An AI receptionist for your HVAC shop — that also does the paperwork
It is 96 degrees, you are on a rooftop with a gauge set hooked up, and the phone is buzzing in your pocket. Rivet answers, triages, and drafts the booking — you approve it when your hands are free.
What does Rivet do for an HVAC shop?
Rivet is voice-first HVAC software for the 1–5 person shop. It answers the calls you cannot take, triages urgency, and turns what you speak into typed proposals — bookings, invoices, follow-ups. You approve every proposal before anything sends, and approved invoices sync to QuickBooks once you connect your Intuit account. It is the office you do not have.
Customers call when equipment fails — usually in the middle of the season, while you are in an attic, on a rooftop, or under a house. Rivet picks up, sorts the no-cool emergency from the tune-up request, and drafts the booking before you've surfaced from the crawlspace.
There are no forms and no dashboard to learn. You talk the way you already talk about the work, and Rivet does the typing. It gets you operational in hours, not months — and if you've just left a big company to go out on your own, start with the going-independent guide.
How does an AI receptionist for HVAC handle calls you cannot take?
Rivet answers in a natural voice, asks what is going on, and triages urgency — a no-cool call during a heat wave is not the same as a tune-up request. It then drafts a booking proposal with the caller's name, the time slot, and the job description, and waits for your approval. Nothing is booked until you say yes.
Does Rivet work as an AI dispatcher for HVAC?
Yes — with you as the final word. Speak the job and the amount once, and Rivet drafts the booking and the invoice as typed proposal cards: customer, time window, line items. You approve, edit, or reject each card from the truck. Approved invoices sync to QuickBooks once you connect your Intuit account, and the customer pays by link.
The card above is a product demonstration, not a customer story — but it is exactly what the loop looks like: you speak, Rivet proposes, you approve, it happens.
Can the AI book the wrong job?
It can draft the wrong job — it cannot book one. Every proposal is typed, priced from your own catalog, and waits for your explicit approval. If the caller said capacitor and the draft says compressor, you edit or reject it before anything happens. A full audit trail and a five-second undo sit behind every yes.
That propose-and-approve loop is the entire design, not a setting you enable. Read exactly how the safety mechanism works on the security page, and why a fully automatic AI phone agent is the wrong tool for a small shop in does AI answer your phone badly?
What happens to after-hours and missed calls in season?
Rivet answers them. Evening and overflow calls get picked up, triaged, and turned into booking proposals that wait for your approval — not voicemails that wait for a callback. In peak season, the caller you do not answer can simply dial the next HVAC shop in the search results.
Put your own numbers on it with the missed-call cost calculator — your average ticket, your call volume, your close rate. And if you are weighing a human answering service instead, see the honest comparison at Rivet vs. an answering service. Where AI fits across an HVAC business beyond the phone — dispatch, proposals, invoicing, diagnostics, marketing — and which of those a one-truck shop actually needs, is mapped in the AI for HVAC companies guide. The after-hours case — the no-cooling call at 9pm in July, and which coverage books it — is in after-hours answering for HVAC. Which of those night calls is really an emergency, and what to tell the caller while they wait, is in which after-hours calls are real emergencies; the intake questions that get the right parts on the truck are in questions to ask before booking a service call.
Rivet also serves plumbing shops and electrical shops, with more trades expanding.
What does an AI receptionist cost for an HVAC shop?
Rivet is $79 a month for a one-truck HVAC shop and $199 for a busy or multi-truck one. Both are flat prices with the whole loop in them — answer, book, quote, invoice, approve — plus 60 or 200 AI answering minutes; past the bundle you pay $1.25 a minute, capped at one plan price, so the worst month is twice the plan. That is the receptionist and the back office for one number, and it is the number we expect to be quoted on.
Published AI receptionists in this category start anywhere from under twenty dollars to a few hundred a month at the entry tier, and each one meters differently — by the minute, the call, the conversation or the unique customer — so two plans with the same headline price can bill very differently in July. The sourced, dated table of what every vendor publishes is on what answering services actually cost, and the arithmetic for comparing billing units is in how AI answering services bill.
The comparison HVAC owners ask about most is Jobber. Jobber's AI Receptionist is a $29/mo add-on that needs a Jobber plan underneath it, answers and books inside Jobber, and leaves the invoice to be typed. If you already run the shop in Jobber it is the simpler choice; the honest side-by-side is Rivet vs. Jobber.
