The AI receptionist for electricians who can't drop the wire to answer
You're halfway through a panel upgrade, the main is off, and your phone buzzes for the third time. Rivet picks up, books the service call, and drafts the quote — then waits for your yes before anything sends.
What does Rivet do for an electrician?
Rivet is a voice-first AI back office for one-to-five person electrical shops. It answers the calls you miss on the job, triages whether it's a troubleshooting call or a panel upgrade lead, and books it. When you speak — a quote, an invoice, a reschedule — Rivet types it up as a proposal you approve before anything sends.
If you're the estimator, the dispatcher, and the one holding the fish tape, the admin happens in the truck between jobs — or it doesn't happen. Rivet moves it to your voice: say the job, say the amount, review the typed proposal, tap approve. Approved invoices flow into QuickBooks once you connect your Intuit account. Every action runs through the same approval loop described on our security page: prices come from your catalog, everything lands in an audit trail, and one tap undoes it.
You're mid panel swap with both hands in the enclosure. Call one is a homeowner with half the house dead — a real troubleshooting call. Call two is an EV charger install lead. Call three is a robocall. Rivet answers all three: books the troubleshooting call for first thing tomorrow, captures the details for the EV charger quote, and drops the robocall. When you're clear of the panel, two typed proposals are waiting for your approval — not three voicemails.
What does the approval loop look like on an electrical job?
You speak once, and Rivet turns it into typed proposals showing the customer, the time, and the amount. You approve, edit, or reject each one — approval is the only thing that makes anything real, and every amount is typed out for you to check first. The example below is a product demonstration, not a customer story.
Is Rivet fully built out for electrical work today?
Honestly: Rivet's voice models are deepest in HVAC and plumbing today. Electrical is supported and actively expanding — answering, booking, quoting, and invoicing all work now, while some trade-specific language, like panel schedules and breaker sizing, is still being refined. Because you approve every proposal, anything misheard stops at review, not at your customer.
We'd rather say that plainly than imply otherwise. Electricians joining during early access get the full product today and directly shape how the electrical vocabulary deepens. If you want to see the trades where the model has the most miles on it, look at Rivet for HVAC and Rivet for plumbing — the workflow on this page is identical; only the depth of trade-specific language differs.
What does a missed call cost an electrician on the job?
Do the arithmetic with your own numbers: your average ticket, times your close rate on booked calls, times the share of missed callers who dial the next electrician instead of leaving a voicemail. Even conservative inputs make one missed call expensive — and a missed panel upgrade or EV charger install lead is worth far more than a service call.
The frustrating part is when those calls come: while you're in an attic, on a ladder, or working a live panel — exactly when you can't answer. Put your own job values and close rates into the missed-call cost calculator and check the math yourself — or read the fully worked example in what one missed call costs an electrical contractor. And if you've just left a bigger outfit to run your own book of work, the going independent guide covers what a first-year shop actually needs. And if you just went out on your own, the first year of admin — month by month, honestly — is in going independent as an electrician. And the evening phone — mostly quotes, a thin tail of real emergencies, and which coverage tells them apart — is in after-hours answering for electricians. Weighing a person against software for the phone? The three shapes are compared on electrician calls in virtual receptionist for electricians, compared, and the night calls that really can't wait are sorted in which after-hours calls are real emergencies.
What does an AI receptionist for electricians cost?
Rivet costs $79 a month for a one-truck electrical shop and $199 a month for a busy or multi-truck one — flat prices, 60 or 200 AI answering minutes included, $1.25 a minute beyond that with the overage capped at one plan price. Everything the loop does is in both tiers: answering, booking, quoting, invoicing, approval. You are not buying a receptionist and then a platform; it is one number.
Across the category, published entry tiers run from under twenty dollars a month to a few hundred, metered by the minute, the call, the conversation or the customer. The dated, sourced list of what every vendor publishes is on the answering-service prices page; the unit-by-unit arithmetic is on how AI answering services bill.
Electricians already on Jobber usually ask about its $29/mo AI Receptionist add-on. It answers and books inside Jobber and leaves the invoice to you; if Jobber is already your office, it is the easier buy, and Rivet vs. Jobber says exactly when.
