The 105° Saturday call gets a tech.
The desk picks up at 8pm on the hottest weekend of the year, asks the brand and age of the unit, captures the service-contract status, and either books the slot for Tuesday or rings your on-call tech right now. Peak season stops bleeding leads to the competition.
Or text DEMO to (555) 123-4569 to hear the transcript on a real intake.
Three places a busy shop leaks money in peak season.
Pulled from five regional HVAC shops over a single summer. Heat waves and cold snaps account for ~70% of the leak; the rest is recall and contract renewal.
Hottest two weeks of summer drive 40% of annual service revenue. The shop that picks up wins; the one that goes to voicemail loses the install.
Callers ask about contracts but rarely close on the first call. Without follow-up they sign with the next shop's salesman. Average annual contract: $385.
When intake misses "heat pump" vs "standard AC" or "single-stage" vs "variable," your tech rolls without the right parts. That's a free second visit and a frustrated customer.
Front Desk runs about $3,600/year. Break-even is one saved emergency install.
Four steps. Same every call.
It picks up
8pm on a Saturday in July. Christmas Eve when the furnace fails. The hour you're stuck under a unit.
It triages
Cooling or heating, brand and age, contract status, urgency. Captures what your dispatcher would.
It books or escalates
Routine: books to ServiceTitan or your calendar. Emergency: rings your on-call tech directly.
It briefs the tech
Tech gets the brand, age, symptoms, and any contract notes before they roll. No second visit.
The triage a senior dispatcher runs, every call.
Six questions, dispatcher-grade. Captures what a tech needs to roll prepared.
Spanish-speaking caller? It switches mid-call. Common across Sun Belt markets.
Same three tiers across every trade.
- HVAC-specific dispatch intake, ready to go
- ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, or calendar sync
- SMS confirmations + tech briefings
- Two months free for case-study rights
- Three pilot spots for HVAC — first-come
- Up to 500 calls per month
- Calendar + SMS + tech briefs
- Emergency on-call transfer routing
- Monthly call-quality review
- Unlimited calls (built for peak season)
- Multi-zone dispatch routing
- Bilingual intake (Spanish + English)
- Weekly script tuning + dispatch-quality data
- Direct Slack line to Foreword
If the desk doesn't book 10 service calls in month one, the month is free.
We pull the call log with you. If it didn't earn the cheque, you don't sign the cheque.
The questions HVAC shops ask.
Does it really sound like a person?
It sounds like a competent dispatcher. Listen to the demo line during a quiet hour, then again during peak — if it doesn't hold up, we won't sell it.
How long to set up?
Five business days. We tune the intake to your service area, contract structure, and on-call rules. Go live on a forwarded line so you can fall back to your old number if needed.
Can it actually distinguish brands and system types?
It captures what the caller says — brand, year, single-stage vs variable, heat pump vs straight AC. Doesn't make up info; if the caller doesn't know, it asks them to read the unit label.
Will it transfer real emergencies to my on-call?
Yes. Indoor temp triggers, "no heat with kids in the house," "elderly parent" language, carbon-monoxide alarms. Routes to your after-hours number with the full intake captured.
Does it integrate with ServiceTitan / Housecall Pro?
ServiceTitan and Housecall Pro are live. FieldEdge and Workiz on the roadmap. We'll add yours during the pilot.
Peak-season call volume — can it scale?
Yes. It's a virtual desk, not a person. 50 concurrent calls or 5 — no difference. We have shops running through 200-call days during heat waves.
Can it handle service-contract renewal pitches?
Yes — captures the lapse date and offers a renewal conversation with you, doesn't try to close on the phone. We don't have it pitch hard upgrades; the close stays with your sales team.
What about parts-ready dispatch?
Tech gets a brief with brand, age, symptoms, and contract notes before they roll. Reduces second-visit rate by 30-40% in the pilot data.
Multi-zone routing — does it route by ZIP?
Business tier. Pulls the caller's ZIP from intake, routes to the right zone's dispatch queue. Useful if you've got separate trucks for north and south of town.
Three HVAC pilot spots open. Before peak season.
Hear the desk triage a 105° call. Then 15 minutes with Foreword to see if you fit.
Demo line (555) 123-4569