Plumbers & Heating
Answer the emergency call while your hands are in a boiler.
Step Into AI answers, works out how urgent it is, captures the address and the problem, books the visit and follows up the quote. Then it reminds the customer when the annual service is due.
Call answering and a CRM built around plumbing and heating work
Plumbing and heating enquiries split into two kinds that need handling differently. Emergencies, where there is no heating, no hot water or water coming through a ceiling, are won by whoever answers first and can get there soonest. Planned work, such as boiler replacements, bathrooms and annual services, is won by whoever follows up the quote and stays organised over days or weeks.
Step Into AI is configured to do both. The AI receptionist triages every call, flags emergencies to whoever is on call, and captures the postcode, boiler and symptoms for routine jobs. The CRM tracks each property and each quote, chases installation quotes automatically, and reminds every past customer when their annual service is due. Landlords and agents are handled as accounts with multiple properties.
Where plumbing and heating businesses lose work
Plumbing calls are urgent, valuable, and almost always badly timed.
No heating, no hot water, no answer
A customer with a cold house rings four numbers and books the first that picks up.
Winter surge
The first cold snap triples the calls on the days your diary is already full.
Boiler quotes that go quiet
A £3,000 installation quote sent by email and never followed up.
Annual services forgotten
Hundreds of past customers due a service. No list, no reminders, no repeat work.
Jobs out of area
Time spent on calls for postcodes you do not cover.
Landlords and agents
Gas safety checks and tenant access calls mixed in with homeowner enquiries.
Configured for your enquiries
What the receptionist captures from a heating call
Enough to decide whether it is an emergency, whether it is in your area, and what the engineer needs to bring.
Captured on every enquiry
- Is there heating and hot water? Is water coming through anywhere? Used for triage
- Anyone vulnerable in the property: elderly, very young, unwell
- Boiler make and model where known, and any error code displayed
- Full address and postcode, checked against your coverage area
- Homeowner, tenant, landlord or agent, and who authorises the work
- Access arrangements and best times
- Whether the property is on a service contract or has been visited before, matched from the CRM
- Where they found you
Workflow
One plumbing and heating enquiry, start to finish
This is the journey the platform is configured to run for a business like yours.
- Call inAuto"My boiler is showing an error and there is no hot water"
- Answered while you are on another job
- TriageAIPostcode, boiler make, symptoms and urgency captured
- Out-of-area callers politely told and pointed elsewhere
- AlertYouVulnerable customer or no heating flagged as urgent
- You see it between jobs and decide
- Visit bookedAutoSlot offered and confirmed by text
- "Dan will be with you between 1pm and 3pm"
- QuoteYouRepair or replacement quote sent and tracked
- Follow-up sequence begins
- DoneAutoJob completed, invoice status synced from accounts
- ReviewAutoReview request the next day
- Service dueAutoAnnual service reminder 11 months later
- Customer books by replying to the text
Pipeline
Pipeline stages for a plumbing and heating business
Stages are configured for you at setup and can be renamed or reordered at any time.
- 1New enquiryTriaged as emergency or routine. Emergencies alert the on-call engineer.
- 2Visit bookedTwo-hour slot confirmed by text with the engineer's name.
- 3DiagnosedRepair done or replacement recommended. Quote created from the visit.
- 4Quote sentInstallation or repair quote marked sent. Follow-up sequence starts.
- 5ChasingDay 3, 7 and 14 check-ins, stopped on reply.
- 6WonInstallation scheduled, customer told what to expect on the day.
- 7CompleteCertificate sent, invoice synced, review requested, service date set.
- 8Service dueAnnual reminder eleven months later. Customer books by replying.
Your bundle
Recommended for plumbing and heating businesses
Start with the parts that fix your biggest leak. Add the rest when you are ready.
Automations that run for you
- No-heating and leak calls escalated to the on-call engineer by call and text
- Out-of-area callers politely declined and pointed elsewhere
- Visit confirmations with engineer name and arrival window
- Installation quote follow-up over three weeks
- Certificate and invoice emails after completion
- Review request the day after every job
- Annual service reminders for every past customer
- Landlord gas safety reminders per property
Each one can be set to always ask, auto-approve, or escalate. How approval works.
Numbers your dashboard shows
- Emergency calls answered and average time to engineer contact
- Calls missed before and after the receptionist
- Enquiries by source and by job type
- Installation quotes sent, won and value
- Service reminders sent and services booked
- Landlord properties under contract
- Reviews received
More on reporting and dashboards.
Example
An example cold snap for a two-engineer heating firm
The temperature drops on Tuesday night. By Wednesday lunchtime, nineteen calls have come in. Both engineers are on jobs. The receptionist answers every one, captures the address, the boiler and the symptoms, and flags three as urgent: two with no heating and one elderly customer.
The owner reviews the list from the van, books the three urgent ones for the afternoon and lets the receptionist offer next-day slots to the rest. Every customer gets a text confirming their slot.
Two of the visits turn into replacement quotes. Both are chased automatically. One is accepted on the day-3 follow-up.
Eleven months later, all nineteen customers receive a service reminder.
This is an illustration of how the platform is designed to work, not a customer case study. We will publish real pilot results as they become available.
Questions from plumbing and heating businesses
Can it tell the difference between an emergency and a dripping tap?
Yes. It asks the questions you would: is there heating, is there water coming through, is anyone vulnerable in the property. You define what counts as urgent and how to be alerted.
We have an on-call rota. Can it follow it?
Ring groups and schedules mean calls go to whoever is on call, and the receptionist picks up if they cannot. The rota can be changed from the app.
Can it handle landlord and letting agent calls?
Yes. Agents and landlords can be recognised as accounts with multiple properties, and their calls routed to the office rather than the emergency queue if you prefer.
Does it integrate with our gas safety and job software?
Standard integrations cover popular job management and accounting tools. Where a direct integration is not available, Business plans include bespoke connections.
Resources
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What happens to your next plumbing and heating enquiry?
See how Step Into AI would answer it, organise it and follow it through to the next step.