A July afternoon, with and without Rivet
Same three calls, same rooftop. The difference is what is waiting for you when you climb down.
“AC is dead and it’s 96 out.” Voicemail. The caller listens to the beep, hangs up, and taps the next HVAC company in the results before you have unhooked the gauge set.
Rivet picks up as your shop, hears no-cool in a heat wave, and triages it urgent. A booking proposal for tomorrow at 8:00 lands on your phone, waiting on your yes.
A seasonal tune-up request. It sits in voicemail until 7:40pm, when you call back from the driveway and reach their voicemail. Two more days of tag before it is booked — if it is.
Rivet offers the first open Friday slot and drafts the booking. You approve it from the truck at 5:10 with one tap; the confirmation text goes out only after that tap.
You climb down to two voicemails and a robocall, spend the drive home returning calls with one hand, and spend the evening typing yesterday’s capacitor invoice.
You climb down to two proposal cards and a log line for the robocall. Say “invoice Alvarez $412 for the capacitor and the refrigerant check” and the draft is typed before you reach the truck.
The Alvarez invoice goes out tomorrow with “mail a check” at the bottom. Cash arrives in three weeks, after a reminder call you make from the truck.
The Alvarez invoice goes out with a pay link the moment you approve it. Card or bank, paid from their couch; if it goes overdue, Rivet drafts the reminder and you tap it.
Scenarios showing how Rivet is designed to work — not customer stories. Rivet is in early access.
HVAC shop questions
Is Rivet full HVAC software or just an AI receptionist?
Both halves of the job. It answers and triages calls like a receptionist, and it runs the back office — bookings, invoices, follow-ups — as voice-driven proposals you approve. Approved invoices sync to QuickBooks once you connect your Intuit account; customers pay by card or bank through a link.
Can Rivet keep up with peak-season call volume?
That is the point of it. Calls that come in while you are on a job or after hours get answered and triaged, with no-cool emergencies flagged ahead of tune-up requests. Proposals stack up neatly for your approval instead of voicemails stacking up unanswered.
Does Rivet understand HVAC terminology?
Yes. Rivet uses an HVAC-trained voice model, so condensers, capacitors, refrigerant checks, and seasonal tune-ups come back typed the way you said them — on the booking, the invoice line items, and the job notes.
How much does Rivet cost for an HVAC shop?
Flat monthly plans with no per-truck or per-seat pricing: $79/mo for a one-truck shop, $199/mo for a busy one. Both carry the whole loop, with AI answering minutes included and overage capped at your plan price.
How much does an answering service cost for an HVAC shop per month?
It depends on the shape you buy. Live answering services bill by the receptionist minute and their published entry plans sit well above any AI plan; AI receptionists publish entry tiers from under $20 to a few hundred dollars a month and meter by minute, call or customer. Rivet is $79/mo flat with 60 AI answering minutes included, $1.25 a minute past that, capped at one plan price. Every vendor's published figure, with its source and the date we read it, is on the prices page.
Is Rivet the same thing as Jobber's AI Receptionist?
No. Jobber's is a $29/mo add-on to a Jobber subscription: it answers and books inside Jobber, and the invoice is still typed. Rivet answers the call and drafts the booking, the quote and the invoice from a sentence, at $79/mo with no platform underneath. If your shop already lives in Jobber, the add-on is the easier choice, and the comparison page says so.
Does Rivet answer HVAC calls in Spanish?
Yes. When the caller speaks Spanish, Rivet switches — Spanish speech recognition and a Spanish voice, turned on per shop. The booking proposal still lands on your phone in English, waiting for your approval.
Can I try Rivet on my own HVAC line before paying?
Yes: 14 days on your own number, no demo call required. A card is held up front so the AI keeps answering after day 14; cancel before then and you pay nothing. The trial includes 60 AI answering minutes, and nothing sends without your approval at any point.
Reviewed · prices and claims re-verified quarterly · how we check
Put Rivet on your line before the next heat wave
The no-cool call comes while you're deep in an attic. Rivet answers it, triages it, and drafts the booking — nothing sends without your yes.
Flat monthly pricing from $79/mo · overage capped at your plan price · no per-truck fees · cancel any time