Small-business answering service

The answering service a one-truck business can actually afford

A small home-services business lives and dies by the phone, but can’t justify a front-desk hire. Cara is the answering service built for exactly that — she picks up in your company’s name, sorts a truly urgent call from a quote, books the job, and puts the lead in your pocket, without adding to payroll.

  • No payroll to add
  • Answers 24/7
  • Urgent-call triage
  • Books the job
  • Keep your number

No new hardware · keep your number · cancel anytime.

Cara sorts every call as it comes in

She knows an urgent call when she hears one

Urgent — “The basement is flooding”, 7:20 p.m. → flagged urgent and in your hands minutes later
Estimate — “I’d like a quote for a new install” → booked on the ClearLine365 calendar

24/7 call coverage. Every lead captured. Every caller heard.

A missed call is a missed job

Why the phone is the hardest thing for a small shop to cover

When you are the owner, the tech, and the dispatcher, the phone is the first thing to fall through the cracks. Here is where the jobs leak.

You can’t answer and work at the same time

A one- or two-person shop can’t run the job and the phone at once. Every call you take your hands off the work to answer costs you time — and every one you don’t costs you the job.

A full-time hire is thousands you don’t have

A salaried receptionist is real money every month, takes breaks and vacations, and still can’t cover nights and weekends — the exact hours a small shop misses the most.

A cheap message service still leaves you the work

A generic call center reads a script, can’t answer a caller’s question or book anything, and hands you a callback pile — so you’re still doing the hardest part yourself, after hours.

What Cara does on every call

A receptionist who answers, triages, and books.

Not a message service — Cara does the whole job, the same way on every plan.

Knows an urgent call from an estimate

Cara asks the questions you would ask, flags the burst pipe or the dead furnace as urgent, and texts you a minute or two after the call — while the quote requests get booked for later.

24/7 call coverage, around the clock

Nights, weekends, and while you’re on a job — Cara picks up in your company’s name and a voice you pick from 23. The call you’d have missed becomes a captured lead instead of a voicemail nobody leaves.

Books the job — on every plan

Cara books on every plan, not just the expensive one: onto the ClearLine365 calendar — and, from Starter, onto the Google, Microsoft 365 or Apple calendar you already use. Name, number, and what they need land on the website and in your inbox a minute or two after the call ends.

A published overage rate on every plan

Go over your plan’s included minutes and you pay your plan’s published per-minute rate — printed right on the pricing page, from $0.35/min on Basic down to $0.22/min on Pro, so your rate gets cheaper as you grow. No surprise bills, no forced upgrade, no automatic tier bump. Your meter warns you at 80%. Your plan changes only when you change it.

The lead in your pocket

Alerts in the app and by email a minute or two after the call ends, with the summary — the full transcript fills in shortly after. The ClearLine365 app keeps every caller, lead, and booking in your hand between jobs. The iPhone and Android apps are in early access. Setup ends with the iPhone install link. For Android, email support@clearline365.com and we’ll add you to the test. Public app-store listings are coming.

Spanish calls captured, delivered in English

Cara understands a Spanish-speaking caller and hands you the lead in English — name, number, and what they need, ready to act on. You choose how she opens: English, Spanish, or a bilingual greeting that invites the caller to continue in Spanish.

How it works, in four steps

1

Forward your line to Cara

Keep your existing number and route calls to Cara — all of them, or only the ones you can’t pick up. Forwarding takes under a minute, no new hardware.

2

She answers like your front desk

Cara greets callers in your company’s name, with a script tuned to your trade, and answers callers’ questions from what you load.

3

Urgent gets flagged, routine gets booked

A truly urgent call reaches you a minute or two after it ends, flagged urgent, so you can decide the response; the estimate goes straight onto the ClearLine365 calendar for the next open slot.

4

The lead lands in your pocket

Name, number, what they need, and the full transcript arrive on the website and in your inbox — and in the mobile app — a minute or two after the call ends.

Every plan includes booking and 24/7 answering

Every plan answers 24/7, flags urgent calls, and books jobs. Go over your minutes and you pay your plan’s published rate — from $0.35/min on Basic down to $0.22/min on Pro, cheaper as you grow — no surprise bills, no forced upgrades. Compare plans →

Questions, answered

Is this cheaper than hiring a receptionist?
Far cheaper. Instead of a salary plus breaks, vacations, and no nights or weekends, you pay a flat monthly plan — and every plan answers 24/7 and books jobs, not just the top tier.
I’m a one-person shop — is this overkill?
It’s built for you. The smaller your team, the more calls you miss while you work — Cara covers exactly the calls a solo operator can’t get to, without adding a person.
Can Cara book jobs on the entry plan?
Yes — booking and 24/7 answering are on every plan, not gated behind an expensive tier. A small shop gets the same core capability as a big one.
What if I have a busy month?
Minutes past your plan’s included allowance bill at your plan’s published per-minute rate ($0.35/min on Basic down to $0.22/min on Pro) — no per-call fees, no forced upgrade, and no surprise tier bump. Your meter warns you at 80%.

Catch the calls you’d otherwise miss — without adding to payroll.

Free for 7 days on your real calls. No card needed.