You’re in the seat. Something has to answer the office phone.
The builder calling about next week’s pad, the homeowner with water in the basement, and the crew that just hit a line all ring while you’re running a machine. Your AI receptionist answers, takes the address, the size, the access, and whether the utilities have been marked, and books the site visit before the caller tries the next outfit.
An AI receptionist for excavation and grading contractors answers around the clock in English and Spanish, captures the site address, rough size, machine access, and whether an 811 locate has been called, texts a secure link for site photos or a plan set (Basic and up), books the on-site visit to your calendar, and pages you on a utility strike or a builder job.
What a missed call costs you.
- 01You’re in a machine or on a trailer all day, so the calls that pay land in voicemail.
- 02A builder with a pour date calls once. If nobody picks up, the pad goes to whoever did.
- 03The things that decide the bid, access, soil, haul, and whether the lines are marked yet, are exactly what a rushed message never says.
What a missed call could be worth
Run your own numbers. Drag the sliders to match your shop, and the figure at the bottom updates as you go.
This is an estimate built from your own inputs, not a quote. Nobody can say a given missed call was a real customer, so read the result as a possibility, not a bill.
Many calls to small businesses go unanswered, and most callers never leave a message.
Not every missed call is a sale: some are spam, wrong numbers, or people you already serve. Your honest guess.
Phone callers are high-intent and convert better than a web form. The starting number is an illustrative default, not a benchmark. Your own close rate on the leads you actually reach.
For most service businesses, a single job runs a few hundred dollars. Count repeat work and referrals and a customer's lifetime value reaches several thousand. Use the number that fits you.
You can't know any single missed call was a real customer; some are wrong numbers or sales calls. But across a month, if even 25% of the would-be customers who reached your voicemail would have booked, that works out to about $5,906.
And the fix scales with the math: even Standard, our $399-a-month plan, runs about 7% of that estimate, roughly $66,087 a year below it.
First AI Employee's Essential plan is $99 a month. The question isn't whether every missed call is a lost job; it's whether catching them clears $99.
Start a 7-day free trial →An estimate from your own inputs, not a quote. The default customer value above is just a starting estimate; set it to your own.
Sources: Invoca's home-services call benchmarks on how often calls go unanswered (a home-services benchmark; the defaults here are illustrative and fully adjustable); CRM Magazine on voicemail behavior; Invoca's call-conversion benchmarks on how well phone leads convert.
On the call, it handles all of it.
Dig intake, in the right order
Captures the site address, what they want done, rough size or acreage, machine and trailer access, where the spoil goes, and what is driving the date.
Asks about the 811 locate, every time
Notes whether a ticket is in and the marks are down, and asks about the private lines 811 will not mark: propane, well, irrigation, pet fence, the feed to a barn. It never tells a caller it is safe to dig.
Site visits on your calendar, photos and plans by text
Books the walk-through against your real availability, and texts a secure upload link (Basic and up) to callers who have opted in to texts, for photos of the wet spot, the access, or the plan set on a builder job.
Answers day and night, in English or Spanish
Picks up evenings, weekends, and the spring rush, pages you on a utility strike or a builder call, and can put a live caller straight through to you. Every call is recorded and transcribed, with a notice to the caller up front.
In your callers' own words.
- “
Every time it rains, water runs straight at my basement wall.
- “
I need a price on the pad and footings for Lot 14. We pour in three weeks.
- “
We’ve got two acres of brush and stumps we want cleared before fall.
Job Briefs & Client Intake: built in for excavation & grading.
A photo of the job site turns a vague “what’ll it run me” into a real estimate before you ever leave the shop.
How Job Briefs & Client Intake works →Add-ons, rated for excavation & grading.
We rate every add-on for how much it actually earns its keep in your trade: the must-haves and the ones you can skip. Honest stars, not a sales pitch.
Stop sending excavation & grading callers to voicemail.
Your AI receptionist answers 24/7, qualifies the caller, and books the work, so more of your calls turn into customers instead of a competitor's.
Not for: healthcare or anyone handling protected health information. We are not HIPAA-compliant and don't sign BAAs.