Michigan
Answering service for Michigan contractors
For Michigan heating, plumbing, electrical and roofing businesses: an assistant built for winters as hard as any on this list and for a consent law the state's courts have never fully settled.
Written by Christopher Gillig, who files the carrier registrations behind these numbers and configures the assistants. Last reviewed October 6, 2026.
The short answer
Michigan has winters as hard as any on this list and a call recording law that has been argued about for forty years. An answering service for a Michigan contractor should answer through the night in January, raise no heat and frozen pipe calls, and disclose itself rather than depend on how the courts read the statute. The assistant records no audio, opens by saying it is an AI that takes notes, and leaves a complete lead or a booking for the morning.
Michigan's consent question
A summary to plan with, not legal advice.
- The statute says all parties
- MCL 750.539c makes eavesdropping on a private conversation without the consent of all parties a felony.
- The courts have said participants may
- Sullivan v. Gray held that a participant is not eavesdropping. The state's highest court has not resolved it.
- Disclosure settles it in practice
- The assistant tells every caller it takes notes before they speak, which does not depend on which reading prevails.
What is different about Michigan
- Michigan's eavesdropping statute, MCL 750.539c, reads as though every party must consent. In Sullivan v. Gray (1982) the Court of Appeals held that a participant in a conversation is not eavesdropping on it, and the Michigan Supreme Court has not settled the question since. That uncertainty is a good reason for an answering service to disclose itself rather than rely on either reading, which is what the assistant's opening line does.
- Grand Rapids averages 127 nights a year at or below freezing and Detroit 115, with heating loads above 6,000 degree days at both. Among the stations on these pages only Buffalo and Chicago come close. Michigan heating companies live on winter calls, and no heat is the first emergency word in the configuration.
- Michigan has 509 roofing establishments, the fewest of the ten largest states. With so few roofers relative to the state's size, a caller who reaches voicemail in spring storm season does not have many other names to try, and tries them anyway.
- Michigan plumbing and HVAC establishments average about 11.5 staff and 74 percent have fewer than ten. The overnight calls in January land on whoever is on call, and the assistant's job is to make sure that person starts with a complete lead.
Michigan's trades and weather
Detroit and Grand Rapids, both well past 6,000 heating degree days.
Contractor establishments, Michigan. Census County Business Patterns, 2023.
| Trade | Establishments | Under 10 staff | Staff each, average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbing, heating and air conditioning | 2,661 | 74% | 11.5 |
| Electrical | 1,960 | 74% | 12.9 |
| Roofing | 509 | 74% | 9.9 |
A year at the weather station, on NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals.
| Station | Days 90°F+ | Nights 32°F or below | Heating degree days | Cooling degree days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detroit | 10 | 115 | 6,136 | 803 |
| Grand Rapids | 8 | 127 | 6,485 | 698 |
A February night in Grand Rapids
- On a February night in Grand Rapids a furnace stops and a family with a newborn calls a heating company.
- The assistant picks up, says it is an AI that keeps notes of the call, and asks for the caller's name first.
- The caller says no heat and mentions the baby. Both are on the emergency list, and the lead is raised.
- It takes the address and a callback number, reads them back, and tells the caller somebody will call, without promising when.
- The on-call tech opens a lead that says no heat, newborn and the address, rather than a voicemail to decode.
What a Michigan caller receives
emergency ack
Hi Dana, Northgate Heating has your message and is treating it as urgent. If this is a gas leak or emergency, call 911.
A Michigan furnace call at night is often a gas furnace call. This says the business has it and points to 911 for a leak, and leaves the rest to the tech who calls back.
appointment reminder
Northgate Heating is booked for Tuesday at 9:00 AM. Please clear access to the unit. Reply if anything changed.
Furnaces here sit in basements behind storage. Asking for access the night before saves a visit that would otherwise start with moving boxes.
Questions Michigan owners ask
- Is Michigan a one-party or two-party state?
- Both answers circulate. The statute reads as all-party; an appeals court decision lets a participant record; the Supreme Court has not decided. The assistant sidesteps the question by announcing its notes before the caller speaks.
- Will it tell a caller what to do about a gas smell?
- Only to call 911, in the emergency text. Advising on a possible gas leak is a job for a person, and the assistant does not try.
- Can it hand the call to my on-call tech?
- It takes the details and raises the lead rather than transferring the call. Your tech rings back knowing the problem, the address and who is in the house.
Every price is on the site
No quote and no sales call to find out what it costs. Creating the account and setting it up charges nothing: setup is billed when you submit your carrier registration, and the monthly charge starts when your number is live.
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