HVAC has the worst call distribution
Most trades have lumpy demand. HVAC has volcanic demand. A three-day heatwave can trigger 5x the normal call volume in a week. The flip side is an off-season Sunday with two calls all day. Hiring permanent reception staff for the average doesn't make sense — you're either overstaffed for nine months a year or drowning for the other three.
That seasonal asymmetry is exactly what an AI receptionist is good at. Sanby costs the same whether it answers two calls a week or two hundred. It scales horizontally — call number 75 gets the same 331ms response time as call number 1.
The four call types HVAC techs see
No cooling / no heating at all
Urgent in season. Sanby checks for the obvious user-fixable issues (filter blocked, thermostat batteries dead, breaker tripped) before booking — saves you the wasted callout when it's a $5 fix the customer can do.
Aircon making weird noises / leaking
Lower urgency but still a same-week visit. Sanby asks how long it's been happening, whether it's the indoor or outdoor unit, and whether it's leaking water inside or refrigerant outside.
Commercial fridge / cool room alarms
Often after hours, always urgent. Sanby treats these as immediate escalations regardless of time, because $20K of refrigerated stock walks fast. Captures site address, alarm code if displayed, and access details for after-hours attendance.
Quotes and replacements
End-of-life systems, retrofit splits, ducted upgrades. Sanby books a callback slot, captures rough scope, asks about power/wiring access — basically the qualifying conversation you'd have anyway, just before you ring back.
How a heat-wave day call plays out
Three things to notice. First, Sanby didn't promise a same-day visit on a heatwave day — it managed expectations honestly. Second, it captured the brand and approximate age, both of which save you a phone call. Third, it kept the call short — on a heatwave day with the next caller waiting, that matters.
Set up after-hours emergency routing
On the dashboard, you can flag specific commercial customers (named restaurants, supermarkets, cool rooms) for priority after-hours escalation. When their site rings outside business hours, Sanby skips the normal triage and goes straight to SMS-flagged-URGENT regardless of how the caller frames the issue. Saves them a 15-minute interrogation when they're calling about a $40K freezer alarm.
Pricing for HVAC operations
HVAC business shapes vary more than most trades. A solo split-system installer can run on the $149/month Starter plan. A 6-tech commercial-leaning company with strong winter heating + summer aircon demand will want the $499/month Growth plan for the higher call quota and the analytics. Most residential HVAC outfits land on $299/month Professional.
14-day free trial included. Card on file at signup so the dedicated number works from day one. Cancel anytime before day 14 and we don't charge a cent. Full breakdown on the pricing section.
Compare with the alternatives
See Sanby vs Sophiie AIfor a detailed feature and pricing comparison with the best-known AU competitor in this space. The TL;DR: Sanby is faster end-to-end, doesn't use overseas cloud, and publishes prices.
Related trades
Sanby works the same way for electricians, plumbers, and locksmiths. The tradies hub has the full list and the trade-tuning roadmap.
Frequently asked questions
Can Sanby handle the call surge on a 38° day?
Yes — that's the exact scenario we built it for. Most AI receptionists either drop calls or queue them; Sanby handles concurrent calls in parallel because it's not a single-instance phone line. On a typical Sydney heatwave day a residential HVAC tech might field 60-100 inbound calls. Sanby answers all of them, triages by 'no aircon at all' vs 'making weird noises', and books them into your calendar in priority order.
Will it know my brands and models?
Yes — Daikin, Mitsubishi Electric, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Fujitsu, Panasonic, LG, Samsung, Hitachi, Bonaire, Brivis, Braemar, ActronAir. If the customer mentions a brand, Sanby captures it. It won't pretend to know specific model error codes, but it will ask the customer to read out any error code displayed and put it in your SMS so you arrive prepared.
What about commercial fridge / cool room alarms after hours?
These are typically the highest-margin emergency calls in HVAC, and they're the ones most likely to be missed because they come in at 2 AM. Sanby is awake. It captures the site address, the alarm code if known, and whether it's a refrigeration unit, cool room, freezer, or display case — then SMSes you immediately with everything classified URGENT.
How does it handle ducted heating failures in winter?
Same pattern as ducted aircon failures in summer — Sanby asks gas vs electric, single-zone vs multi-zone, when it stopped working, whether anything was unusual before it failed. It distinguishes 'no heating at all in the whole house' (urgent if it's cold) from 'one zone is colder than the others' (book in normally).
Does Sanby work for split-system installs and quotes?
Yes. Quote and install jobs aren't urgent so the bot books a callback slot rather than escalating an SMS. It captures the basics — number of rooms, single vs multi-head, whether existing wiring is in place, approximate building age — so your follow-up call can be a real quote conversation, not 20 minutes of fact-finding.
Don't lose heatwave-day jobs to a missed call.
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