The CRM for HVAC contractors who lose $40K a year to missed calls and slow callbacks
Your tech is on a ladder. Your CSR is at lunch. A homeowner with a dead AC unit on a 94-degree Tuesday calls twice, then books the guy who picked up. That's $1,800 gone. LeadExploder's AI receptionist answers in two rings, qualifies the job, books the appointment, and texts your dispatch board before the homeowner hangs up.
Why HVAC shops need a CRM that picks up the phone first, dispatches second
Most field service management platforms (ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber) are built dispatch-first. They assume someone already answered the call, qualified the lead, and entered the job. But 41% of inbound service calls go to voicemail during peak season because your team is in the field or on another line.
LeadExploder flips that. Our AI voice receptionist answers every call in under 10 seconds, in English or Spanish. It asks the right questions (what's broken, when did it stop working, is it under warranty, are you the homeowner or a tenant). It checks your calendar and books the appointment. Then it fires the job details into your CRM pipeline and sends a confirmation text to the customer. Your dispatch board updates automatically.
If you're already using ServiceTitan or Jobber for routing and invoicing, fine. LeadExploder sits in front as your intake layer. If you want to replace the whole stack, we do that too: pipelines, estimates, follow-up sequences, reputation requests, maintenance plan renewals, all in one platform. Either way, you stop losing calls.
What it costs you when a call rolls to voicemail
We pulled data from 340 HVAC contractors across Texas, Florida, and Arizona during summer 2024. Here's what happens when you miss a call or take more than 5 minutes to call back.
What LeadExploder does that your current CRM doesn't
Most HVAC CRMs are glorified dispatch boards with a contact list. LeadExploder is an intake-to-invoice system that automates the first 8 steps of your sales process so your CSRs and techs can focus on the work that actually requires a human.
- AI voice receptionist that answers in 2 rings, any time, any language. Handles inbound calls 24/7. Qualifies the job (is it a repair, install, or maintenance). Checks your calendar. Books the appointment. Sends confirmation text. Customer never knows it's AI unless you tell them.
- Missed-call text-back in under 8 seconds. If someone calls after hours or while you're on another line, they get an SMS in 8 seconds: 'Hey, this is LeadExploder for ABC Heating & Air. I saw you called. What can we help with?' Most reply within 90 seconds. You capture the lead instead of losing it to the next search result.
- Web-to-text in under 60 seconds. Someone fills out your 'Schedule Service' form at 11pm. LeadExploder texts them in under a minute, asks follow-up questions, and books the appointment before they go to bed. By morning, it's on your dispatch board.
- Storm-mode workflows for emergency surges. Hurricane knocks out power to 40,000 homes. Your phone rings 190 times in 6 hours. LeadExploder triages by urgency (no AC with elderly occupant = priority 1, warm house = priority 3), books appointments in order, and sends batch updates to your dispatch team. You don't drown.
- Maintenance plan renewals on autopilot. Customer bought a tune-up plan last April. LeadExploder texts them 30 days before renewal, offers one-tap rebooking, and charges the card on file. If they ignore it, a second text goes out 10 days later. Your renewal rate goes from 34% to 71% without a single phone call from your team.
- Reputation automation that gets you 40+ Google reviews a month. Job closes. LeadExploder waits 2 hours, then texts: 'How'd we do?' If they reply with 4-5 stars worth of sentiment, they get a Google review link. If they reply with a complaint, it routes to your manager for damage control. Your star rating climbs without begging.
- Pipeline tracking from lead to invoice. Every call, text, email, estimate, and payment lives in one timeline. You see exactly where each job stands. No more 'did we ever follow up with that guy in Scottsdale?'
- Replaces 11 separate tools. LeadExploder consolidates CallRail, Calendly, Mailchimp, Podium, BirdEye, ClickFunnels, your old CRM, your old phone system, your old email marketing tool, your old review tool, and your old text platform. One login. One bill. One throat to choke if something breaks.
How a Phoenix HVAC shop went from 19% call answer rate to 98% in 11 days
Desert Air Pros runs 6 trucks out of Tempe. Summer 2023, they were drowning. Two CSRs couldn't keep up with inbound calls during monsoon season. Answer rate was 19%. They tried hiring a third CSR but couldn't find anyone who'd stay past 90 days.
They turned on LeadExploder's AI receptionist on a Tuesday morning. By that Friday, answer rate hit 94%. By the following Monday, 98%. The AI handled first-call intake (what's broken, when can we come out, here's your confirmation text). The two human CSRs shifted to handling complex estimates, warranty claims, and customer escalations. Revenue per truck went from $41K/month to $58K/month in 60 days because they stopped losing leads.
Owner told us: 'I thought AI would sound robotic. Customers don't notice. They just want someone to pick up and book the damn appointment.' See it on a live call and decide for yourself.
What the intake flow looks like when a homeowner calls
The 6 questions LeadExploder asks every caller (and why)
Our AI doesn't just answer the phone and transfer. It qualifies the job so your dispatch team knows exactly what they're walking into. Here's the script, refined across 410,000 HVAC calls.
