AI missed-call textback for service pros

The idea

A plumber under a sink cannot answer the phone, and the homeowner calling does not leave a voicemail — they call the next result on Google. That rung-out call was a $400-3,000 job. Chat Setter built $92k MRR proving businesses pay for AI that answers inbound leads and books appointments while they work; it aims at Instagram DMs for coaches, a channel with Meta API fragility baked in. Trades live and die on phone calls, and SMS textback has no platform gatekeeper at all.

The wedge is the trade-specific qualification playbook — a burst-pipe conversation is not a haircut booking — plus emergency detection that pages the pro instead of politely scheduling a flood for Thursday. The weekly calls-saved report is the retention engine: it restates the ROI in job dollars every Friday.

Who pays

Plumbers, electricians, HVAC techs, detailers, and locksmiths at $99-199/mo. The math sells itself: one saved job per year covers the subscription, and they miss calls weekly. Distribution through trade-specific Facebook groups, one landing page per niche (missed call textback for plumbers), and referral deals with the marketing agencies that already sell these guys websites and Google ads.

MVP scope

• Twilio number provisioning or conditional forwarding from the existing line
• Instant textback with Claude-run qualification per trade playbook
• Slot booking against a simple weekly availability grid
• Emergency keyword detection with immediate pro alerts and human takeover
• Weekly calls-saved report with estimated recovered value
• Skip for v1: voice AI answering, CRM integrations, review requests, multi-tech dispatch, invoicing

Build CallSaver, a missed-call textback app for home service pros.

Core flow: a plumber signs up and either gets a new Twilio number to put
on their trucks and ads, or forwards their existing line through it via
conditional call forwarding. When a call rings unanswered or hits
voicemail, Twilio fires a webhook and the system texts the caller within
10 seconds: sorry we missed you, can we help by text. The Claude API
then runs a qualification conversation from a per-trade playbook — what
is the issue, address or zip, photos if useful, how urgent — and offers
estimate slots pulled from the pro's weekly availability grid. Confirmed
bookings write to the dashboard and notify the pro by SMS; emergencies
(flooding, no heat, sparking panel keywords) skip booking and blast the
pro immediately with a call-now alert. Every Friday the pro gets a
calls-saved report: missed calls caught, conversations, bookings, and
estimated job value recovered.

Stack: Twilio Programmable Voice and Messaging, Claude API for the
conversation with strict tool-use for slot booking, Next.js App Router
dashboard, Postgres via Prisma.

Pages: onboarding with number setup and trade playbook selection,
conversation inbox with human-takeover, availability settings, weekly
report view, billing.

Non-obvious details: register A2P 10DLC campaigns during onboarding or
carrier filtering silently kills messages; hold the first AI reply for a
20-second window so a pro calling right back cancels the text and never
looks confused.

Pricing: $99/mo one line, $199/mo three lines plus emergency routing;
usage included to 500 conversations.