← All use cases · Plumbing, HVAC & trades
Use an AI overflow answering service so no caller sits on hold and simple questions get answered on the spot
Billy Oleson, president of Pest Stop Services in Olympia, Washington, in Pest Control Technology's 2025 State of the Technology Market report
Pest Stop uses an overflow answering service that is AI-based. "AI picks up and answers as many questions as possible to give customers an avenue to self-serve so we can focus on requests that are more complex," Oleson says. The service isn't named.
The AI answering service isn't named; prices not checked here; ChatGPT Free $0; Go $8/mo; Plus $20/mo for the script prompt
Easy · or we do it from $149/mo
Varies
The problem
With labor costs rising, he can't have a live person answer every call and still keep prices competitive. "We'd love to answer the phone with a live human every time and there's a fine balance."
What happened
Per the report, no one who calls Pest Stop gets stuck on a "please hold" reel. Oleson says the company's automated communications let it increase production, keep costs competitive and always answer the call. No numbers are given. Self-reported.
Quoted in the source: Billy Oleson, president, Pest Stop Services. Source: Pest Control Technology: 2025 State of the Technology Market (2025-10-07) · Added 2026-10-19.
How to set it up yourself
- What Pest Stop does: when the office is busy, an AI-based overflow service answers, handles as many questions as it can and leaves the complex requests for staff.
- List the questions callers ask most that have a fixed answer (service area, how to prepare, billing) and the ones that need a person.
- Give the service your answers word for word with the prompt below, and test it with ten calls of your own.
- Review a week of its calls: anything it got wrong goes back to a person, and questions that keep coming up go on your website.
Copy-paste prompt
Write an FAQ script for {COMPANY NAME}'s AI overflow phone line. Answer these using our own wording only: {QUESTIONS AND OUR ANSWERS}. For anything about {COMPLEX TOPICS, e.g. bites or health concerns, commercial accounts, complaints}, take the caller's name, number and a short note and promise a callback within {TIME}. Short spoken sentences, and offer a person at any point.The $39 Plumbing & HVAC AI Starter Kit has ready-to-use call scripts, missed-call texts, estimate follow-ups and review templates, built from 18 real, sourced setups. Instant download, 30-day refund.
One short email a day: 3 new AI use cases from real small businesses, each with its source and setup steps, plus a Tool of the Day. Free, no spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Rather not do it yourself?
We'll set this up in your tools, in your voice, tested. $149/mo with setup included (6-month minimum), or $497 pay-once. Satisfaction guarantee: we'll fix it until it works. Pay-once setups: or we refund your setup fee. $149/mo plan: cancel in the first 30 days and we refund your first month. Terms. We reply within 1 business day.
Get this set upRelated for Plumbing, HVAC & trades
Use an AI assistant for a landscaping company's estimates, messages and marketing
The owner uses an AI assistant he calls 'Willy' to plan routes and track projects, write and translate client messages and estimates, ske…
via Gardenboro Landscaping blog · 2025-11-01Answer client texts in your own voice, just faster, with AI
He pastes a client's text and his own rough reply into AI and asks for a tighter, clearer version; he also used AI to structure maintenan…
via Landscaper's Guide podcast · 2025-11-28Build siding and window estimates with ChatGPT before buying estimating software
He used ChatGPT to build estimates, then turned that workflow into his own web app that reads measurement files and generates estimates.
ChatGPTRunning something like this in your business? Submit your use case and we'll credit you with a link.
Get 3 new AI use cases every morning
One email every morning: 3 new AI use cases from real small businesses, each linked to its source, plus a Tool of the Day. Free. No spam, unsubscribe anytime. Privacy