What's not working?
AC won't turn on. Furnace is blowing cold air. Thermostat is blank. Strange noise from the condenser. This tells us if it's a repair, a diagnostic, or an emergency.
When did it stop working?
Helps prioritize. If the AC died 4 hours ago on a 98-degree day, that's urgent. If the heater has been acting weird for 3 weeks, we can schedule next available, not same-day.
Is it under warranty or do you have a maintenance plan with us?
Flags VIP customers and routes them to priority scheduling. Also surfaces upsell opportunities (no plan = offer one during the call).
Are you the homeowner, or are you renting?
If renting, we ask for landlord approval before booking. Saves your tech a wasted trip when the tenant doesn't have authority to authorize a $1,200 repair.
What's your address and best contact number?
Obvious, but the AI also checks if they're in your service area. If they're 60 miles outside your zone, it politely refers them to a partner or declines the job. You don't waste a dispatch slot.
When can we come out?
AI checks your live calendar and offers 3 time slots. Customer picks one. Appointment booked. Confirmation text sent. Done in under 90 seconds.
Storm mode: how LeadExploder handles 200 calls in 4 hours without melting down
July 2024. Heat dome over Dallas. Temps hit 109°F for 6 straight days. A 4-truck HVAC shop in Plano got 217 inbound calls between 8am and noon on day 3. Their old system (two CSRs + a CallRail voicemail box) collapsed. They answered 41 calls. The rest went to voicemail. By the time they called back, 68% had already booked someone else.
LeadExploder's storm-mode workflow answered all 217 calls. It triaged by urgency: elderly occupant with no AC = priority 1, family with kids and temps above 85 indoors = priority 2, single adult in a 78-degree house = priority 3. It booked same-day appointments for P1 and P2, next-day for P3. It sent batch updates to the dispatch board every 15 minutes so the owner could see the queue and call in a fifth truck if needed.
Result: they closed 181 of those 217 calls. Average ticket was $1,640. That's $297K in revenue from a single heat wave, compared to the $67K they would have captured under the old system. The AI didn't take a lunch break. It didn't get flustered. It just worked.
Why HVAC contractors leave ServiceTitan (and where LeadExploder fits)
ServiceTitan is the 800-pound gorilla in HVAC software. It's powerful. It's also $1,200 to $2,400 per month depending on your truck count, plus onboarding fees, plus add-ons for call tracking and reputation management. For a 10-truck operation, all-in cost can hit $40K a year.
The biggest complaint we hear: ServiceTitan is dispatch-heavy, intake-light. It assumes someone already answered the phone and entered the lead. If you miss the call, ServiceTitan doesn't help. You still need a separate answering service or a CallRail voicemail-to-text setup, and those don't book appointments or qualify jobs.
LeadExploder works two ways. Option 1: Keep ServiceTitan for dispatch, routing, and invoicing. Use LeadExploder as your front-end intake layer (AI receptionist, missed-call text-back, web lead response, reputation automation). We sync the job details into ServiceTitan via API. You get the best of both: ServiceTitan's dispatch power, LeadExploder's intake speed. Option 2: Replace the whole stack. LeadExploder does CRM, pipelines, scheduling, invoicing, email and SMS marketing, funnels, and courses. You go from $3,200/month (ServiceTitan + CallRail + Mailchimp + Podium + BirdEye) to $497/month for LeadExploder. You keep the $2,700 difference.
Switched from ServiceTitan + CallRail + Podium stack ($2,840/month) to LeadExploder standalone ($497/month). Saved $28,116 in year one. Answer rate went from 62% to 97%. Booked revenue increased 31% because they stopped losing late-night and weekend leads. Owner's exact words: 'I should've done this two years ago.'
What your dispatch board looks like when LeadExploder feeds it
Pricing: what it actually costs to run LeadExploder vs. your current stack
LeadExploder starts at $497/month for unlimited users, unlimited contacts, AI voice receptionist, missed-call text-back, pipelines, email and SMS marketing (up to 10,000 contacts), funnels, reputation automation, and integrations with ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, and QuickBooks. No per-user fees. No per-text fees up to 5,000 outbound texts/month. No setup fee if you're migrating from another CRM (we'll import your contacts and pipelines for free).
Compare that to the typical HVAC software stack: ServiceTitan ($1,200–$2,400/month), CallRail ($145/month for call tracking), Mailchimp ($299/month for 10,000 contacts), Podium ($449/month for texting and reviews), BirdEye ($299/month for reputation management), Calendly ($16/user/month). That's $2,408 to $3,608 per month, or $28,896 to $43,296 per year. LeadExploder replaces all of it for $5,964/year. You pocket the $22,932 to $37,332 difference.
We also offer a 14-day trial with full AI receptionist access. No credit card required. Book a 20-min demo and we'll set it up on a live call so you can test it with real inbound traffic before you commit.
How many leads will you lose this week?
If the answer is 'more than zero,' book the demo. 20 minutes. We'll show you, on a live call, exactly what AI would have caught for your business last week. No slides, no fluff, no pressure.