By state and city
Answering service for contractors
An answering service for a heating, plumbing, electrical or roofing business has to do three things a general one does not: tell an emergency from a routine call by the words the caller uses, get the address of the job, and book only into time that is really free. What else it has to handle depends on where you work.
What changes from place to place
- Who has to consent
- Four of the ten largest states require everyone on a call to agree before it is captured, and Michigan's courts have never settled its rule. The assistant announces that it is an AI taking notes before the caller speaks, everywhere, and records no audio.
- When the phone floods
- Phoenix averages 169 days a year above 90°F; Chicago averages 122 nights at or below freezing; Los Angeles has almost neither. The weather decides which week your calls outrun your crew, and which emergency words matter most.
- How many other numbers the caller can try
- Most contractor firms in every one of these places have fewer than ten people, and there are thousands of them. A caller who reaches voicemail does not wait; they ring the next listing.
The ten largest states
Hot days are each state's hottest station and freezing nights its coldest, on NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals. Firm counts are Census County Business Patterns, 2023.
| Place | Recording consent | Days 90°F+ | Freezing nights | Plumbing and HVAC firms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | All parties | 66 | 13 | 11,686 |
| Texas | One party | 102 | 29 | 8,966 |
| Florida | All parties | 80 | 16 | 9,353 |
| New York | One party | 12 | 124 | 7,061 |
| Pennsylvania | All parties | 24 | 112 | 4,154 |
| Illinois | All parties | 23 | 122 | 4,070 |
| Ohio | One party | 15 | 104 | 2,970 |
| Georgia | One party | 36 | 36 | 3,101 |
| North Carolina | One party | 47 | 65 | 3,973 |
| Michigan | Disputed | 10 | 127 | 2,661 |
The ten largest cities
Firm counts are for each metro area, which for some cities reaches into neighbouring states.
| Place | Recording consent | Days 90°F+ | Freezing nights | Plumbing and HVAC firms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York City | One party | 12 | 66 | 7,640 |
| Los Angeles | All parties | 3 | 0 | 3,793 |
| Chicago | All parties | 14 | 122 | 3,042 |
| Houston | One party | 102 | 10 | 1,909 |
| Phoenix | One party | 169 | 0 | 1,737 |
| Philadelphia | All parties | 24 | 80 | 2,118 |
| San Antonio | One party | 111 | 16 | 786 |
| San Diego | All parties | 1 | 0 | 1,072 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth | One party | 95 | 29 | 2,412 |
| Jacksonville | All parties | 73 | 16 | 606 |
Questions
- What does an answering service for contractors need that others do not?
- It has to recognise an emergency from the words a caller uses, get the address of the job, and book only into time that is genuinely free. A general answering service takes a message; a contractor needs to know which message is a burst pipe.
- Does call recording law affect an AI answering service?
- It does wherever capturing a call needs everyone's consent. CallerOps's assistant records no audio, and its first sentence tells every caller that it is an AI and that it takes notes, which is the same in every state.
- Do you only work with contractors in these places?
- No. These are the places we have written about in detail, because they are the largest. The product works the same way for a contractor anywhere in the United States.