Texas
Answering service for Texas contractors
For HVAC, plumbing, electrical and roofing businesses across Texas: an assistant that answers through a hundred-degree summer and a hail week, and a text-back that stays on the right side of the state's newer texting law.
Written by Christopher Gillig, who files the carrier registrations behind these numbers and configures the assistants. Last reviewed October 6, 2026.
The short answer
For a Texas contractor the calls that get missed come in surges: the first hundred-degree week, a hail storm, a hard freeze. An answering service has to take all of them, not the first few, so the assistant here answers every call at once, raises the ones that name hail, no AC or a burst pipe, and books inspections and repairs into the free slots on your calendar. Callers it could not reach get a reply by text, which since SB 140 is worth keeping strictly to replies.
What is different about Texas
- Senate Bill 140 took effect on September 1, 2025. It brought text messages inside the definitions of the state's telephone solicitation law and gave consumers a private right of action. The text-back here only ever replies to someone who has just called the business, and it never carries a promotion. If you plan to send marketing texts as well, that is the part to take to your own counsel.
- Of the 2,442 roofing establishments in Texas, 2,113 have fewer than ten staff, the highest small-firm share of the ten largest states. A roofing company that size has nobody in the office during a hail week, which is the exact week the phone does not stop. The roofing configuration treats hail, storm and tree on as emergency words.
- Houston averages 102 days a year at 90°F or above and Dallas-Fort Worth averages 95, on the 1991 to 2020 normals. A failed air conditioner is not routine for that much of the year, and the heating and cooling configuration lists no ac and not cooling as emergencies, along with elderly and infant, because who is in the house changes the answer.
- Texas electrical contractors average about 16 staff per establishment, the most of the ten largest states. Bigger electrical shops usually have an office, so the calls they miss are the ones after hours and on weekends. That is the case for setting the assistant to answer only what nobody picks up, rather than everything.
- Texas allows a participant to record a call without telling the other side. The assistant announces that it takes notes anyway, because the same greeting runs for every business we serve and a caller from an all-party state can ring a Texas number.
Texas trades and weather
Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth stand in for the state's two hot halves.
Contractor establishments, Texas. Census County Business Patterns, 2023.
| Trade | Establishments | Under 10 staff | Staff each, average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbing, heating and air conditioning | 8,966 | 76% | 11.8 |
| Electrical | 6,124 | 72% | 16.3 |
| Roofing | 2,442 | 87% | 6.6 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houston (IAH) | 102 | 10 | 1,367 | 3,157 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) | 95 | 29 | 2,286 | 2,755 |
Texting and recording law
A summary to plan with, not legal advice.
- SB 140 covers texts now
- Since September 1, 2025, text messages fall under the state's telephone solicitation definitions, and consumers can sue over violations. A reply to an inbound call is the narrowest kind of text a business sends.
- One-party recording
- Texas lets a participant record. The assistant still records no audio and still announces its notes, because the greeting is the same in every state.
- Opt-out is built in
- Anyone who replies STOP is never texted again by that business, and the carrier registration behind the number states exactly what it sends.
A hail evening in North Texas
- A hailstorm moves through North Texas on a Tuesday afternoon. By evening a roofer's phone has more calls than the crew can count.
- The assistant answers each one, says it is an AI that takes notes, and asks who is calling and what happened.
- Every caller who mentions hail, a tree or water coming in is raised as urgent, because those words are on the roofing list.
- It takes the property address before it books anything, reads it back, and offers inspection times only from slots your calendar shows as free.
- Callers it could not reach get a text that asks what happened and where, and their reply joins the same lead.
What a Texas caller receives
emergency ack
Hi Dana, Cedarline Roofing has this and is treating it as urgent. Stay off the roof. If anyone is in danger, call 911.
After a Texas hail week the most common way a homeowner gets hurt is climbing up to look. This tells them not to, says the business has the message, and stops there.
missed call textback
This is Cedarline Roofing, sorry we missed your call. What is going on, and where are you? Reply here, or BOOK to book.
It is a reply to a call the homeowner placed, and contains no offer or discount. Under SB 140 that distinction matters, which is one reason the wording never changes into a promotion.
Questions Texas owners ask
- Does SB 140 stop me using missed-call text-back?
- The law is aimed at solicitation, and a text-back replies to somebody who just called you. It does not market anything. We are not your lawyer, though, and if you also send promotional texts you should have those reviewed separately.
- Can it keep up with a storm?
- It answers calls in parallel, so the tenth caller in a minute gets the same answer as the first. What limits a storm week is your crew, and the assistant's job is making sure the list they work from is complete and in the right order.
- Do I need it on all year?
- That is a per-number setting you can change any time: answer everything, answer only what you miss, or text only. Plenty of Texas shops run it on missed calls most of the year and on everything in July.
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.
See what it costs