How it works
From ringing phone to booked job, step by step
Here is the whole system in the open: what triggers it, what it asks, what it captures, where it stops and hands off to a human, and what it sends afterward.
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See the entire missed-call recovery flow and interactive dashboard in under two minutes.
The workflow
One path in, three ways out
Every inbound lead follows the same trunk. It ends as a booked appointment, a dispatcher task, or an emergency escalation to a human — never as a dead voicemail.
Lead data captured
What ends up on the lead record
Enough for a dispatcher to make a decision in ten seconds without listening to a voicemail.
| Field | Example | How it’s captured |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Marcy Alvarado | Asked by SMS, or matched to an existing customer by phone number |
| Phone | (512) 555-0192 | From the inbound call or form submission |
| Service address & ZIP | 4412 Ridgemont Dr, Austin 78745 | Asked by SMS, checked against your service-area ZIP list |
| Service type | AC — no cooling | Classified from the customer’s own words |
| Reported symptom | “Blowing warm air, house is 84” | Stored verbatim — no diagnosis is attempted |
| Urgency | High | Emergency / High / Standard / Flexible, based on stated impact |
| Customer status | New customer | Asked by SMS and cross-checked with your customer list |
| Source | Missed call — 7:42 PM | Call event, web form, Google, or social channel |
| Safety flags | None reported | Set by the hard-stop check on every message |
| Consent status | Opted in · STOP not received | Tracked per number and enforced across all automations |
| Assigned staff | Devon R. (technician) | Auto-assigned by on-call schedule, editable by the dispatcher |
| Full transcript | 11 messages | Every message in the thread, with timestamps |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Qualification sequence
Short questions, one at a time
Homeowners answer texts in fragments. The sequence adapts: anything already volunteered is skipped, and the thread stops as soon as it has what it needs.
- 1
“Sorry we missed you — what’s going on with your system?”
Opens the thread, captures the symptom in the customer’s words, and carries the opt-out notice. Sent within seconds of the missed call.
- 2
“Are you smelling gas or burning, seeing smoke, or hearing sparking?”
The explicit safety question. A yes — or any hazard language anywhere in the thread — triggers the hard stop below.
- 3
“Is this heating, cooling, or something else?”
Skipped when the first answer already makes it obvious. Sets the service type on the lead.
- 4
“Is this for a home or a business, and what’s the service address with ZIP?”
Screens for commercial work and checks the ZIP against your service area before any appointment is offered.
- 5
“How urgent is it — no heat/cooling right now, or can it wait a few days?”
Sets urgency. Vulnerable-occupant mentions (infants, elderly, medical needs) raise priority and flag the lead for a human read.
- 6
“Have we worked on this system before?”
New versus existing customer, so returning customers aren’t asked to repeat themselves.
- 7
“I have Thursday 8–10 AM or 2–4 PM. Which works?”
Only real windows from your calendar, and only for jobs that pass the service-area and job-type rules. Everything else routes to a dispatcher.
Safety hard-stop rules
When the AI stops talking and a human takes over
These triggers run on every inbound message, at any point in the thread — including after a booking is already made.
Triggers
- Gas smell, rotten-egg smell, suspected gas leak
- Smoke, burning smell, visible flame or fire
- Carbon monoxide alarm sounding, or symptoms described as possible CO exposure
- Sparking, arcing, scorched panel, smoking breaker or wiring
- Water contacting live electrical equipment
- Any message where the customer says someone may be in danger
What happens next
- Qualification stops. No further questions, no booking offers.
- The customer is told to leave the building and contact their gas utility or emergency services from outside.
- The on-call human is paged instantly by SMS and by dashboard alert, with the number, address and full transcript.
- The lead is flagged Emergency and pinned to the top of the pipeline until a person acknowledges it.
- The thread stays open so your team can call — the AI does not send anything else on that lead.
“Please stop what you’re doing and leave the building now, then call 911 or your gas utility from outside. Do not use switches or restart the system. I’ve alerted our on-call technician and someone from Cardinal Air & Heat will call you right away. Reply STOP to opt out.”
WarmDispatch is a communication and scheduling tool. It is not a safety system, a monitoring service, or a substitute for emergency services, and it never diagnoses equipment faults or hazards. Customers experiencing an emergency should contact emergency services directly.
Automation scenarios
Four sequences that run without you
Each one is a template you can edit in your own voice. All of them respect opt-outs, office hours, and quiet-hours rules.
Missed-call recovery
Fires the moment a tracked call goes unanswered — nights, weekends and job-site hours included.
- 0s Text-back: “Sorry we missed your call…” + opt-out notice
- +2m If no reply: one gentle nudge offering a callback instead
- +1h If still no reply: lead marked Awaiting reply for a human callback
- Next day One final check-in, then the sequence ends. No repeat pestering.
Web & social lead
Contact-form, Google Business, and social message leads enter the same pipeline as calls.
- 0s Acknowledgement text with consent and opt-out language
- 0s Qualification sequence begins if the customer replies
- +15m Out-of-area ZIP? Polite decline, dispatcher notified, no booking offered
- +1d Unanswered leads roll into a single follow-up, then stop
Booking & reminders
Once a window is confirmed, the appointment maintains itself.
- On book Confirmation with date, window and technician name
- −1d Reminder with a one-tap reschedule reply
- −2h Morning-of reminder
- En route “Devon is on the way” text triggered by your dispatcher
- +1d Review request after the job is marked complete
Estimate recovery
For quotes that went out and went quiet. Three touches, then it stops.
- Day 1 “Did the estimate come through OK? Happy to walk through it.”
- Day 3 Offer a quick call with the person who wrote the quote
- Day 7 Final check-in, then the lead moves to Lost unless a human intervenes
- Always No discount promises, no price changes — the AI never negotiates
Want to see it on your own numbers?
We’ll walk the flow end to end, then set up a 14-day pilot on one phone number.