RCD tripping at 9:40pm. Power out on a Saturday. Answered.
You can't hold a phone and a tester at the same time. H3llo's AI receptionist answers your number while you're up a ladder or behind a switchboard: it works out whether the call is urgent, handles your call-out fee the way you tell it, writes the job into Simpro or Fergus and gets the real emergencies to whoever's on call.
- Keep your number
- Books into Simpro and Fergus
- Answers 24/7
The phone rings most when you can't touch it.
Electrical work doesn't go with a phone in one hand. You're mid-test on a new circuit, halfway through a switchboard swap or in a roof space running cable, and the calls that matter arrive anyway: a tripping RCD after dinner, a house with no power on a Saturday morning, a heat pump enquiry from someone who'll ring the next sparky if you don't pick up.
H3llo's AI receptionist for electricians answers in your business's name, every hour of the day. It sorts the hazard from the heat pump quote, finds the caller in your job software, writes the job where your team already looks for it, and gets anything urgent to a person. Everything else, including the after-hours calls that can wait, is summarised and in your inbox before you start.
It's careful where it should be. The agent isn't an electrician and doesn't pretend to be one. It won't diagnose a fault, won't tell a caller to reset anything, and won't put a figure on a rewire. It takes the details properly and hands the electrical judgement to you.
Every electrical call, sorted before it reaches you.
From a dead switchboard to an EV charger enquiry. Your rules decide which calls interrupt you.
| The call you get | What H3llo does |
|---|---|
| Power out or a hazard“The RCD keeps tripping and it won't stay on.” | An electrical hazard counts as urgent. It logs the job first, then puts the caller through to your on-call electrician, or tells them the on-call will ring back. You get a text with the address and what's happened. |
| Quote request“We want a heat pump in the lounge before winter.” | No number on the phone. It takes the address and what they're after: heat pump, EV charger, switchboard upgrade, rewire. Then it creates the quote in Simpro or a quote job in Fergus, ready to price at the desk. |
| Routine booking“Can someone put an outdoor socket in next week?” | On Simpro it reads your schedule and books the appointment against an electrician. On Fergus it logs the job and the office confirms the time. |
| Returning customer“You did our switchboard last year.” | Recognised from their number and greeted by name. It remembers their last few calls, so they don't explain the whole history again. |
| Builder or property manager“It's for one of our rentals on Kāpiti Road.” | The person paying stays the customer, and the job goes against the property as a separate site, so the bill and the van go to the right places. |
| Wholesaler rep or sales call“Just calling about our LED range.” | A name, a number and a message. No job created, nobody put through, and it's in the summary if you want it. |
The 9:40pm RCD call, answered.
An example, set up the way an electrician on Simpro, with no live transfers after hours, would set it up.
RCD tripping in the rain, 9:40pm, Waikanae
- 21:40
First ring. The agent answers in your business's name and tells the caller the call is recorded.
- 21:40
It already knows the number from Simpro, so it greets the caller by name.
- 21:41
“Every time it rains the RCD goes and half the house is dark.” Is this urgent, or can it wait until business hours? Urgent.
- 21:41
This business has rates on request, so it doesn't volunteer a figure. The caller asks; it reads out your after-hours call-out, excl. GST.
- 21:42
It confirms which property, logs the job in Simpro with the caller's own description, and tells them the on-call electrician will ring them back.
- 21:42
Your on-call gets the text: name, number, address, “RCD tripping when it rains”, urgent.
What it doesn't do: tell the caller to reset the RCD, switch off at the main, or open the switchboard. Isolation advice is for an electrician. It isn't a 111 service either: smoke, fire or someone hurt is a 111 call.
No power on a Saturday
The house is dark and the neighbours' aren't. The caller says it's urgent, so it's logged and the on-call has it straight away, with the address confirmed and the caller's words in the job. The agent doesn't speculate about why.
Storm morning
A southerly through Kāpiti overnight and a dozen calls before seven. The agent answers as many at once as your plan allows. The hazards go to your on-call, and the rest are logged with addresses so you drive to the right job first.
Enough to send the right sparky. Nothing a sparky should answer.
The agent runs H3llo's trades template, the one used for electrical, plumbing, drainage and HVAC businesses. One question at a time.
- 01
Who's calling
It looks the number up first. If there's no match, it asks for a first and last name, asks for a spelling if the search comes back empty, and reads a new name back before it's saved.
- 02
Why they're ringing
A job, a quote, a question about an invoice, or a follow-up on work you've already done. A follow-up goes onto the existing job, not a new one.
- 03
Whether it can wait until business hours
After hours, this decides everything else. Hazards and no power go one way, the heat pump enquiry the other.
- 04
What's happened, in their words
“The kitchen lights keep flickering” is enough. The agent writes it down; it doesn't diagnose it or guess how long the fix will take.
- 05
Where the work is
Street number and street name, checked against the sites you already have. That's often not the billing address, and the agent treats it that way.
- 06
Who's paying, and when suits
Homeowner, landlord, property manager or builder, and a preferred time for routine work. On Simpro it can book it; elsewhere the office confirms.
