AI in Home Services — What’s Actually Working for You?
I’ve been testing a few tools in my tree care business and wanted to get real feedback from others in the field. Recently switched from Ooma Office to Quo (formerly OpenPhone), and one feature that’s been working well is automatic text follow-up when a call is missed. Instead of voicemail, it asks for the address and service needed. It’s helped keep leads engaged and reduced missed opportunities. Also using different call flows based on business hours, which has improved response consistency. That said, AI voice receptionists still don’t feel fully there yet. Most customers can tell, and in this industry people usually expect to speak with a real person—especially for larger or safety-related jobs. Curious to hear from others: What AI tools are you actually using in your business? What have you stopped using? What are the top 3 reasons you’ve kept a tool long-term? Looking for real-world experience, not hype.
Connect Claude Desktop to your Jobber account - read-only, double-click install, no coding
Hey everyone. I built a free, open-source tool that connects your Jobber account to an AI assistant like Claude, so you can ask things in plain English and get answers from your real account: "Which invoices are overdue, and by how many days?" "What's on the schedule this week?" "Where does the quote pipeline stand?" "Pull up everything on this customer" "Draft a polite payment reminder for that overdue invoice" (drafts it - you send) It only reads your data. It can't create jobs, change invoices, or send anything. Least-privilege access, your credentials stay on your machine, and there's no backend - the tool talks directly to Jobber's official API. Installing is now a double-click if you use Claude Desktop (no coding): Download jobber-mcp.mcpb from the GitHub releases page Claude Desktop → Settings → Extensions → Install extension Say "authenticate with Jobber" and follow the one-time setup: create a free app at developer.getjobber.com (read-only scopes for Clients, Jobs, Quotes, Scheduled Items, Invoices - ~5 minutes, no callback URL needed) Ask away Other AI tools: it works with anything that supports MCP (Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code Copilot). Setup instructions are in the README. Repo: https://github.com/BuildMinimal/jobber-mcp Honest caveats: you do need the one-time free developer app on Jobber's side (that's how Jobber's API permissions work - it's what keeps this safe), and today it's read-only. Write access (drafting quotes/jobs for your approval) is the next thing I'm building - if that's interesting to you, say so in the comments, it helps me prioritize. Would genuinely value feedback: what's the first question YOU would ask your Jobber account? I'll build the best ones in.
Finally Made the Jump to Jobber… Now What About AI Receptionists?
Hey everyone, After years of debating it, we finally got convinced enough to switch over to Jobber — big moment for our little backflow company here in California. The setup has been smooth so far, but now we’re staring down the next big decision: AI receptionists. I’ve heard mixed reviews about Jobber’s AI Receptionist. Some folks say it’s better than a lot of the options out there, others say it’s still not quite where it needs to be. So now we’re sitting here with a ton of choices and even more questions. We’ve been getting absolutely blown up by Clara AI sales reps, plus about a million other AI companies claiming they can do it better, faster, smarter, cheaper — you name it. I know a lot of these tools integrate with Jobber, which is great, but it also leaves us stuck trying to figure out which direction to go instead of wandering down ten thousand different paths. So I’m asking the pros here: What do you feel is the best AI receptionist for skilled trades? Plumbing, backflow, HVAC, electrical — anything where the calls are technical, urgent, and sometimes chaotic. If you’ve tested multiple platforms, I’d love to hear real‑world experiences. If you’ve stuck with Jobber’s AI Receptionist, I’d love to hear why. If you’ve found a third‑party AI that actually understands trades work, even better. Any solid advice that can point us in one direction instead of ten thousand would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance — From Cali with Love, Mr. BackflowI built an AI assistant that runs my office
A few weeks ago I shared how I built a one-step enrollment system for my lawn care program — client enters their info, credit card goes on file, and they're enrolled. No quote approval, no back-and-forth. Automated sequences handle the welcome email, welcome text, and contact setup. One step, done. Coming from a background as an electrician, I tend to look at everything as a circuit. If there’s a break in communication or a 'loose wire' in my lead flow, the whole system fails. I decided to stop fighting the mess and started 'wiring' my office the same way I would a complex panel. I built an AI operations system that runs alongside Jobber. Every text, phone call, email, voicemail, missed call, and website form submission automatically gets logged to a centralized database through a series of Zaps. Every client has one record, one timeline, and one clear next action at all times. Every morning before I head out, I run a 5-minute briefing with an AI assistant. It reads the full client database through an MCP server — which basically means the AI has live access to every client interaction in real time. It tells me who contacted me overnight, who's waiting on a response, who's going cold, and what I should do next for each person. It drafts the messages. I review, edit if needed, and send. I also set up an AI receptionist on my business phone line. It answers calls, can answer common questions about services and pricing, takes client information, and transfers calls when needed. It can also send texts to the caller during or after the call — like a direct link to the enrollment page or the resources section on my website. It handles multiple calls at the same time. No more missed calls going to voicemail. The tools: Jobber for jobs, scheduling, and service history. An MCP-connected database for the client timeline. Zapier to connect everything. An AI assistant for daily briefings and client communication. An AI receptionist for inbound calls. Jobber stays at the center — it's my source of truth for every job, every visit, every quote. The AI layer sits on top and makes sure nothing falls through the cracks between Jobber and everything else. I'm planning my first hire this season. Not because I'm behind — because the systems are handling the admin load well enough that I can focus on growing. The AI doesn't replace a person. It replaced the office work I used to do at 10 PM after a full day in the field. If anyone's curious about how any of this works, happy to answer questions. I'm not selling anything — just sharing what I've built because this community helped me think through a lot of it.AI Receptionist vs Outsourced vs Owners
Hello everyone, New to the community here. Recently launched an HVAC business in Texas, after being in real estate development for nearly 2 decades. Would love to hear your insights on your experience with AI receptionist vs outsourced team vs you answering the calls yourself. I am personally finding our AI receptionist build via RetellAI perhaps isn't the best. But also, majority of calls now are sales calls....so I am really torn on what to do. Any advice and insights would be appreciated. Sincerely, AliceWhat Should Home Service Businesses Automate First to Save Time?
