How to Set Up 24/7 Call Answering for Your HVAC Business in 10 Minutes

You don't need an IT person for this

If you can forward a phone call and use Google Calendar, you can have 24/7 AI call answering set up before lunch. Here's exactly how it works.

What you'll need

• A Google account (for calendar booking — optional but recommended)
• Your existing phone number (Bob works with any carrier)
• About 10 minutes

Step 1: Sign up and tell Bob about your business (3 minutes)

Go to callbobai.com and pick a plan. For most single-location HVAC contractors, Starter at $97/month (annual) is the right starting point — it covers 300 minutes of call time per month, which handles most businesses comfortably outside of peak season.

During onboarding, you'll fill in:

• Your business name
• Your services (AC repair, furnace installation, duct cleaning, etc.)
• Your business hours
• Your on-call emergency number — this is the number Bob routes genuine emergencies to immediately

Bob uses this to answer calls naturally. A caller asking about a new system gets a different response than someone whose heat is out at 11pm.

Step 2: Connect Google Calendar (2 minutes)

This is what separates Bob from a message-taking service. When Bob has calendar access, he can check your real availability and book jobs directly — no callback required.

In settings, click Connect Google Calendar and authorize access. That's it. Bob reads your existing calendar to find open slots and books to the same calendar you already use.

If you're not ready to connect calendar right away, Bob will still answer calls and take detailed messages — you just won't get the auto-booking.

Step 3: Forward your number to Bob's line (3 minutes)

After you sign up, Bob gives you a dedicated phone number. You forward your existing business number to that number — callers never dial Bob's number directly, they call you like normal.

How you set up forwarding depends on your carrier:

• iPhone: Settings → Phone → Call Forwarding
• Android: Phone app → Settings → Supplementary Services → Call Forwarding
• Landline/VoIP: Most carriers have a *72 dial code or a web portal — check your carrier's instructions

Set it to forward when calls go unanswered after 2–3 rings. This way you still get calls yourself — if you're free, you pick up. If you're on a job or unavailable, Bob picks up automatically.

Step 4: Test it

Call your own number from another phone. Don't pick up. Bob should answer within 2 seconds of the first ring. Ask him something a real customer would ask — "Do you do AC tune-ups?" or "My furnace isn't turning on, can someone come today?"

If it sounds right, you're done. If you want to adjust anything — how Bob introduces your business, specific services he mentions, how he handles after-hours calls — you can update that in Settings.

What happens on day one

Every call Bob handles shows up in your dashboard with:

• Time and caller number
• How long the call was
• What happened (booked, message taken, emergency routed)
• Full transcript of the conversation

New bookings land directly on your Google Calendar. You find out about them the same way you find out about any other appointment — it just shows up.

Most HVAC contractors who set this up on a Friday have their first Bob-answered call by Saturday morning.