A 3-truck plumbing company had a decent website and zero way to capture leads after 5pm. People searched "plumber near me" at 11pm, landed on the site, saw no one to talk to, and left. After we deployed an AI chatbot, they captured 3.8x more leads from the same traffic, booked 40% more jobs, and now have 24/7 coverage with no extra headcount. Setup took 6 business days.
The Problem: A Website That Couldn't Talk Back
This plumbing company had been in business for 11 years. Three trucks. A solid reputation in their service area. They were doing fine. But when we looked at their website traffic versus actual job bookings, there was a big gap.
Their site was getting 600-800 visitors a month. They were converting maybe 3-4% of that into actual calls or form fills. The rest just left.
The reason wasn't complicated. People search for plumbers when something goes wrong. A burst pipe, a backed-up drain, a water heater that died overnight. Those searches happen at all hours. Someone hitting the site at 10pm sees a phone number that no one is going to answer and a contact form that no one will read until morning. So they Google "plumber near me" again and call whoever picks up.
The owner knew he was losing jobs after hours. He didn't know how many. Turns out it was a lot.
Why the Usual Fixes Didn't Work
He'd already tried a few things. An answering service, which cost $200/month and just took messages that he'd see the next morning. A web form with a "we'll call you back" promise. Neither moved the needle because neither solved the real problem: people searching for a plumber at night need a response right now, or they're calling someone else.
The answering service wasn't booking appointments. It was just a holding pen for leads that went cold by morning. The form was even worse.
What We Built
We put an AI chatbot on the site. It's the first thing a visitor sees after a few seconds on the page. It's not a pop-up that shoves itself in your face immediately. It introduces itself, then waits.
When someone engages, it does four things:
- Answers common questions instantly. Service area, pricing ranges, what counts as an emergency, whether they work on weekends
- Captures the lead. Name, phone number, and a description of the issue before the conversation ends
- Books the appointment. Pulls up available times and locks in the slot directly in their calendar
- Runs 24/7. Same quality response at 2am on a Sunday as at 9am on a Tuesday
We configured it with their actual service area, their real pricing structure for common jobs, and their scheduling preferences. It knows not to book emergency calls during the two hours the owner has blocked off every Friday morning. Small details, but they matter.
The thing that surprised the owner most: the chatbot captures issue details before anyone even picks up the phone. When he gets the SMS notification that a job just booked, he already knows it's a kitchen drain backup, the address, and the customer's name. He shows up informed, not cold.
"I woke up Saturday morning and had two jobs already scheduled. I didn't touch my phone until 7am. The chatbot booked them overnight while I was asleep."Owner, 3-Truck Plumbing Company
The Results: 40% More Jobs from the Same Traffic
The site traffic didn't change. The same number of people were finding them on Google. What changed was how many of those visits turned into actual jobs. The before/after:
- Coverage: 8am-5pm weekdays only
- ~18 leads/month from website
- Answering service taking messages
- Leads went cold by morning
- No issue description before arrival
- Manual calendar scheduling
- No after-hours job bookings
- Coverage: 24/7, including holidays
- ~68 leads/month from same traffic
- Chatbot books jobs in real time
- Leads captured and confirmed immediately
- Issue + address captured upfront
- Calendar syncs automatically
- ~40% of new jobs booked after-hours
The 40% job increase came almost entirely from after-hours and weekend traffic. During business hours, things worked about the same as before. At night and on weekends, jobs that used to disappear were now being booked.
What the Chatbot Actually Says
It's not generic. We trained it on this company's specific setup: their two-county service area, their pricing for the most common jobs (drain cleaning, water heater replacement, faucet repair), their emergency call policy, and a few FAQs that the owner got asked constantly.
When someone asks "do you charge extra for evenings?" the chatbot gives them the actual answer, not "contact us to find out." That specificity is what converts. A visitor who gets a real answer at 10pm books the job. A visitor who gets a vague non-answer calls someone else.
What Happened to the Answering Service?
They canceled it. The chatbot handles everything the answering service was doing, plus it actually books the appointment. The $200/month they were spending on the service now pays for about half the chatbot.
The owner still gets calls for jobs the chatbot can't handle. Unusual situations, complex insurance jobs, customers who just want to talk to a person. Those still go to his phone. But the routine stuff, the standard scheduling and FAQ answering, runs on its own now.
Most home services websites are leaking leads every night. Not because people aren't finding them. Because there's nothing there to catch the people who show up after hours. A chatbot doesn't need to be smart to fix this. It needs to answer three questions, capture a phone number, and put something on the calendar. That's it. The jobs it catches while you're asleep pay for it inside the first month.
What Does This Cost?
An AI chatbot deployment from Tedca runs $200-$500/month depending on volume and complexity. For a plumbing company booking jobs at $300-$800 each, a single after-hours job capture pays for a month of the service. In this case, the chatbot was booking 4-6 extra jobs per month that would have otherwise bounced.
Compare that to:
- Answering service: $150-$300/month, takes messages but doesn't book anything
- Part-time office person: $1,800-$2,400/month, still no evenings or weekends
- Missing after-hours jobs: $1,200-$4,800/month in lost revenue (at 4-6 jobs)
The math is simple. The only thing that was off was waiting this long to do it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does an AI chatbot help a plumbing company get more jobs?
It catches the people who land on your site at night or on the weekend and would otherwise leave without contacting you. The chatbot answers their questions immediately, captures their info, and books the job right then. Most plumbing searches happen when something goes wrong, which means odd hours are prime time. A chatbot running 24/7 keeps those visitors from bouncing to a competitor.
What questions can an AI chatbot answer for a plumbing website?
Anything you'd want a receptionist to handle: your service area, typical pricing for common jobs, whether you do emergency calls, what to do while waiting for a plumber, how to book. We also train it on the specific questions you get asked most. The more specific the answers, the better it converts.
How many leads does a plumbing website lose after hours?
For most home services businesses, 40-60% of web searches happen outside business hours. If your site has no way to respond immediately, most of those visitors leave. They're not going to fill out a form and wait until morning when their drain is backed up right now.
How long does it take to set up an AI chatbot for a plumbing business?
Usually 5-8 business days. We spend most of that time configuring it with your actual service area, pricing, and scheduling preferences, connecting it to your calendar, and making sure the answers sound like you and not like a generic FAQ bot.
What is the ROI of an AI chatbot for a plumbing company?
One job captured after-hours typically covers a full month of the service. In this case study, the chatbot was adding 4-6 jobs per month that would have otherwise bounced. At an average job value of $400, that's $1,600-$2,400/month recovered for a service that costs $200-$500/month. Most clients see it pay for itself in the first week.