A website chatbot for plumbing, HVAC and electrical contractors

Written by the Allinaa team · Updated October 15, 2026

When you are under a sink or in an attic, you don't answer the phone, and the homeowner calls the next company on the list. Your website can hold that customer for you. An Allinaa assistant answers service-area and scheduling questions from your approved information, gives the safety instructions you wrote, and captures a service request with the details your dispatcher needs.

Calls you miss while you're under a sink

For a small trades business, the website chat does three jobs that voicemail can't:

It answers the simple questions immediately: "Do you service my town?", "Do you charge a trip fee?", "Do you work on tankless water heaters?"
It collects a complete request (address, problem, urgency, photos on Premium) instead of a voicemail that says "call me back."
It gives urgent callers your emergency number straight away, instead of leaving them on a form.

Emergency or routine? Triage questions you define

Every shop defines "emergency" differently, and some charge after-hours rates. Write your own definitions into the knowledge and the assistant uses them. A plumbing example:

Emergency (call our after-hours line): water you can't shut off, sewage backing up into the house, no water at all. Next business day: slow drains, running toilets, dripping faucets, water heater not heating.

The assistant asks up to three short clarifying questions, one at a time, to place the request: "Is water actively leaking right now?", "Can you shut off the valve?", "Is anyone without heat?" Then it either gives your emergency number or captures a routine request. It does not make the final call on urgency beyond what you wrote, so the clearer your list, the better.

Safety first: gas smells, sparking outlets, no DIY repair instructions

Some messages need a safety instruction before anything else. Put them at the top of your knowledge, in the words your utility and your licensed techs would use:

Gas smell: leave the building now, don't use switches or phones inside, call the gas utility's emergency number and 911 from outside.
Sparking or burning smell from an outlet or panel: if it's safe, switch off the breaker, keep away, call your emergency line. If there is smoke or fire, call 911.
Carbon monoxide alarm: get everyone outside and call 911.

Also tell the assistant not to give repair instructions. "How do I replace my thermostat wiring?" should get an offer of a service visit, not a how-to. AI answers can be wrong, and wrong electrical or gas advice is dangerous.

Service area and trip-fee answers

List the towns, counties or ZIP codes you serve and any areas you serve only for certain work. Add your published trip or diagnostic fee and whether it is credited toward the repair. If a visitor's town isn't on your list, the assistant says so and can still take the request in case you want to make an exception.

Plumbing, HVAC and electrical: what each trade's visitors ask

Plumbing

Water heater replacement vs. repair, drain cleaning, sewer camera inspections, whether you handle permits, and whether you work on well systems or septic.

HVAC

No heat or no cooling, maintenance plans and what they include, which equipment brands you service, filter sizes, and seasonal tune-up scheduling before the first cold snap or heat wave.

Electrical

Panel upgrades, EV charger installation, generator hookups, adding outlets, and whether you pull permits and handle inspections. Licensing details such as your license number belong in the knowledge if you publish them.

Photos of the problem (Premium)

On Premium, homeowners can attach a photo of the leaking valve, the error code on the furnace, or the label on the water heater. Every file is checked for malware and stored privately. Your tech sees model numbers before the visit and brings the right parts. The assistant itself doesn't diagnose from the photo. See file uploads.

Illustrative conversation: a no-heat call at 10 PM

Homeowner (10:05 PM): Our furnace stopped working and it's 20 degrees outside. We have a baby.

Assistant: I'm sorry, that's urgent. No heat in freezing weather is an emergency for us. Please call our after-hours line now; the number is at the top of this page. Do you smell gas at all?

Homeowner: No gas smell. The thermostat shows a blinking light.

Assistant: Thanks. Please call the after-hours line so the on-call tech can talk you through next steps. I can also send your address and a photo of the thermostat to the office so the tech has them. What's your address?

Illustrative example, not a real conversation.

Questions owners ask

Can the chatbot dispatch a technician?

No. Allinaa doesn't connect to field service software. It gives urgent callers your emergency number and captures routine requests for your office to schedule.

Will it tell homeowners how to fix things themselves?

No. It is set up to give the safety instructions you write and offer a service visit, not repair instructions.

How does it decide what's an emergency?

From the definitions you write into its knowledge. It asks a few clarifying questions and follows your list.

One page for three trades: does it handle all of them?

Yes. One assistant can answer for plumbing, HVAC and electrical services if your knowledge covers each one.