and the weekly revenue-recovered report proves it in the owner’s own numbers.

Who pays

Plumbers, electricians, HVAC techs, and detailers pay $99-199/mo; one saved job typically covers a year. The buyer is the owner-operator of a 1-10 person shop. Distribution: trade-specific Facebook groups, one-niche-at-a-time landing pages (missed call textback for plumbers), and referrals from bookkeepers and trade coaches who already advise these shops.

MVP scope

• Twilio number with forwarding and instant textback on missed calls
• Claude conversation agent with per-trade qualification playbooks and emergency escalation
• Google Calendar estimate booking with SMS confirmations
• Dashboard with transcripts, human takeover, and lead details
• Monday revenue-recovered report
• Skip for v1: inbound voice AI answering, CRM integrations (ServiceTitan, Jobber), review requests, outbound campaigns, multi-location franchises

Build CallSaver, missed-call textback for home service businesses. Stack: Twilio (numbers, voice forwarding, SMS), Claude API for the conversation agent, Next.js dashboard, Postgres.

Core flow: the business gets a Twilio tracking number (or ports forwarding from their existing line). Calls forward to the owner's cell; when a call goes unanswered or hits voicemail, Twilio's status callback fires and within seconds the caller receives a text: Sorry we missed you — this is Mike's Plumbing, what do you need help with? Claude runs the conversation with a per-trade playbook: identify job type, urgency (emergency vs scheduled), address or zip for service-area check, and photos if useful. Qualified leads get offered estimate windows from the owner's connected Google Calendar; booking writes the event and texts both sides a confirmation.

Pages: onboarding wizard (trade, service area, business hours, estimate slots), live conversations view with human-takeover toggle, leads list with job details and transcripts, weekly report, settings/billing.

Non-obvious details: register the number for A2P 10DLC during onboarding and template the first message for compliance, or deliverability quietly dies; build an escalation rule — words like flooding, gas, no heat trigger an immediate call-the-owner bridge attempt plus an urgent SMS instead of continuing the chat.

Send a Monday morning report: calls missed, conversations saved, jobs booked, estimated revenue recovered using the owner's average ticket.

Pricing: $99/mo single number, $199/mo with calendar booking and multi-tech routing. No per-message fees.