Multi-truck dispatch + bilingual AI receptionist for a US plumbing contractor
Custom dispatch + AI receptionist for a US plumbing operator running 22 trucks across residential emergency + scheduled commercial work. Bilingual English/Spanish AI receptionist, ServiceTitan integration, parts-on-truck-aware dispatch.
The client
A US plumbing contractor running 22 trucks across residential emergency service and scheduled commercial work in a major US Sunbelt metro. ~70% of the operation is residential emergency (water leaks, drain backups, water heater failures, sewer line emergencies). ~30% is scheduled commercial — drain maintenance contracts, backflow testing, fixture installs on commercial construction projects.
The owner had been on ServiceTitan for four years and had no plans to leave — the CRM was working, technician mobile worked, billing worked. The single problem driving revenue loss was the phone. Generic answering services couldn't qualify a 2 a.m. water-heater leak vs a scheduled drain cleaning request. The Spanish- speaking customer base — large in their market — was getting handled poorly when bilingual reception staff weren't available. After-hours emergency calls were going to voicemail roughly 6–10 times per week.
What the contractor needed
- 24/7 call coverage with trade-specific intake — distinguish 'water leaking now' from 'scheduled water heater replacement' from 'commercial backflow testing inquiry'.
- Bilingual English / Spanish — same dispatch logic, separate intake scripts, full call handling in either language.
- ServiceTitan integration — they did not want to migrate. The AI receptionist had to plug into the existing ServiceTitan tenant cleanly.
- Emergency triage — fire/flood/no-water/no-heat calls routed to on-call dispatch immediately; routine calls booked into the next-available scheduled slot.
- Service-area enforcement — automatically decline or route out-of-area calls (the operation serves specific zip codes; further-out calls get politely declined or referred).
- Parts-on-truck dispatch awareness — when assigning emergency calls, the system should know which trucks have which parts loaded, routing emergencies to trucks that can complete the job.
What Xenara built
An AI receptionist + dispatch automation overlay sitting on top of the existing ServiceTitan tenant. Built in 6 weeks. No migration. ServiceTitan continued to handle CRM, billing, technician mobile, and reporting. Xenara handled the phone + the dispatch logic.
- Bilingual AI receptionist — 24/7 call answering in English and Spanish. The system auto-detects language preference from first response and continues in that language. Intake script trained on 45 hours of recorded inbound calls (English and Spanish).
- Plumbing-specific intake — system asks the right qualifying questions: where is the leak, how long has it been leaking, is water shut off, what kind of water heater, is this commercial or residential, do you have a service contract with us. The output is a structured ticket ready for dispatch.
- Emergency routing logic — fire/flood/no-water emergencies trigger immediate on-call notification. Routine bookings drop into the next-available slot in ServiceTitan. Hold-for-callback queue for ambiguous calls.
- ServiceTitan API integration — every booked job creates an appointment in ServiceTitan with the right job type, customer record, address, and notes. Two-way sync — ServiceTitan job status changes flow back to the AI for follow-up customer SMS.
- Parts-on-truck dispatch overlay — emergency calls route to trucks carrying the right parts. The dispatcher sees AI suggestions: "Assign to Truck 6 — 12 minutes away + has the right water heater stock." The dispatcher still owns the decision.
- Service-area enforcement— auto-decline calls outside the operator's zip-code service map. Out-of-area calls get a polite explanation + referral to a partnered operator where available.
- Post-call SMS confirmation — every booked job gets an SMS with appointment time, technician name (when assigned), and a rescheduling link. Customer-facing live ETA when the technician hits "on the way" in ServiceTitan mobile.
- Call recording + transcription — every call recorded, transcribed, and indexed against the customer record in ServiceTitan. The owner reviews high-value transcripts weekly.
- Owner dashboard— answered / booked / declined / transferred metrics. Daily summary, weekly trend, monthly P&L tie-back. Specific reporting for Spanish-language calls vs English.
Estimated $190k/year in recoverable after-hours emergency revenue, calculated against the operator's pre-AI baseline: 6–10 missed emergency calls per week × avg $700 captured job value × 50 weeks × ~70% capture rate.
Results
- 22 trucks dispatched with parts-on-truck-aware AI suggestions; dispatcher retains override on every decision.
- 24/7 bilingual coverage — every after-hours call answered. Spanish-language calls now handled at parity with English, recovering customer segment that had been lost to competitors.
- Estimated $190k/year in recoverable after-hours emergency revenue.
- 4-week payback on the engagement — recovered revenue in the first month exceeded the one-time build cost.
- ServiceTitan workflow preserved — no migration, no retraining of office staff, no disruption to billing or technician mobile.
- Emergency routing under 90 seconds— from caller saying "the water is everywhere" to on-call technician's phone ringing.
Stack + delivery model
AI receptionist built on Anthropic Claude + custom voice layer with sub-1.2s first-response latency. Bilingual script tuned weekly from real call transcripts. ServiceTitan integration via official API + Marketplace. 6-week build from kick-off to live deployment. Soft launch on after-hours and overflow first; 24/7 cutover at week 5 after quality verification. Ongoing platform retainer covers script tuning, model updates, and seasonal demand handling.
Related
“We weren't ready to leave ServiceTitan, but we were losing emergency calls to voicemail every night. The AI receptionist Xenara built sits on top of our existing tenant — same CRM, no migration, but now every after-hours call gets answered. The Spanish coverage alone caught customers we'd been losing for years.”