- The phone rings
Your team is in front of a customer.
- It reaches voicemail
The caller needs an answer, not another task.
- They call the next company
The demand you already paid for becomes someone else’s job.
AI receptionist for U.S. home-service businesses
When you can’t answer, the next contractor often does.
The Neighbors answers missed, overflow, and after-hours calls, captures the address, job type, urgency, and availability, then books or routes the request using your rules.
Missed, overflow, and after hours Your services, area, and rules
Incoming customer callNo cooling upstairs
Answered by your AI receptionist
“I can help get this to the right person. What address are you calling from?”
Service areaIn coverage
PrioritySame-day
Availability4–6 PM
Dispatch has the details. You keep working.
Illustrative call flow The problem is not effort
You can’t hold a wrench, help a customer, and catch every call.
You are on site, driving, or helping the team. The phone still rings. A homeowner with an urgent problem rarely waits around for a callback when five other businesses are one search away.
That is not a lead problem. It is a gap between the ring and the booked job.
How it works
Your call flow, covered when your team is busy.
We configure the receptionist around the way your business already handles work.
Answer
Covered calls get your approved greeting instead of voicemail.
Qualify
Address, issue, urgency, availability, and the details your team needs.
Book or route
Schedule, transfer, or send dispatch a structured request using your rules.
Escalate
Unusual calls are handed to a person instead of guessed at.
What your team receives
From ringing phone to a dispatch-ready request.
The caller gets a useful next step. Your team gets context they can act on.
Illustrative example
Free home-service checklist
Find the calls most likely to slip through on a busy day.
Get the one-page missed-call checklist for home-service teams. It shows the seven gaps that most often turn a ready-to-book caller into someone else’s customer.
- Find the hours when calls slip through
- Capture the details dispatch actually needs
- Give every caller a clear next step
Get the checklist
Enter your work email. The checklist opens immediately.
Founder-led Who’s behind The Neighbors?
I’m Surya. You’ll work directly with me.
I’m a voice AI engineer. Before starting The Neighbors, I worked on voice AI at 11x and Hamming (YC S24). I now use that experience to build practical call handling for U.S. home-service businesses.
You’ll work directly with me to map your call flow, set the boundaries, and tune the receptionist around the way your team actually operates.
Common questions
Straight answers before you trust it with a call.
Can this really add 4–8 jobs a month?
That range depends on how many calls are currently missed, what percentage are a fit, and how your team books them. We do not assume the number. The first call-flow review checks whether your real volume supports it before we recommend anything.
Will it sound like a robot?
The system is designed for natural, focused phone conversations. We tune the voice, pacing, greeting, and call flow around your business so callers get a clear answer instead of a generic bot script.
Can it handle after-hours and emergency calls?
Yes. You define what counts as urgent, which service areas and job types you cover, when to transfer a call, and when to create a priority follow-up for your on-call team.
Does it book directly into our software?
It can follow the booking workflow we agree during setup. Depending on your current tools, that may mean scheduling directly, creating a qualified booking request, or sending dispatch a structured summary for fast follow-up.
What happens when it is unsure?
It does not guess. We define the approved answers and escalation rules, so uncertain or unusual calls are transferred or flagged for your team with the caller details already captured.
Can callers still reach a person?
Absolutely. The AI is there to cover missed, overflow, and after-hours demand—not to trap callers. You choose when and where calls should transfer to a person.
A practical first step
Book a call-flow review Find out which calls are slipping through.
Bring your current process. We’ll map the missed, overflow, and after-hours gaps and see whether The Neighbors is a fit.