The first hot day breaks your phones
The first heat wave of summer and the first cold snap of winter hit every HVAC company at once. Systems that limped through the off-season quit, and every homeowner with a warm house fills out forms with two or three companies. Your office manager is dispatching techs, chasing parts and moving tune-ups around. The web leads sit in the inbox.
A homeowner with no AC in July does not wait for a callback tomorrow. They book whoever calls first.
That Harvard Business Review study also found that companies that contacted a lead within an hour were about 7 times more likely to qualify it. The MIT / InsideSales Lead Response Management study went further: leads called within 5 minutes were 21 times more likely to qualify than at 30 minutes, with 100 times better odds of reaching the person at all.
If you buy leads, the cost of being slow is easy to see. HVAC leads on Angi and HomeAdvisor are reported to cost about $20 to $50 each and to be shared with 3 to 5 contractors, according to a third-party breakdown of the lead marketplaces. Angi’s own help center tells pros to call each lead within 15 minutes.
What happens when an HVAC lead comes in
- A homeowner submits your form: “AC is running but blowing warm air. House is 84 degrees.”
- HelloSetter calls them within 60 seconds. In our testing, the call starts about one second after the lead arrives.
- The AI says it is calling for your company and asks what the system is doing, how old it is and how urgent it is.
- It books the service visit into an open slot on your HelloSetter Calendar, using only the hours you set.
- You get an email summary with the details. The recording and transcript are in your dashboard.
- If the form came in after your calling hours, the lead is queued and called as soon as your calling hours start again.
- No answer? It detects voicemail, leaves a short message, and retries on a schedule: up to 16 attempts spread over days, only inside calling hours.
- If the homeowner calls back, the same AI answers on your local number and picks up where it left off.
What the AI asks on an HVAC call
Your tech should not walk in blind. The AI asks the questions your office would ask:
- Is this no cool, no heat, a strange noise, a leak, or a tune-up?
- Is the system running at all, or is it completely off?
- What kind of system is it: central air, heat pump, furnace, boiler or mini-split?
- About how old is it? Are you looking to repair it or get a replacement quote?
- Is anyone in the home who is at risk in the heat or cold, like a baby or an older parent?
- What is the address, and are you the homeowner?
- When can someone be there to let the tech in?
Maintenance-plan and tune-up leads get the same questions, with less urgency. They book into whatever open slots you make available, so a slow week can fill up with tune-ups.
How it handles HVAC objections
“I’m just getting prices.”
Common on replacement leads, where homeowners collect two or three quotes. The AI explains that an accurate price depends on the house, the ductwork and the equipment, so a visit is how they get a real number. It offers a time without pressure.
“I need to talk to my spouse.”
For a new system, that is fair. The AI offers a time when both of them can be home for the quote. If they still want to talk first, it notes it and follows up.
“That sounds expensive.”
It does not guess at prices. It points out that a lot of no-cool calls turn out to be a part, not a whole system, and the visit is how they find out.
“Call me next week.”
Typical for tune-ups. The AI schedules the callback for when they asked, inside calling hours, and the lead stays on track without anyone remembering it.
Is it an HVAC answering service? Not quite, and that is on purpose
HelloSetter calls your new web leads and answers when those homeowners call back. It is not a general HVAC answering service for every call on your main line, and it does not dispatch techs. Your office manager keeps running the board. The AI takes the new leads off their plate so nobody waits 42 hours.
It only calls leads who gave consent on your form, and it honors opt-outs. In February 2024 the FCC ruled that AI voices count as an “artificial voice” under the TCPA, so consent matters.
Setup: one 30-minute call
On a 30-minute setup call, the team connects your lead sources: website forms, a Google Sheet, or a webhook or Zapier connection from places like Angi, Thumbtack or Google Local Services Ads. You get a local phone number and a HelloSetter Calendar with your service hours.
Subscribe to the calendar on your phone with an iCal link. If your team already keeps a calendar, paste its link in and the AI checks it so it never double-books a tech.
Pricing
Founding plans are $197, $347 or $697 a month (regular $297, $497 and $997). You get a free 14-day pilot after the setup call. Month-to-month, no setup fee. Compare the plans.
Hear it yourself
Call (307) 414-8089 and play a homeowner whose furnace quit on a Sunday night. Or use Call me now on the homepage and the AI calls you within 60 seconds. Tell it the price sounds high and listen to how it answers.