Small manual tasks start stacking up, catching up on follow-ups, re-adjusting scheduling, invoicing, review requests, the list goes on and on. Sound familiar? What’s one task you’re still doing manually that you know could be automated? What’s stopping you from setting it up?How Fast Do You Pick Up a Phone Call or Call Someone Back After a Missed Call?
Curious how everyone here handles this, because a new Jobber survey of recent homebuyers turned up a stat that stuck with me: 15% had to follow up repeatedly just to get a response from a contractor 9% never heard back at all Losing potential business due to something that is not a pricing problem or a skill problem should be a wake up call. In a world where 75% of new homeowners hire a pro within their first two years of buying, being the one who calls back first might be the easiest job you win all week! So, what's your business standard? Do you answer within a certain time frame or let it go to voicemail and call back same day? Are there systems set up so nothing slips through the cracks? 👉 Recent Homebuyer Report: It's got homeowner quotes on what made them trust (or ditch) a contractor, plus a breakdown of how each generation actually finds a pro.Built a free way to ask Jobber questions (invoices, schedule, quotes, etc.) to your fav AI tool
We built a free tool that lets you ask your Jobber account questions in plain English Hey everyone. Big fan of Jobber here, it's the backbone of how we build for home service shops. Wanted to share a small add-on we made for it in case it's useful to some of you. Jobber already keeps all your data in one place, which is the hard part. What we wanted to add on top of that is a faster way to get answers out of it. So we built a free tool that connects your Jobber account to an AI assistant like Claude or ChatGPT. You type your question in plain English, like you're texting a friend, and it pulls the real answer straight from your account. It only reads your data. It can't create a job, send an invoice, or change anything. So there's zero risk to your account, it's just a quicker window into the data Jobber's already tracking for you. Some things you could ask it: Which invoices are past due? How much are we owed right now? What's on the schedule this week? Any new job requests I haven't looked at yet? Pull up everything on this one customer How to use it (simple version): You'll need Node installed on your computer (free, quick download) You register a free "app" on Jobber's own developer site, this just gives our tool permission to read your account, approved through Jobber's own login You paste a short bit of text into a config file, or just tell Claude Code to add it for you You type "authenticate with Jobber," log in once, and you're connected It's free and open source, so it stays free. We're not selling access. If it saves you time, all we'd ask is you tell another shop running Jobber, that's how good tools like this get around. Repo's here if you want to poke at it: https://github.com/adeocode/jobber-mcp Happy to answer questions below if anyone gets stuck setting it up.Grok Bot & Jobber.......
All right, I did something last night. I had Grokbot sign into my Jobber account and then also sign into my email. I started asking it, "Who owes me money?" It came up with my top four largest invoices that were overdue, roughly about $100,000. So then I said, "All right, let's contact these people." It went in my email. It searched emails to these clients previously so it could see how I typically talk with them. It made a beautiful email outlining all the invoices: how much was due, when they were due, the invoice numbers, and everything, and then sent those emails off to those clients so that I can nudge them and get paid. So, bam, that's my new accounts receivable bot. Now I made a quote follow-up bot as well. This bot went through my recent quotes, and it actually found a couple that the client hadn't opened yet. It also reached out to those people on my behalf through email. Jobber already does a great job at follow-ups, so this new bot is just going to check in with me once a week if it finds any quotes that have been sent and haven't been opened by the client yet. Of course, my mind was blown, and today's job is figuring out what else can Grok Bot do for me in my Jobber account.