Main off, phone ringing — with and without Rivet
A panel swap does not pause for a call. Here is what happens to three of them either way.
“Half the house lost power and there’s a burning smell.” You cannot let go of the enclosure. Voicemail picks up; the homeowner, reasonably, keeps dialling until a person answers.
Rivet picks up, hears partial outage and a burning smell, and triages it as a real troubleshooting call. A booking for first thing tomorrow waits on your phone for one tap.
An EV-charger install lead. No message left — most estimate shoppers do not leave one. You never learn the call existed, or that it was worth more than the rest of the week.
Rivet captures the address, the panel location and the charger model the caller mentioned, and drafts a walk-through for Wednesday at 9:00am. Nothing is booked until you say so.
Okafor’s $480 troubleshooting invoice is written up in the truck from memory, and the breaker part number is wrong. It gets fixed on Friday, after the customer asks.
You say “send Okafor the $480 invoice — diagnose and replace the failed breaker.” The typed draft shows the line items; you correct one word, approve, and it syncs to QuickBooks overnight.
The EV-charger quote is a text with a number in it. The homeowner asks for it in writing, you promise to email it tonight, and the job goes to whoever sent a PDF first.
The EV-charger quote is a link on the homeowner’s phone with two options — with the panel upgrade or without. They pick one and approve it there; a deposit lands if you asked for one, and the job waits on your calendar as a proposal.
Scenarios showing how Rivet is designed to work — not customer stories. Rivet is in early access.
Common questions
Does Rivet understand electrical terms like breaker, panel upgrade, and EV charger install?
Yes for everyday booking, quoting, and invoicing language, and it's improving fast. Rivet's voice models are deepest in HVAC and plumbing today; electrical vocabulary is supported and actively expanding. You review every typed proposal before it sends, so anything misheard gets caught at approval, not after.
Will Rivet ever text or book a customer without my approval?
No. Every booking, quote, invoice, and reply is drafted as a typed proposal, and nothing sends until you tap approve — money and messages never send on their own. Every action lands in a full audit trail, and one tap undoes it.
What does Rivet cost for a small electrical shop?
Flat monthly plans with no per-truck fees: $79/mo for a one-truck shop, $199/mo for a busy or multi-truck one. Both include the whole loop, with AI answering minutes included and overage capped at your plan price. Book a demo if you'd like help picking, with your call volume in mind.
Does Rivet work with QuickBooks?
Yes. Connect your Intuit account and approved invoices land in the books you already use. Payments run through Stripe pay links; there are no other integrations yet — we'd rather tell you that plainly.
How much is an answering service for an electrical contractor each month?
Published live services bill by the receptionist minute and start well above AI pricing; published AI receptionists start between under $20 and a few hundred dollars a month, metered by minute, call or customer. Rivet is $79/mo flat — 60 AI answering minutes in, $1.25 per minute past that, capped at one plan price. We keep every vendor's published figure, sourced and dated, on the prices page.
Should I use Jobber's AI Receptionist instead of Rivet?
If your shop already runs on Jobber, probably yes: the Receptionist is a $29/mo add-on that answers and books straight into Jobber, with invoices still typed by you. Rivet is for the electrician without a platform — it answers, drafts the booking, the quote and the invoice from a sentence, for $79/mo flat. The Jobber comparison page lays both cases out.
Can Rivet handle a customer who calls in Spanish?
Yes. Spanish recognition and a Spanish voice switch on when the caller speaks Spanish, as a setting per shop. You still get the booking proposal in English, held for your approval.
Can I run a trial on my own number?
Yes — 14 days on your own electrical line, no demo required, with 60 AI answering minutes included. A card is held up front so service continues after the trial; cancel before day 14 and you pay nothing.
Reviewed · prices and claims re-verified quarterly · how we check
Let Rivet answer while you're in the panel
You can't drop the wire to take a call. Rivet answers, books the job, and waits for your approval — early access, flat monthly price.
Flat monthly pricing from $79/mo · overage capped at your plan price · no per-truck fees · cancel any time