The promise
If Avidra doesn't recover 3 booked jobs in your first 30 days, I refund everything and disconnect you myself.
No forms. No retention call.
Asad
HVAC · HOUSTON
AI phone receptionist for HVAC contractors in Houston
Phone rings first4.2s response30-day guarantee
Maintenance season hit hard this year and you're booked three weeks out. The calls keep coming. Most of them are first-time customers and most of them don't wait three weeks.
When the phone rings and you can't
You're on a rooftop unit with the micron gauge open and the phone is in the truck below.
What Avidra does
Avidra answers your phone, however you've wired it. Live with AI voice, or text-back if the call goes missed, or both running together. The caller gets a real response. You get the captured lead.
The text doesn't replace the human conversation. It buys time for it. You still call back. You still close the job. Avidra just makes sure the lead is warm and the basics about the homeowners are in your inbox before you do.
How Avidra runs both channels
Step 1 · AI picks up live, or texts back if you miss it
Two channels, one number. AI picks up by voice when it can. Otherwise the SMS text-back runs as a backup.
Step 2 · Qualifies the caller on whichever channel they're on
Whichever channel the caller is on, the AI runs the same intake. No re-asking on the callback.
Step 3 · Transfer to you on call, or summary to your phone
Voice call: transfer to a human when the caller asks. SMS intake: lead summary the moment the conversation closes.
Step 4 · The SMS thread stays open after, so they can text follow-ups
Post-call, the SMS thread stays open as a follow-up channel. The caller can text the AI later and you don't lose the context.
Two ways to set it up
Two setup paths. Path one is forwarding: your existing business number stays the front door, calls ring to your phone, and Avidra only catches the unanswered ones. Path two is direct: the Avidra number is the front door, AI picks up every call live, and it transfers to your cell when the caller asks for a human. Most one-truck shops use path one. Larger shops with reception coverage usually move to path two.
Free tier includes both. AI voice and SMS text-back are both in the $0 floor, so neither pickup mode costs extra.
What Avidra does and doesn't
Avidra answers calls live with AI voice, or texts missed callers back if you'd rather. It runs your intake script. It captures jobs and relays messages to your customers when you ask. What it doesn't do: write your invoices, schedule your techs, replace your dispatcher, or pull customer history from your CRM.
The script will disclose your service-call fee if you tell it to, but it won't volunteer a price you haven't approved. It won't diagnose a no-cool by symptom. It won't tell a homeowner whether their compressor is shot. Equipment make and model gets captured. What you do with that information is your call.
The math on your missed calls
The numbers on a hvac shop your size.
8 calls/week missed$600 avg job$4,800 / week$20,800 / month$249,600 / year
73% of homeowners don't leave a voicemail. They call the next HVAC contractor on Google.
Avidra catches them in 4.2 seconds.
Calls HVAC contractors in Houston actually take
The calls that land most often go something like this. Thermostat showing the right temp but no heat coming through. Furnace short-cycling every few minutes. Mini-split error code on the indoor head. AC blowing warm air after the contactor stuck. Each is the same opportunity. The phone is the bottleneck.
After hours, the calls shift. The patience is shorter and the stakes are higher. Elderly homeowner without working heat overnight. No heat at 2am in February with kids in the house. Fast pickup is the difference between the job and a callback that never gets returned.
What the year looks like
Two peaks. Heat advisories drive AC emergency calls May through August. Cold snaps and first-frost weeks drive no-heat calls late October through February.
Volume changes by season. Pickup rate shouldn't. Avidra fires the text-back the same way in February as it does in July, on a slow Tuesday or during a heat-advisory week.
How setup actually works
Setup is forwarding plus a script. Your existing business number forwards to Avidra so the AI picks up live calls and catches the ones that ring through to voicemail. You edit the default intake script in both directions. Voice and SMS share the same questions.
Most owners are live the same day. The test is a single call from another phone. The AI answers the call, walks the caller through the intake script, and captures the lead. After that, ring busy and watch the text-back fire.
Why speed matters more than channel
The lead is warm for about five minutes after the call. After that, the caller has scrolled to the next name and most likely already dialed. Email lands too slowly to matter for booking decisions made in that first five minutes. A text-back inside seconds keeps the caller engaged through a short intake while you finish the current job. By the time you call back, the lead is qualified and already expecting your voice.
Common questions
Does the script know the difference between cooling and heating season?
You can configure seasonal scripts. Most owners switch them in October and again in April.
Can it capture make and model of the equipment?
Yes. The script asks for the equipment make, model, and rough age. The answer is in the lead summary.
Will it work for commercial accounts?
Commercial intake is a separate script path. The questions are different and the routing usually goes to a dispatcher, not the field tech.
What about gas-smell calls, will it triage those?
Gas-smell calls trigger an immediate 'leave the house and call 911 first' message before the booking conversation continues.
How does it know my business hours?
You set them once in setup. The script changes after-hours behavior automatically when you're closed.
Try Avidra on your own number
Plug it in, miss a call, see what happens. 14 days free, no card needed to start. Same intake. Same lead summary. Houston or anywhere else we work.
Start free for 14 days