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Local trades and home servicesAI agent (tool not named)

Let an AI agent pick up the calls nobody answers and book the sales appointment

Picked and checked by Olga Pearson, host of The Practical AI Show · Published

Result

self-reported

In the last 30 days an AI agent booked 26 sales appointments for his roofing company from calls no one answered, and most of them came after hours.

Mervin Wickey co-founded TruChoice Roofing. He says the after-hours or busy gap, when no one answers the phone, is where service businesses lose thousands a week. In his roofing company, an AI agent booked 26 sales appointments in 30 days from calls nobody picked up. In a follow-up reply he added that most of those were after hours.

Who did it

Mervin Wickey (@mervwickey)TruChoice Roofing (co-founder)Mervin Wickey on X (plus his Oct 16 follow-up reply) · Oct 13, 2026

Try it now

  1. Pull last month’s call log and count the calls that rang out or went to voicemail, especially after 5pm and on weekends.
  2. Set up an AI phone agent to answer only those missed and after-hours calls at first, not every call.
  3. Give it your calendar, your service area and the 3–4 questions your sales team always asks before booking an inspection.
  4. Have it text the caller and your sales rep a confirmation, and review every booking the next morning for 30 days.
Copy-paste prompt
You answer calls for [company], a [roofing] company serving [areas], whenever nobody picks up or it’s after hours. Greet callers as [company]’s assistant and say you’re an AI if asked. Find out: name, address, what’s going on (leak, storm damage, replacement), whether insurance is involved, and the best time to meet. Book a sales appointment in [calendar] using only open slots, then text the caller and [sales rep] a confirmation. If it’s an emergency (active leak), send the call to [on-call number]. Never quote prices.

Make it run every week

A play works once. Turn it into a routine in three small steps:

  1. Run it once and check the result yourself.
  2. Give your AI a schedule. Tell it when to run this play (every week, or every month) and to message you with what it found before you act.
  3. Keep a log. One line per run: what was checked, anything flagged, what you did.

See how owners turn plays into systems →

What to watch out for

Self-reported in two short replies. He doesn’t name the tool or say how many of the 26 closed. Check that the agent tells callers it’s an AI and follows local call-recording rules. Build it with Page: a storm-damage page the agent can text callers before the visit.

Did it work?

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