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Residential HVAC

The no-heat call, and what answers it

Six words decide it, and two of them are the name of the appliance rather than the problem. What happens to a no-heat call nobody picks up.

Written by Christopher Gillig, who files the carrier registrations behind these numbers and configures the assistants. Last reviewed September 16, 2026.

The short answer

A no-heat call is classified from six words, two of which name the appliance rather than the fault, because that is how callers actually describe it. It is an emergency by default and gets the shortest reply target this trade has. If the assistant is switched on it answers, asks what is happening and takes a callback number; if it is not, the caller gets a text inside about a minute and any reply naming one of those words raises the lead immediately.

The words that name this job

The real list, read from the configuration that matches on it. These are matched on an inbound text reply, out of hours included.

no heatfurnaceheater notheat not workingboilerpilot light
Urgency by default
emergency
Reply target
5 minutes
Somebody goes out
Yes

What this call is actually like

  • The list is six words long and two of them are the appliance rather than the fault: furnace and boiler. Callers rarely say no heat. They say the furnace is making a noise, or the pilot light is out, and a classifier watching only for the phrase would miss most of them.
  • Two of those words, boiler and pilot light, are also in the plumbing pack, where they mean a water heater. The same word is a different job in a different trade, which is why this is per-trade configuration and not one global model that would have to guess.
  • No heat is an emergency by default here, and gets the emergency reply target rather than the ordinary one. That is a setting: a company that does not do out-of-hours work can lower it, and the honest thing is that most do not want to.
  • The hour this call arrives is the hour nobody can answer it. A cold snap produces the calls and produces the reason the phone rings out, and the company that picks up books the visit while the other two get a callback request that has already been answered.

What happens, in order

  1. A homeowner rings on the coldest night of the year. The crew is out and nobody picks up.
  2. If the assistant is on, it answers, says it is an assistant, and asks what is going on. If it is off, the call ends and a text goes out within about a minute instead.
  3. It takes a name and a number to call back on and reads them back.
  4. Where the business marked this job bookable, it offers times that are genuinely free and books one.
  5. Where it did not, the caller's own description lands on the lead, and a reply naming any of the words above raises it, including at two in the morning.

The messages around it

Real templates from this trade's pack, with a business name filled in exactly as they would send.

missed call textback

This is Northgate Heating, sorry we missed your call. What is going on, and where are you? Reply here, or BOOK to book.

One question, because the answer usually contains the word that classifies the job and the address that decides who is sent. It fits a single segment with the opt-out line still to come.

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.

Sent when a reply matches an emergency word. It acknowledges and escalates and does not advise, because advising on a possible gas leak by text is not something software should do.

Questions

Does it know a no-heat call from a maintenance enquiry?
On a text reply, yes: these words are matched on every inbound message and raise the lead. On the call itself the assistant records what the caller said in their own words, and the person ringing back makes the judgement.
What happens if a caller says the pilot light is out rather than no heat?
It is the same job. Pilot light is in the list precisely because it is what people say instead of the phrase, and so are furnace and boiler.
Can the assistant book an emergency visit?
Only jobs you marked bookable, and most companies leave emergencies for a person to triage. The usual arrangement is to let it book routine work and take a message on anything urgent.
Does this work at two in the morning?
Yes if you have the assistant on, and the text goes out either way. An emergency word in a reply raises the lead at the time it arrives rather than at opening.

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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