Want something asked on every call, like whether it's one circuit or the whole house, or whether it's a rental? Tell us when we set you up and we write it into your agent's instructions. It still won't ask a caller to go poking at the switchboard.
Call-out fees handled the way you tell it.
Some electricians want the after-hours fee said up front. Some price every job and never want a number on the phone. Both work.
Say it up front
On every urgent call it asks whether the caller knows your after-hours rates and reads them out if not: first hour, each hour after, travel fee, excl. GST.
Only if they ask
It gets on with logging the job and mentions the rate only when the caller raises it. Good if your after-hours charge isn't a fixed surcharge.
Never on the phone
Rates depend on the job, and the office will go through them. Common for install work like heat pumps and EV chargers.
- It never prices the work itself. A switchboard upgrade or a rewire gets a call-back with a number, not a guess.
- A caller who has already agreed to your rates on an earlier call isn't read them again.
- Business-hours and after-hours rates can be set separately, or after-hours only.
Written into Simpro or Fergus while you're still on the ladder.
Most electrical jobs arrive logged, addressed and ready to schedule.
Simpro
Field service for electrical, HVAC, fire, security and multi-tradeBuilt for electrical and multi-trade outfits, and the widest set of things the agent can do: customers, sites, jobs, quotes, and booking against an electrician's schedule.
How it works with SimproFergus
Job management for tradesFergus job creation the way the office would do it: find the customer and the site, check for open jobs, then write the job or a quote job.
How it works with FergusTradify
Job management for tradesNew work lands as an enquiry in your inbox for someone to turn into a job.
How it works with TradifyiTrade
Job management for tradesKnows the caller from your customer list, reads their jobs and visits, and creates new ones.
How it works with iTrade
With Xero connected, the agent can also see who a caller is in your accounts and what they owe. On none of these? Every call still ends with a summary by email and text.
AI receptionist plans from $75/month + GST.
Monthly, excl. GST. The entry plan answers and emails you a message. The text to your on-call and the job in Simpro or Fergus come with the plan that has job-software writes.
H3llo AI 60
$75/monthFor a sole trader who mostly needs messages taken.
- 60 AI minutes a month
- Conversational AI agent
- 1 regional phone number
- 2 concurrent calls
- Message taking
- Email notifications
- $1 per additional minute
H3llo AI 200
$300/monthThe full agent, for a crew.
- 200 AI minutes a month
- Multilingual conversational AI agent
- 2 regional phone numbers
- 5 concurrent calls
- All agent actions incl. SMS & email
- API / CRM integration
- $1 per additional minute
What are your missed electrical calls costing?
Your numbers: how many calls ring out, how many would become work, and what a typical job is worth to you.
Calls nobody answered
Out of 100
NZD, excl. GST
The working: calls a week × 52 weeks ÷ 12 months × % × $ job value
- H3llo AI 60 $75/monthYour result goes here, set against this plan's monthly cost.
- H3llo AI 200 $300/monthYour result goes here, set against this plan's monthly cost.
Prices are monthly, excl. GST, from our price list. The sum assumes every missed call would have been answered. A heat pump install and a callout for a tripped RCD aren't the same job, so use your own average.
Electricians' FAQs
Common questions from NZ electrical businesses.
- Can the AI handle electrical emergency calls?
- Yes. An electrical hazard, or anything the caller says is an emergency, is flagged urgent, the job is logged, and the caller is put through to your on-call electrician or told they'll get a call back, whichever you choose. You get a text for the urgent ones. It isn't a 111 service: smoke, fire or an injury is a 111 call.
- Will it tell callers to reset the RCD or turn the power off?
- No. It doesn't give advice on isolating power, water or gas, and it doesn't diagnose faults. It takes the details, gets the urgent ones to your on-call, and leaves the electrical advice to an electrician.
- Does it tell callers my call-out rates?
- Only the way you want it to: up front on every urgent call, only when the caller asks, or never. It reads your rates exactly as you gave them, excl. GST, and never puts a price on the job itself.
- Will it book jobs into Simpro or Fergus?
- Yes. It creates jobs and quotes in Simpro and can book against your electricians' schedule there. In Fergus it creates jobs and quote jobs, and the office confirms times. It also writes jobs into iTrade and enquiries into Tradify.
- Can I keep my existing electrical business number?
- Yes. We port it across, so the number on your van, your invoices and your Google listing stays the same. A port needs two business days' notice.
- What does it cost?
- H3llo AI 60 is $75/month, excl. GST. It answers, takes messages and emails them to you. To have it text you the urgent ones and write jobs into Simpro, Fergus, Tradify or iTrade, it's H3llo AI 200 at $300/month, with 5 concurrent calls. Over your minutes, it's $1 per additional minute. No lock-in contract, no termination fee.
Electrical is one trade of several
The same agent answers for plumbers, and the after-hours page covers nights, weekends and holidays in detail.
Tell it the power's out. See what it does.
Talk to the agent in your browser. Ask for a heat pump quote, then ring back with an emergency.