Design visits booked and build questions answered while you are on the plate compactor.
Hardscape calls are long planning calls, and they land in a spring wave on an owner who is also the estimator, the designer and the foreman. The AI receptionist answers as your company, screens the project the way your estimator would, books the visit, and answers the customer whose build starts Monday.
Every call wants twenty minutes, and April brings all of them at once
A homeowner calling about a patio has questions: how long does it take, do you do small jobs, can you come Saturday, do you work with my HOA, roughly what does something like this cost. The call takes a while, and it comes while you are walking a yard with another client or running a compactor. A call missed in April is a patio built by someone else in July, because the buyer has already picked the three companies they are calling and you were one of them.
Not every call deserves a two-hour design visit. Some are a loose step, some are a budget that will not reach a walkway, some are a yard no machine can get into. The value of the receptionist is screening: project type, rough size, slope, access, HOA, timeline and a budget range you set, with photos by text, so the estimator's calendar fills with projects that are real and the rest get an honest answer.
Once a project signs, the calls change. The customer wants to know the start date, what happens on a rain day, when the pallets arrive and where they go. The supplier calls about a delivery window. The gas sub calls about the stub. The receptionist answers the customer from the schedule and sends the trades to the foreman by text, so the foreman stays on the job.
What an AI receptionist for a hardscape contractor has to do
The questions are your estimator's, the calendar is your estimator's, and the prices are nobody's until a yard has been walked.
Screen like your estimator would
Project type, approximate size, the slope, how wide the gate or side yard is, HOA, timeline and a budget range against the ranges you set, with a text link for photos, and an outcome: a design visit, a phone quote for a small repair by your rules, or a polite decline with a referral.
Book design visits by zone
Slots in the estimator's calendar grouped by zone and weekday, both decision makers asked to be present, the design fee explained if you charge one, and a confirmation text with the photo link and what to have ready.
Tell the truth about the calendar
How far out design visits are booking and how far out builds are scheduled, as numbers you set from the office, and a waiting list for the buyer who wants this spring when this spring is gone.
Answer build-week questions from the schedule
Start date, the rain delay, the delivery day and where the pallets go, pulled from the CRM, so the customer gets an answer and the foreman does not get a call.
Route partners and trades to a person
Pool builders, designers, suppliers calling about a delivery, subs and engineers are connected to whoever handles them, with the caller's details texted first, and a caller describing a wall that is moving reaches you at once.
Never price a patio
It explains what moves the price (size, access, base depth, material, cuts, demolition) and books the visit. A number comes from the person who measured the yard.
How we set it up for a hardscaping company
The script is built from your screening questions, the calendar is yours, and nothing changes about your number.
A script from your screening sheet
The questions your estimator asks before agreeing to a visit become the receptionist's questions, in your words, with the answers to the ten things callers always ask written by you and approved line by line.
Zone booking with capacity you control
The estimator's calendar split by zone and weekday, the booking horizon adjusted by the office as the calendar fills, and a design fee collected online if that is how you sell.
A seasonal greeting
Winter callers hear that design visits are booking for spring builds; summer callers hear the current build lead time; and the questions shift with the season so a January caller is not asked when they want the crew.
Project status for signed customers
The receptionist reads the build calendar, so a customer who calls about a start date or a rain day gets the same answer the foreman would give.
Every call on the lead or the project
Transcript, summary, photos and the booked visit on the record in your CRM, recorded only in states that allow it, with callers told, and summarized for the owner each evening.
What you own on day one.
Every account is opened in your company's name with you as the owner. If you ever leave, you change a password, not your business.
- Domain, hosting and the site files
- Phone numbers and call recordings
- The CRM and its database
- Email and text lists, with consent records
- Google Business Profile and every listing
- Analytics and Search Console
AI Reception for hardscaping, answered.
Will someone planning a large project talk to an AI?
Most want a visit date and a sense that the company is organized, and the receptionist gives both. The ones who want a person say so and are routed to whoever you have named, and the receptionist has already collected the screening answers for that conversation.
How does it decide who gets a design visit?
By your rules: project type, size, access, timeline and budget range. You set the thresholds, and a caller below them gets a courteous answer and a referral if you have one, rather than a visit that wastes an afternoon.
How does it respond when a caller asks what a patio costs?
That it depends on the size, the access, the base the site needs, the material, the cuts and any demolition, and that the estimator prices after measuring. It never offers a number, because a number offered on the phone is one you will be held to.
Can it answer a customer whose build is in progress?
Yes, from the schedule: the start date, the rain delay, the delivery day. Anything about the work itself goes to the foreman by text, so the customer gets an answer and the crew keeps laying.
Most of our work comes from pool builders. Does this still help?
Partners get a direct line that rings you, and their clients get the same screening and booking as everyone else, tagged to the partner who sent them. See the answering service comparison for what separates booking from message-taking.
AI Reception for hardscaping. Owned by you.
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