Trades
24/7 job intake for electricians, plumbers & more.
Customers can reach your business outside office hours. EchoCall takes job requests and books appointments without anyone picking up the phone.
- 24/7 job intake
- Appointment scheduling
- No more missed calls
- Price
- From €75 a month for 250 phone minutes, €0 setup, €0.18 per additional minute. Chat from €40 for 100 conversations.
- Starting credit
- 30 voice minutes and 30 chat conversations of starting credit, valid for 14 days, no credit card required.
- Data protection
- Hosted at IONOS in Frankfurt and Karlsruhe, GDPR-compliant, the data processing agreement becomes part of the contract at sign-up.
- Integrations
- Google Calendar, Outlook, Cal.com, HubSpot, Zapier, n8n, Webhooks
- Who it is for
- Trades businesses such as electrical, plumbing, heating and roofing, from owner-run shops to companies with several crews.
What customers call a trades business about
- 01
A new job
Bathroom refit, wallbox install, roof check. Whoever is calling has usually tried two other firms already. The one that answers gets the job. The one that goes to voicemail rarely does.
- 02
A fault or an emergency
Heating down in January, a burst pipe, a power failure in a surgery. Nobody wants advice at that moment, they want someone to take the address, the problem and a callback number and reach the on-call engineer.
- 03
When is the engineer coming?
Confirming a time window, moving a visit because the key is with a neighbour, asking whether the part has arrived. Small calls that pull the boss off the scaffold. With access to the calendar the agent answers them without anyone climbing down the ladder.
- 04
Quotes and invoices
Has the quote been sent, how long is it valid, can the invoice be paid in instalments. Questions the office can answer, provided someone is in the office. In many firms the office is the owner at the kitchen table in the evening.
- 05
Suppliers and wholesalers
Order queries, delivery notices, goods ready for collection. These do not belong with customer intake. They need to be put through to the right person without fuss.
Common challenges
Calls come in while on-site
Tradespeople can’t pick up the phone while on a ladder or mid-job on-site. The call just goes unanswered, and the caller often tries the next business rather than calling back later. For urgent situations like a burst pipe, though, every minute counts.
Emergencies outside business hours
Emergencies like a water leak or power outage don’t wait for business hours. Customers with an urgent need call exactly when nobody at the business is reachable, and when in doubt, they turn to whoever else picks up.
Scheduling by phone
Coordinating appointments by phone means constant interruptions between jobs. Every reschedule or follow-up question has to be sorted out on another call. That time comes straight out of the hours available for the actual work on-site.
How EchoCall helps
Round-the-clock job intake
No call goes unanswered anymore, even while a tradesperson is up a ladder or busy on-site. EchoCall takes down the job request while the team keeps working.
Automatic appointment booking
Appointments get entered directly into the connected calendar, with no callback required. Customers hear an available slot right away instead of waiting for a response.
Urgency detection
Based on configurable rules, EchoCall recognizes whether a call is an emergency or a routine request. Urgent cases like a burst pipe get prioritized and can be routed directly to the right team member.
What an after-hours emergency call sounds like
An example from a heating and plumbing firm with an on-call rota. The agent recognises the emergency, collects what the engineer needs and triggers the callback. The next morning the office finds the complete case in the history, with address, error code and callback number.
Hi, our heating has gone off completely, the display is flashing red and the flat is already getting cold.
That sounds like one for our emergency service, so I will log it right away. What is the address, and will you be reachable on this number over the next two hours?
Yes, I am at home. 8 Lime Walk, second floor.
Thank you. Which make is the boiler, and is there an error message or code on the display?
It shows an F and a four.
That helps the engineer prepare. I have passed the job with your number to the on-call engineer, and you will get a call back within a few minutes with an arrival time. Out-of-hours visits carry an emergency surcharge, I would rather tell you now than later.
And roughly how long until someone is here?
On the emergency rota usually within two hours. The engineer will give you the exact time when he calls back.
Understood, as long as it gets warm again.
Until the engineer arrives, please do not keep switching the boiler off and on. The callback is on its way.
Numbers from the trades sector
97,482
skilled workers were missing in German trades occupations in 2025. Almost every second vacancy could not be filled.
59 of 115
trades occupations count as shortage occupations, with electrical installation, plumbing and heating, and vehicle technology showing the largest gaps.
around 200,000
open positions across the German trades sector, according to the national trades confederation ZDH.
Source: ZDH statement, 3 November 2025
What the agent handles in a trades business, and what it does not
The agent takes on
- Answer every call while the team is on site and log job requests with address, trade and preferred date, even when nobody is at the desk
- Recognise emergencies, alert the on-call engineer immediately and tell the customer what to do until then
- Book site visits, maintenance and repair slots in the business calendar and trigger reminders
- Keep the existing landline number. The agent picks up via call forwarding whenever nobody answers
Stays with your team
- Pricing and quotes stay with the owner. The agent only says when the quote will arrive
- Remote diagnosis does not replace an engineer. The agent collects symptoms, make and error code
- Warranty questions and complaints reach the boss with full details rather than an automatic answer, who then calls back personally
Frequently asked questions
Yes, configurable rules let you prioritize urgent requests.
No, EchoCall can connect to your existing number via SIP or call forwarding.
You set up the first agent yourself in the EchoHub and test it in the browser. How long that takes depends mostly on how well services, service area, emergency rules and calendar access are prepared.
The Voice starter plan begins at 75 euros per month for 250 included minutes.
Read on
- AI telephony for trades: job intake without missed calls
- What missed calls really cost
- AI phone assistant for small businesses: costs and staff shortages
- AI voice agent: features and pricing
- AI answering machine instead of voicemail
Last reviewed on . The figures come from the linked sources. EchoCall prices and features reflect that date.
Ready for EchoCall in Trades?
Start with 30 voice minutes and 30 chat conversations of starting credit at hub.echocall.de, valid for 14 days, no credit card required.