Plumbing & heating
The AI receptionist for plumbers who cannot stop to answer.
You are under a floor with both hands full and the phone is in the van. ORLA answers in your business name, finds out what has gone wrong and where, and sends you the job before you have stood up.
Hear it before you read another word. Ring 020 4538 1650, describe your problem the way one of your customers would, and try to catch it out. That is a working line answered by the same system a client’s callers reach.
The call plumbers lose
A boiler out at four on a Friday. A stack pipe leaking through a ceiling. A cylinder pouring into an airing cupboard. The caller is standing in it, they are ringing down a list, and they are not leaving a voicemail.
What it costs when it goes
Nothing stops that caller ringing the next plumber on the list. You lose the callout, the parts on it, and a customer who might have rung you first for the next ten years. It is rarely one job that walks — it is the boiler service, the bathroom, and the neighbour they would have told.
What ORLA does with it instead
Answers on the second ring, says plainly that it is an AI receptionist, then gets the postcode, the fault, whether water is still running, and a number to ring back on. Inside the rules you set, it books the visit. Outside them — out of area, out of hours, a job you do not take — it says so honestly and takes a callback instead of filling your diary with work you would have to cancel.
What ORLA asks on the call
These are the questions ORLA is set up to ask plumbers. They are yours to change — this is the starting point, not the ceiling.
- The postcode, first, so you know before you read another word whether it is yours.
- What has actually failed — boiler, leak, blockage, no hot water, no heating.
- Whether water is still running or the system is isolated, because that is what decides tonight from tomorrow.
- Whether it is a rental, so you know if the person on the phone can authorise the work.
- The best number, and when they are actually at the property.
When the calls actually arrive
Most plumbing calls that never get answered arrive between four and seven in the evening, and on Saturday morning. Those are exactly the hours you are on a job or asleep, and exactly the hours an emergency caller will keep dialling until somebody picks up.
What ORLA will not do for plumbers
This part matters more than the list above. A receptionist you cannot predict is worse than a voicemail, so here are the refusals that bite hardest in your trade. The full list is on its own page.
It will not quote a price you did not give it
ORLA reads from your price book. Ask it what a new cylinder costs and, if that is not in the book, it says someone will confirm rather than inventing a number you would then be held to.
It will not treat a gas smell as a booking
If a caller describes gas, fire or flood, ORLA stops, tells them to ring the emergency service or the National Gas Emergency line, and does not try to book anything. It is not an emergency service and never behaves like one.
It will not put a caller through to you mid-job
Live transfer is switched off deliberately. A blind transfer once dropped a caller into a personal voicemail, which is worse than an honest "someone will call you straight back". So that is what ORLA says, and then you get the alert.
What it costs
Starter, £69 a month — 150 answered minutes included. Pro, £129 a month — 400 minutes. Front Desk, £349 a month — 1,500 minutes, managed for you, with a £299 setup fee that applies to that plan only. No VAT is added to any of them, so the number you see is the number you pay. No minimum contract. A 7-day free trial runs before anything is charged.
The full breakdown, including what happens if you go over your minutes, is on the pricing page, and the market context — what everyone else charges, and what a human receptionist really costs — is in our guide to what an AI receptionist costs in the UK.
Questions plumbers ask
Do I have to change my phone number?
No. You keep the number on your van and your website. You divert it to ORLA — always, or only when you are busy or do not pick up. Your phone still rings first if you want it to; ORLA catches what you miss.
Will it sound like a robot to my customers?
It tells every caller it is an AI receptionist, at the start, before anything else — that is a legal and an honesty position and there is no setting that turns it off. Beyond that, judge it yourself: ring 020 4538 1650, describe a burst pipe the way a panicking customer would, and try to catch it out.
Can it tell an emergency from a dripping tap?
It asks the questions that separate them — is water still running, is the system isolated, is there heating in the house — and marks the call urgent against the rules you set. It does not make a clinical or a safety judgement of its own, and it never tells a caller someone will be there within the hour unless your diary says so.
What does it cost a one-van plumber?
Starter is £69 a month for 150 answered minutes, which is a lot of plumbing calls — most run two to three minutes. There is no VAT added, no setup fee on Starter, and no minimum contract. There is a 7-day free trial before anything is charged.