Plumbing shops · 1 to 10 people
They don't leave a voicemail. They call the next plumber.
PlumbPing texts them back in about a minute when you miss the call. After hours, an AI answers, writes down the job, and sends a booking link so the lead is still there in the morning.
Refundable deposit; counts toward your $199 setup fee.
Not connected to customer lines yet. When it launches, plans are month to month. No annual contract. PlumbPing is booking and follow-up software for plumbing businesses, not a phone company.
Your Plumbing Co.
Target: about 60 seconds after the missed call. The shop name would be yours.
The problem
The call comes while you are under a sink.
You are on a job, in the truck, or closed for the night. The shop line rings. The caller with water on the floor does not settle in for the voicemail greeting. They hang up and dial the next company that answers.
How often that happens is not one magic percentage. The calculator below starts from two published sources, and it says what is weak about each of them. The line that “80% of callers don't leave voicemail” is not one of those sources. We could not find a study behind it, so we don't use it.
What it does
Text-back when you miss them. An AI when you are closed.
- 1
A call rings out
Your phone rings while the crew is on a job, or it rings after you have closed. Nobody picks up. The caller hangs up.
- 2
A text goes out in about a minute
The target is roughly 60 seconds. The text names your business, says you saw the call, and gives them a way to reply or book. It includes STOP.
- 3
After hours, the AI takes the job
When you are closed, the assistant asks what is wrong, where it is, and how urgent it is. Then it texts a booking link and leaves you the summary. It does not quote a price or give repair advice.
Who we text
PlumbPing texts people who called your business. We do not text purchased lists, old customers who did not call, or anyone else. The first text identifies the business and tells them to reply STOP to opt out. STOP ends texts to that number. This is booking and follow-up software. It is not a phone line, and it is not an emergency dispatcher. A gas smell or someone in danger still needs emergency services and a person.
Calculator
What missed calls cost your shop
Monthly lost revenue = calls per week × 4.33 × the share you miss × the share who never come back × the share that are new jobs × your close rate × average job value. The low end of the range uses 21% instead of your never-return rate. Calls per week, close rate, and job value start as examples. Change them.
Loading the calculator.
Where these numbers come from
Defaults are starting points. The quality notes are part of the calculator, not a footnote we hope you skip. If a figure is not listed here, we are not using it.
- 1
24.3% rang out with no answer. 62% never reached a person.
411 Locals monitored calls to 85 businesses in 58 industries for 30 days and published the results on January 18, 2016. They reported 37.8% of calls answered, 37.8% forwarded to voicemail, and 24.3% with no response at all. 37.8 + 24.3 = 62.1, which they published as 62% of calls left unattended. The calculator toggle uses 24.3% for “rang out unanswered” and 62% for “including voicemail.”
Quality note. Small sample, not limited to plumbing, and about a decade old. The write-up is a blog post from a company that sells local SEO, not a methods paper. Fair to use as a published benchmark. Not fair to treat as your shop’s miss rate.
- 2
58% don’t leave voicemail. 21% call a competitor immediately.
CallRail’s 2025 survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers, published on their blog, says that when a business doesn’t answer: 42% leave a voicemail, 24% turn to online chat instead, and 21% immediately call another business. The same post says 78% have abandoned a business after an unanswered call. We do not put 78% into the formula. The default never-return rate is 58%, which is 100 minus the 42% who said they leave a voicemail. CallRail did not print “58%.” The conservative case is the 21% who said they call another business right away.
CallRail, survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers (2025)
Quality note. This is what people say they do, not a recording of plumbing calls. CallRail sells call tracking. The post does not say whether someone could pick more than one answer, so 42%, 24%, and 21% should not be added together. Not leaving a voicemail is also not the same thing as never calling back later. 58% is the closest published-adjacent figure we will use, and you should replace it if you know your own callback rate.
- 3
The “80% don’t leave voicemail” line is not used.
Answering-service marketing often says 80% of callers don’t leave voicemail. We could not find a study that measured it. It does not appear in the 411 Locals post or the CallRail survey above, and it is not an input here.
Quality note. No traceable sample, year, or dataset. If a source turns up, it belongs on this page with the same kind of note. Until then, ignore it.
- 4
New jobs, close rate, and job value are yours.
The defaults are 50% new jobs, a 40% close rate, and a job value that starts at $450 on the plumbing calculator (other trades use a different example). None of those three numbers come from a study. They are on the page so it is not blank.
