PatchmentBuilt for plumbing
The plumber's phone, answered around the clock.
Patchment is the AI front office for plumbing companies. It picks up at midnight and on Sunday morning, asks what's leaking and how badly, tells an emergency from a routine repair, and books the job into Jobber or Housecall Pro — with you in control of every step.
Emergencies don't wait for the office to open
A burst pipe or a sewage backup doesn't go to voicemail — the caller works down the list until a person or a system answers. Industry surveys back up what owners already know: Vexion Systems reports that sixty-two percent of field-service calls go unanswered, and OnceHub's guide to automated call handling estimates small businesses miss anywhere from a quarter to well over half of their inbound calls, depending on staffing and after-hours coverage. Plumbing lives on exactly the calls that arrive at the worst times, and the shop that answers first usually gets the job.
How it handles the calls you actually get
Emergency
A burst pipe at midnight
Patchment answers immediately, captures the address, what's flooding, and whether the caller found the shutoff valve, and marks the request urgent. Your rules decide what happens next: page the on-call plumber, or hold it for your approval with everything already written down.
A pipe burst under our kitchen sink and water is everywhere!
Let's get this handled. Have you been able to shut off the water at the valve under the sink or at the main? I'm flagging this as an emergency now.
Urgent → your on-duty rules decide
Estimate request
“What would a new water heater cost?”
Patchment never quotes prices. It captures what the customer is asking for — tank size, gas or electric, where it lives — and hands your team a complete request instead of a missed call.
Roughly what would you charge to replace a 50-gallon water heater?
I can't quote pricing, but I'll get your details to the team so they can. Is the current unit gas or electric?
Escalated → pricing is always a human call
Routine
A slow drain, booked without a callback
For routine work, Patchment checks the real schedule, offers windows, and writes the booking into Jobber or Housecall Pro. The customer hangs up with a time; nobody plays phone tag.
Our bathroom sink has been draining slowly for a week.
We can take a look Wednesday 8–10 AM or Thursday 1–3 PM. Which suits you?
Booked → Housecall Pro
What changes day to day
| Situation | Today | With Patchment |
|---|---|---|
| Midnight emergencies | Voicemail, and the caller dials the next shop | Answered on the first ring, flagged urgent |
| Emergency vs. routine | Sorted by listening to voicemails | Asked upfront, routed by your rules |
| Price questions | Guessed at on the phone, or lost | Captured in detail and escalated — never quoted by the AI |
| Booking | Phone tag over available windows | Real openings offered on the call, written into Jobber or Housecall Pro |
| Day-of coordination | Texts from your personal cell | Coordinated SMS with a full audit trail |
| Text compliance | Ad-hoc messages, opt-out handled by hand | Registered messaging with STOP and HELP honored automatically |
You stay in control
Every action Patchment takes on a plumbing call is policy-gated, and you set the policy per action type — the same autonomy dial the rest of Patchment runs on.
- Burst pipes, sewage backups, suspected gas issues: ask me first, or page the on-call plumber directly — your choice.
- Drain cleaning and routine repairs: just book them.
- Anything about pricing: always escalate. Patchment never quotes prices.
- Commercial properties: hold for review before booking.
Everything lands in one approval queue with a full audit timeline, there's an org-wide kill switch, and unclear situations always escalate to a human dispatcher.
How customers consent to texts
When someone calls or texts to request service, they're told — on the call, or in the reply itself — exactly what messages they'll get and how to stop them. Booking confirmations, technician updates, and follow-ups; reply STOP to opt out at any time, HELP for help.
Questions, answered
What does Patchment do with a real emergency?
It captures the situation fast — what's flooding, whether the water is off — marks the request urgent, and follows your rules: page the on-call plumber, or hold it for approval with the details already written down.
What if a caller mentions a gas smell?
Patchment doesn't triage safety issues. It gets a human involved immediately and keeps the full exchange attached so nothing is repeated or lost.
Will it quote prices for jobs?
No, never. Price questions are captured in detail and escalated to your team. That's a hard rule, not a setting.
Does it replace my office staff?
No. It catches what they can't get to — after-hours calls, the third line ringing at once, day-of coordination texts — and hands them a clean queue instead of a pile of voicemails.
Which platforms does it work with?
Jobber and Housecall Pro today, with leads ingested from Angi. Your FSM stays the system of record — Patchment writes into it, not around it.
Is the texting compliant?
Yes. Messages follow A2P 10DLC requirements, with STOP and HELP honored automatically.
Ready to hear it answer your phone?
Book a demo and call the live number yourself. Or read more on the blog.
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