For plumbers
For plumbers who can't pick up the phone from inside a crawlspace.
Plumbing calls usually come from someone with a problem today: a water heater that quit this morning, a toilet backing up, a leak they just noticed. When you can't pick up, Mainline Systems answers with an honest greeting in your business name and records a voicemail. You get the transcript by email and in your phone app, with anything urgent flagged first. When you're free to answer, you still answer it yourself.
A day on the tools
Where the work slips away.
You can’t be on the tools and on the phone at once. These are the moments that cost plumbers jobs.
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A no-hot-water call comes in while you're sweating a joint. By the time you call back, they've booked whoever answered first.
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The emergency callers you reach get your full attention. Meanwhile the repipe or sewer-line request from your website sits in your inbox for two days.
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You wrote a water heater or sewer-line bid at the kitchen table. The homeowner said they'd think about it, and nobody followed up.
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Most callbacks start with the same questions: 'What's the address? Is it leaking right now? Is the water off?' You end up asking them while you drive.
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A finished job leaves the driveway without a review request, and a week later the homeowner can't remember your company's name.
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You did a water heater or drain job for a household two years ago and haven't heard from them since, even though they'll need a plumber again.
The same day, with Mainline Systems running
At 7:40 on a Tuesday morning you're under a house in Gresham replacing a supply line. Your phone rings twice and goes to voicemail. The caller, a homeowner in Southeast Portland, hears your greeting and leaves a message: her water heater is leaking from the bottom, she has no hot water, there's a small puddle, and she doesn't smell gas. The transcript is flagged as an active leak, and an alert email with her words and number reaches you a few minutes later. When you climb out at 8:15, you call her back already knowing the job, and you're in her garage by noon. That afternoon you upload your replacement estimate from the truck and email her the proposal link, and she approves it that evening. When you mark the job done, she gets the same review link every customer gets.
How it helps
What Mainline Systems handles for plumbers.
It runs on the number you already have. It never quotes a price and never diagnoses a problem. Those go to you.
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Missed-call recovery
When a call goes unanswered, the caller hears a greeting in your shop's name and leaves a voicemail, and you get the transcript within minutes. It works with your existing business number. Texting turns on once carrier approval clears.
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Leads sorted in plumbing terms
Leak, clog, water heater, fixture, sewer, repipe, with active leaks flagged, in the customer's own words. Nothing the system sends ever includes a diagnosis or a price.
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Urgent calls first
If a voicemail mentions a gas smell, a carbon monoxide alarm, water near outlets or the panel, or sewage coming into the house, the voicemail is flagged urgent and you're alerted right away.
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Proposal page
The homeowner opens one link to view, approve, or decline your estimate, or to ask a question about it. Upload the estimate you already write from your phone. A Good/Better/Best builder is coming in December.
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Estimate follow-up
Polite email check-ins on day 1, 3 and 7. They stop as soon as the customer replies.
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Reminders and reviews
Confirmation and reminder emails so you don't arrive to a locked house, and the same review link sent to every customer you mark done.
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Included
About six months after a repair (a year after a water heater or a bigger install), customers you mark done who have an email on file get a short check-in email in your name: how's everything holding up, anything else on their list, and the same review link everyone gets. Replies and new-project requests come straight to you.
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Customer File
One page per household with the address, job history, proposals, and voicemails, so you don't have to dig through old messages to remember what's installed there.
Built by a tradesman
Built by a tradesman who’s been in your boots.
Mainline Systems was built by someone who’s worked in the trades, not a software company. We won’t pretend to know your trade better than you do: the system never diagnoses, never quotes a price, and sends every technical question to you. What we do know is the part every trade shares: the phone ringing while your hands are full, and the bid that goes quiet because nobody followed up.
Jobs it’s set up for
Set up for the work you actually do.
We tune the list to what your shop takes on. A typical starting point:
- Water heater repair or replacement (tank)
- Tankless water heater install / conversion
- Leak repair (supply lines, under-sink, behind wall, slab leak)
- Burst or frozen pipe repair
- Drain clog / drain cleaning (kitchen, bath, main line)
- Toilet repair or replacement
- Faucet / fixture repair or replacement
- Garbage disposal repair or install
- Sewer line inspection (camera) / repair / replacement
- Main water line repair or replacement
- Whole-house repipe
- Sump pump / ejector pump
- Shutoff valve or pressure-reducing valve replacement
- Hose bib / outdoor faucet repair
- Remodel rough-in and finish (kitchen/bath)
- Water filtration / softener install
- Backflow test / repair
What plumbers ask us
I'm a one- or two-truck plumbing shop. Is this overkill?
No. Small shops miss the most calls because nobody's in the office while everyone is on a job. Mainline Systems handles that part on your existing number, without you having to hire anyone.
Will it tell customers what's wrong or what it'll cost?
No. The system doesn't diagnose problems, doesn't tell anyone that something is or isn't safe, and never puts a price in a message. A question like 'Is my water heater going to burst?' or 'How much for a new toilet?' goes straight to you.
What happens if someone calls about a gas smell or a flooding basement?
Your greeting tells callers to hang up and dial 911 in an emergency. If they leave a voicemail about a gas smell or water that won't stop, it's flagged urgent and you get an alert right away. The system never tells anyone to look for a gas leak, and it never promises an arrival time.
Do I have to change how I write estimates?
No. Upload the estimate you already write, and the homeowner can view, approve, decline, or ask a question from one link. A Good/Better/Best builder (repair or replace, tank or tankless) is coming in December.
Who gets asked for a review?
Every finished customer, the same way. When you mark a job done, everyone gets the same review-request email with the same Google review link. Nobody is screened out first, and nobody is offered anything for a review. If someone is unhappy, you also hear about it privately so you can make it right.
What does it cost, and am I locked in?
There's a one-time setup fee and a flat monthly fee. It's month-to-month with no long-term contract. We'll go over exact pricing on the audit call.
Other trades we work with
Free Revenue Recovery Audit
See what your own phone is dropping.
The Revenue Recovery Audit is a 3-minute look at your own missed calls and reviews. No pitch deck, no obligation. If there’s nothing leaking, we’ll tell you that.
If it doesn’t put recovered jobs on your calendar in the first 30 days, you don’t pay the next month. Simple as that.
Month-to-month. No contract. Free audit, no obligation.