Missed calls and after-hours phone answering for builders and remodelers.

Start with the calls you already get

Pull up a normal week of calls and sort them: new projects, current clients, vendors and subs, and calls that aren’t for you. Note when each one came in, whether someone picked up, and whether anyone called back. That shows where your coverage is thin, but it doesn’t prove every missed number was a lost job.

Then name the gap you’re trying to close. Maybe the phone rings out while your project manager is walking a primary bath, or the office line goes quiet after five and on weekends. Knowing the exact situation helps you set up any kind of answering, whether that’s a person, a service or an AI receptionist.

Choose how calls reach Ava

Ava Call can be set up two ways. In the first, Ava’s own local number becomes your main line, and your business phone rings first for a short time (we recommend 10 seconds). Whoever answers presses 1 to take the call, and if no one does, Ava picks up. After hours, Ava answers right away.

In the second, you keep your current number and your phone company forwards unanswered calls to Ava. Callers wait longer before she answers, and how long depends on your carrier: about 30 seconds on Verizon, which can’t be shortened, and about 10 seconds on AT&T or T-Mobile once it’s set. Run the forwarding test to confirm it works before you count on it.

Try Ava free. Setup takes about 5 minutes.

Make the first conversation useful

Ava answers from your business’s own information. She reads your website at setup, and you review what she knows, such as the work you do and how a project starts with your team. If a caller says, “We want to open up the kitchen and add an island this spring,” Ava asks for the timing, budget, name and a callback number she confirms, one question at a time.

Some callers will ask what a remodel costs. Ava never makes up a price. She notes the question so your team can answer it once they understand the scope. During office hours, a caller who asks for a person is transferred to your team’s phone, with a press-1 check before the call connects.

Decide which project details your team needs from each call.

Book consultations inside your real hours

If you turn booking on, Ava books consultations during the call, within the consultation hours your team sets. She allows travel time between visits, keeps to your daily limit and skips your days off. Rather than reading out a list of openings, she asks the caller what day and time suit them, and offers the closest open time if that one is taken.

Ava also asks the city, and she won’t book a visit in a state your business doesn’t serve. A deck and patio inquiry from the next town over can land on the calendar, while an out-of-state custom home call stays in your Sales Desk for your team to review. A booked consultation is a first meeting, not a signed job, so your team still walks the site and prepares the quote.

Give after-hours follow-up a clear owner

Decide who reviews the night’s calls when the office opens, and who covers when that person is out on a job. Lead alerts arrive by email, and the Sales Desk keeps every call with its transcript, project details and confirmed callback number. A saved number only helps if a named person owns the callback.

Before calling, read what the homeowner already told Ava so they don’t have to repeat it. Check the calendar of booked visits too, so someone who booked a Tuesday consultation hears a quick confirmation instead of a fresh pitch. Agree on what callers should expect, and don’t promise a callback time your team can’t keep.

Plan the human follow-up after the first answer.

Test the setup and measure the full journey

Place a few test calls before you rely on the setup. Try a kitchen remodel inquiry, a job outside your area, a price question, a request for a person and a call after hours, and change a detail partway through one of them. Then compare what the caller heard with what your team received.

Track answered calls, complete project records, callbacks made, real conversations and booked consultations. Keep business-hours and after-hours calls separate so one doesn’t hide the other. These are suggested measures for your own review, not a promise that each one is a built-in report, so compare against your own starting point rather than expecting a set result.

Questions builders and remodelers ask