Quality note. Replace them. A shop that mostly does repeat maintenance, or one that closes half of new leads, will get a nonsense total if it leaves the examples in place.
- 5
4.33 weeks per month, then × 12 for a year.
Monthly calls = calls per week × 4.33. A year is that monthly dollar figure × 12. We do not switch to 52 weeks for the yearly number, because 4.33 × 12 is 51.96. Using both would mix two calendars.
Quality note. 4.33 is 52 ÷ 12 rounded to the hundredth, which is what the formula specifies. It is a calendar convention, not a research finding.
Pricing
$199 to set up. Then $79 or $149 a month.
No annual contract. An AI minute is time the after-hours assistant spends on a call. We will not bill past the included minutes until an overage rate is published on this page.
Refundable deposit; counts toward your $199 setup fee.
Optional founding deposit: $49, refundable, credited toward the $199 setup if you start. It pays for booking and follow-up software for plumbing businesses. It is not a phone-service fee, and you can join the list without it. Refund and launch-date terms. If you don't see a PayPal button on the signup form, checkout is not turned on for this server yet. Joining the list is still free.
Questions
Straight answers
Is PlumbPing a phone company?
No. PlumbPing is booking and follow-up software for plumbing businesses. You keep your number and your carrier. We do not port numbers, and we are not selling a phone line. The after-hours piece answers calls with software. That does not make it a carrier.
How fast is the text?
The target is about 60 seconds after a missed call. That is the product goal. It is not connected to customer lines during this founding phase, so there is no measured uptime number to quote.
Who gets a text?
PlumbPing texts the person who called your business and did not reach you. We do not text purchased lists, old invoices, or people who never called. The message says which business it is and tells them they can reply STOP. STOP means we do not text that number again.
What does the after-hours AI actually do?
When you are closed, it answers, asks what is wrong, where the job is, and how urgent it is, then texts the caller a booking link and keeps the summary for you. It does not quote prices, diagnose a repair, or pretend to be your technician.
What if the call is an emergency?
PlumbPing is not an emergency service and not a dispatcher. A gas smell, a medical emergency, or someone in danger needs emergency services and a person. The assistant takes job details. It does not handle a crisis.
What is included in the $79 and $149 plans?
$79 per month includes 100 AI minutes. $149 per month includes 400 AI minutes. An AI minute is time the after-hours assistant spends on a call. Both plans are month to month. There is no annual contract. Setup is $199, once. We will not bill minutes past the included amount until an overage rate is written on this site.
What is the $49 deposit?
An optional, refundable founding-member deposit for the booking and follow-up software for plumbing businesses. It is credited toward the $199 setup if you start service. It is not a phone-service fee and it is not the monthly plan. You can join the list without paying it. Refund rules and the target launch date are on the founding-member terms page.
When do you launch?
The target date is June 30, 2027. It can move. If it does, a deposit that has not been credited to setup stays refundable. We email the list before anyone is billed for the monthly plan.
Do you work outside plumbing?
Plumbing shops are first. HVAC, electrical, and roofing owners can join the same list and use the trade calculators. Those pages share the math. They are not a claim that a separate product is finished for each trade.
Where does my signup go?
The form stores your name, business, email, phone, trade, city and state, and weekly call volume so we can contact you about launch. We do not sell that list. The privacy policy says who hosts it. If you pay the deposit, PayPal processes the payment and we store the PayPal order id. We do not take card numbers on this site.
The audit
Call your own line now and see what happens
Pick up your cell and call the shop. Let it ring. If you were the customer — water on the floor, nobody answering — would you leave a voicemail, or would you call the next plumber?
- Call your shop number from your cell.
- Let it ring out or go to voicemail.
- Hang up and decide if an urgent caller would wait.
What PlumbPing is built to do at that moment: text the caller in about a minute, from the business, with a way to reply and a STOP opt-out. After hours, the AI answers, writes down the job, and texts a booking link.
We cannot run that call yet
The text-back is not connected to customer lines in this phase. Calling your shop today only shows you your current voicemail. When a founding shop is set up, this audit is step one: you place the call, you watch the miss, you see the text. The audit is not a separate fee. The $199 setup applies only if you keep the service.
Founding list
Tell us about the shop.
Plumbing first. HVAC, electrical, and roofing can join the same list. We use this to contact you about launch. We do not sell it.
Target launch June 30, 2027. The date can move. A deposit, if you choose to pay one, stays refundable until it is credited to setup. Read the founding-member terms before you pay.