VICIdial for home services — HVAC, plumbing, roofing

Home-services teams (HVAC, plumbing, roofing, pest control, electrical) run VICIdial for outbound lead-gen + after-hours inbound overflow. Smaller floors than collections / lead-gen agencies, simpler compliance posture, but seasonal traffic spikes (HVAC summer + winter) make the resize-on-demand pattern matter. The platform handles the dialer; you handle the dispatch tool integration.

Two flows that matter

Outbound — lead-gen + appointment booking

• Source lists from local-area homeowners (purchased or organic from your service-area website)
• Predictive dial to qualify ("are you the homeowner; is this a single-family residence; when was your HVAC last serviced")
• Hot Key to book a service appointment in your dispatch tool (ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber)
• Fronter → dispatcher warm transfer for high-ticket jobs (roof replacement, system swap)

Inbound — 24/7 overflow

• Customer dials your published number
• Office reception handles 9–5; after-hours rolls to a VICIdial in-group
• After-hours agent triages: emergency (HVAC down in July, leaking pipe) / scheduled appointment / FAQ
• Emergency callouts get a hot-key to dispatch a tech immediately

Plan sizing

| Operation | Plan suggestion | | ------------------------------ | ---------------------------------- | | Single shop, 1–5 CSRs | Starter | | Multi-location, 5–20 staff | Growth (4 vCPU, 8 GB) | | Regional company, 20–50 agents | Pro (2 dedicated vCPU, 8 GB) | | Multi-state franchise, 50–150 | Business (4 dedicated vCPU, 16 GB) |

Seasonal spike strategy: resize up before peak season (HVAC June or November), resize down in shoulder months. The dashboard handles resizes in minutes; you pay the prorated difference.

Dispatch tool integration

VICIdial fires a webhook on every disposition change. The same pattern works for every home-services dispatch system — the specific endpoints:

| Dispatch tool | Webhook target | | ------------- | ----------------------------------------------- | | ServiceTitan | ServiceTitan Connect API → Job booking endpoint | | Housecall Pro | Housecall Pro Public API → Job / Customer | | Jobber | Jobber API → Job request / Client | | Tradify | Tradify API → Job → Schedule |

When the VICIdial agent dispositions a call as "appointment booked", the webhook fires with phone + customer name + service requested + preferred time → dispatch tool creates the job + emails the dispatcher.

Per-trunk TCPA scrubbing

Most home-services outbound is commercial residential — full TCPA exposure. Per-trunk BLA scrubbing is the answer for shops dialing multiple service lines:

trunk-leadgen-out      → CUSTOM, BLA key, fail-closed
trunk-confirm-out      → INHERIT (appointment-confirmation calls have prior consent)

See /features/tcpa-compliance.

VICIdial settings that matter

| Setting | Value | | ---------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Recording Override | ALLFORCE for outbound; ONLYANSWER for inbound (cheaper retention) | | Local Call Time | 9am-8pm (some states require) or 8am-9pm | | Pre-call DNC scrub | Federal DNC + Internal DNC = Y | | CallerID | Your published office number, attestation A | | Calls per Day per Lead | 1 (state-specific; some states allow more) |

Carrier choice

• Telnyx — best moderate-volume choice for local outbound; A-attestation on owned DIDs.
• Twilio — premium answer rates, premium price.
• Local-presence DIDs (carrier rotates to match prospect area code) help home-services answer rates more than other verticals — homeowners are more likely to answer a number from their area code.

Common mistakes

1. No after-hours IVR fallback — inbound after-hours calls drop to voicemail and customers go to the competitor. Wire a VICIdial in-group with a "press 1 for emergency, 2 to leave a message" IVR.
2. No emergency vs scheduled disposition split — bundling them in one disposition makes the dispatch board impossible to triage. Split: EMERGENCY_HVAC, EMERGENCY_PLUMBING, SCHEDULED_APPOINTMENT, QUOTE_REQUEST.
3. Seasonal lead-list overload on a Starter plan — predictive dialing 200 leads/agent/day on a 1-vCPU plan = dropped calls + dialer slowness. Resize up before peak.
4. No webhook on appointment booking — agent books in VICIdial, forgets to log in ServiceTitan, dispatcher doesn't see the job. Wire the webhook even if it takes a day.
5. Recording inbound calls forever — inbound is high-volume + low-value-per-call; 90-day retention is plenty unless your state's regulator requires more.

What VICIfast handles

| Concern | Who | | ---------------------- | --------------------------------------- | | OS + Asterisk patches | Platform | | Daily snapshots | Platform | | Audit log | Platform | | Seasonal resize | Platform (one-click; prorated) | | BLA AGI hook | Platform (you BYO key) | | Dispatch tool webhook | You (1-day integration project) | | Lead list source | You (purchased / organic / paid ads) | | Emergency-call routing | You (after-hours in-group + IVR config) |

Get started

Start a 7-day trial → — no card. Home services usually starts on Starter or Growth, with a resize-up to Pro for seasonal peaks.