What is an AI answering service for contractors?
An answering service for contractors answers the calls a general contractor or a remodeling contractor would miss on site. Zanus AI does it with one AI and goes further: it answers your phone, website chat, e-mail and web forms, asks your intake questions, books the site visit into the estimator's calendar and prepares a quote from your price list for your yes. Every conversation lands on the customer's record in the CRM.
What does the AI ask a homeowner who wants an estimate?
Your questions, in your order. You write the intake once: the address, the kind of project, the rooms or the size of the job, the timeline, how they heard of you, whatever your estimator needs before driving out. The AI asks them on the phone, in the chat and on the form, writes the answers on the customer's record and books the visit when the job fits your service area.
Can it book site visits for more than one estimator?
Yes. Each estimator, project manager or designer keeps a calendar of their own, and the AI books into the right one by the rules you give it, such as kitchens and baths to your designer, additions to your project manager and model home tours to your new-home sales team. The customer gets a confirmation and a reminder call before the visit; a no on that call frees the slot for the next request.
Can the AI write the estimate or the quote?
It prepares a quote from your own price list: your line items, your units and your terms. The quote waits for a person on your team to check it and say yes before the customer sees it. It does not measure plans, do takeoffs or price work it was not given; a project that needs eyes on it gets a site visit booked instead.
Does it replace our estimating or project management software?
No. Zanus AI is the front office in front of them: it answers, books the site visits, prepares quotes from your price list, follows up and keeps the record of every conversation with a customer. Takeoffs, crew schedules, job costing and the work on site stay in the tools you use today.
What happens when a customer calls with an emergency on one of our jobs?
You write the emergency words once: an active leak, a ceiling that sags, a smell of gas, anything your company lists. A caller who mentions one hears your instruction in your own words, such as leaving the building and calling emergency services, and is put through to the on-call person you named, who hears who is calling and why before picking up.
Will the AI give homeowners advice on structure, codes or permits?
No. It answers only from what your company approved: the work you take on, your service area, how your estimates work and your warranty terms. It does not judge whether a wall can come out, what the local code requires or which permits a project needs; those questions are written down for your estimator to answer at the site visit.
Can we keep our company phone number?
Yes. Customers keep calling the number painted on your trucks and printed on your yard signs and website. You forward that line to the AI from your phone provider; nothing is ported, nothing is installed, and you can turn the forwarding off whenever you choose.
Does it follow up on the estimates we send?
Yes. After a quote goes out, the AI follows up on the schedule you set. The follow-ups stop the moment the customer replies, and the reply goes to the estimator who owns the job, so nobody keeps getting chased after they have said yes or asked a question about the scope.
Does it work for a general contractor bidding commercial work?
Yes. Invitations to bid from owners and developers, supplier mail and questions from your subcontractors arrive by e-mail and are sorted to your estimating department, each with a drafted reply that waits for a person. The attached documents are read and filed in the project's record, and a proposal for a larger job can be started for your team to finish.
Does it work for a home builder selling new homes?
Yes. Buyers ask about your communities, your floor plans and what comes included, and the AI answers from your own pages and documents. Model home tours are booked into each sales rep's calendar with a reminder call, every buyer lands in the CRM, and after closing the warranty requests are checked against your new-home terms and opened as tickets for your warranty team.
How much does an answering service for contractors cost?
Zanus AI is priced per company, never per seat, so your office, your estimators and your project managers all work under one subscription however many crews you run. You choose the modules your company needs, and every plan is listed on the pricing page.
What is the difference between the 7-day free trial and the demo?
The free trial builds a private sandbox from your company's website for 7 days, with no card: a phone line that answers as your company, your site with Lisa on it and a dashboard. The demo asks nothing of you; it shows the AI front office already set up and reaches your inbox in about 2 minutes.
