Every missed after-hours HVAC call is a lost job. Every gas-smell, no-heat or carbon monoxide alarm is a life-safety situation that needs triage in seconds, not minutes. MapleReceptionist answers your HVAC line 24/7, classifies emergencies from routine bookings, escalates to the on-call tech by SMS, and books the rest into your calendar — bilingual EN/FR, PIPEDA compliant, from $25 CAD/month.
Reference deployment: Patrick Graham, Silverstar Automotive Solutions (Ontario) — same triage engine, adapted for HVAC service codes.
Each scenario below is wired into the AI's classifier with explicit keyword and intent rules. Life-safety calls escalate; routine calls book.
Life safety in the Canadian climate. Caller-ID matched, classified urgent, on-call tech SMS-pinged within 5 seconds with transcript and one-tap call-back.
Life safety — escalate immediately. AI instructs caller to leave the building and call the gas utility, then alerts the on-call owner by SMS and email.
Life safety — escalate immediately. AI advises caller to evacuate and call 911 if symptoms present, then notifies on-call tech with full context.
Urgent for vulnerable households (elderly, infants). Classified as priority booking — first available same-day slot with the dispatcher notified.
Property damage — urgent. AI walks caller through shutting off the unit, then books same-day or next-morning service depending on time of call.
Standard booking flow — AI proposes 2-3 calendar slots, confirms, and sends SMS reminder. No owner interruption.
Captures customer details, scope of work, photos via SMS upload link. Lead emailed to the owner with full transcript.
Offers voicemail with email summary, callback scheduling for the morning, or transfer to on-call tech if caller marks it urgent.
Five steps, every call, under 90 seconds end-to-end.
Inbound number matched against your customer DB. If they have called before, the AI greets them by name and pulls their service history.
AI listens with a 200ms interruption window so callers in distress are not forced to wait through a long greeting.
HVAC-specific keyword + intent classifier scores the call: life-safety, urgent, routine, lead, or after-hours general.
Life-safety calls SMS the on-call tech immediately with a one-tap call-back link, and offer the caller a live transfer if available.
Owner receives an email within seconds: caller, classification, full transcript, recording link, suggested next step.
Month-to-month, no contract, all amounts in CAD. Business is the recommended tier for HVAC — it unlocks call recording, transcription, calendar booking and WebRTC outbound, which are the four features most HVAC shops actually use to recover missed-call revenue.
Solo
Solo HVAC tech / side-job operator
$25 CAD/mo
Starter
1-truck shop
$60 CAD/mo
Business
2–4 truck HVAC operation
$99 CAD/mo
Team-Pro
Multi-line HVAC + after-hours
$199 CAD/mo
Why Business for HVAC: a 2-truck shop typically loses 8–15 calls/month after hours. Call recording lets you train the AI on your specific service codes; transcription means you can dispatch from a phone screen without re-listening; WebRTC outbound means your tech can return the call from a browser with caller ID preserved.
CallJolt is the leading HVAC-specific AI receptionist in the US market. Here is an honest side-by-side — both products are good at what they do; the right pick depends on whether you are a Canadian shop with Quebec/Maritime callers.
| Feature | MapleReceptionist | CallJolt |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $25 CAD/mo (Solo) — $60 Starter — $99 Business | $149 USD/mo (Starter) — $349 Professional — $749 Enterprise |
| Bilingual EN/FR (Quebec French) | Yes — native Quebec French + Maritime Frenglish | Not publicly documented on CallJolt's site as of May 2026 |
| Canadian hosting / PIPEDA compliance | Yes — all data stored in Canada, PIPEDA + PHIPA compliant | Not publicly documented — confirm with CallJolt sales |
| 24/7 AI answering with flat-rate billing | Yes — month-to-month, no per-minute fees on Business tier | Yes — flat-rate 24/7 with unlimited calls |
| Industry-specific HVAC booking + lead capture | Yes — adapted from Auto Garage template with HVAC service codes | Yes — purpose-built for contractors / home services |
| Multi-agent stacking (separate AI on emergency vs main line) | Yes — on Team-Pro tier | Not publicly documented |
| WebRTC outbound from browser | Yes — Business+ tier | Not publicly documented |
| Best fit | Canadian HVAC shops, especially Quebec / NB / NS / bilingual markets | US-based HVAC / home-service contractors |
CallJolt pricing and feature data verified via Perplexity research on 2026-05-26. Primary source: calljolt.com/blog/guide/answering-service-pricing-guide. CallJolt's site does not publicly document bilingual EN/FR support, Canadian hosting or PIPEDA compliance as of May 2026 — confirm directly with their sales team if those are deal-breakers.
Native Quebec French + Maritime Frenglish. Real edge for shops serving Gatineau, Montreal, Acadian Peninsula or Northern New Brunswick.
All call recordings, transcripts and customer data live in Canada. Compliant with PIPEDA and PHIPA for any healthcare-adjacent customer information.
Run a separate AI persona on your emergency line, your main line and your after-hours line — different voices, different triage rules, all from one account.
Our reference deployment is Patrick Graham's auto-garage AI. We took that triage engine and rewired it with HVAC service codes, gas-safety scripts and seasonal load handling.
Real questions from HVAC contractors evaluating MapleReceptionist.
Yes. MapleReceptionist is configured with an HVAC emergency-keyword classifier — phrases like "I smell gas," "rotten egg smell," or "hissing from the furnace" trigger an immediate emergency path: the AI tells the caller to leave the building and call the gas utility, then SMS-pings the on-call owner with the caller ID, transcript snippet and a one-tap call-back link. Routine maintenance calls ("furnace tune-up," "annual cleaning") are booked into your calendar normally with no after-hours interruption.
The AI answers in your business name, captures the caller-ID-matched customer record (if they have called before), classifies the call as a no-heat emergency, offers them three options — (1) immediate transfer or text-back from the on-call tech, (2) earliest available morning slot booked into your calendar, or (3) voicemail. Either way, you get a per-call email summary within seconds so you wake up to a triaged list, not a missed-call counter.
Native integration today is Google Calendar and Outlook/Microsoft 365 (Business tier and up). For other field-service platforms like FieldEdge, Housecall Pro, or ServiceTitan, we connect via iCal feeds, webhook hand-offs, or SMS booking links — your onboarding call works through the right path for your stack. Solo and Starter tiers use a static booking link sent by SMS during the call.
Payment collection during the call is on the Team-Pro roadmap (PCI-safe Stripe payment-link sent by SMS, caller taps to pay, booking confirms only after payment lands — kills no-show emergency runs). Today the AI captures the customer's billing details and routes them to your existing payment flow.
Yes — MapleReceptionist is built in Moncton, New Brunswick and ships with native Quebec French as well as Maritime Frenglish (chiac/Acadian code-switching). The AI detects the caller's language in the first two seconds and switches automatically. If you also run jobs in Gatineau, Montreal or the North Shore, this is a real edge over US-built HVAC AI services that translate from English and miss local idioms like "fournaise" vs "chaudière."
Most 2-truck HVAC shops fit the Business tier at $99 CAD/month — that includes 25 calls/day, WebRTC outbound, call recording, transcription, calendar booking and warm transfers to either tech. If you also want a separate after-hours emergency line with its own AI persona (multi-agent stacking), add Team-Pro at $199/month. All plans are month-to-month with no contract.
Spin up an AI receptionist on a Canadian number in under 10 minutes. Bilingual EN/FR. Emergency triage included. Cancel anytime.
