HVAC workflow automation
Missed-call text backs for HVAC leads.
A missed-call text back workflow detects an unanswered inbound call, checks whether the caller is a customer or new lead, sends an SMS within one minute, logs the request, and escalates follow-up if no one responds. For HVAC companies, the workflow can also separate service calls from sales inquiries, suppress messages for open jobs, and alert dispatch when approved emergency conditions appear.
What gets built
Pull the missed-call event from your phone system or call log.
Check existing customers, open estimates, and blocked/internal numbers.
Send a useful text with a callback promise, booking link, or service question.
Create or update the lead in Jobber, ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, HubSpot, or a sheet.
Alert dispatch or the owner if the lead is still untouched after the configured window.
Tools this can connect
Phone system, Twilio or SMS provider, Jobber, ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, HubSpot, Google Sheets, Slack, email, and calendar links. The exact architecture depends on where missed-call events are available and where your team already works.
Watch the walkthrough
HVAC: The Missed Call Text-Back Automation (With Exception Handling). 56 seconds.
Build notes
What actually goes into this build, including the parts that quietly break when they get skipped.
- Trigger. The phone system fires a webhook on a missed or abandoned call. Where the provider has no webhook, the build polls the call log instead and dedupes on the call ID so a retried event never sends a second text.
- Suppression runs first. Before anything sends, the number is checked against open jobs, vendor and internal extensions, known spam, and anyone who has replied STOP. Most bad texts come from skipping this step, not from bad copy.
- Emergency branch. No heat, no hot water, flooding, and gas smell are matched against the voicemail transcript and any reply text. Those skip the SMS entirely and open a call task for dispatch, because an emergency needs a phone call.
- Quiet hours. After-hours callers get a different message and a next-morning callback promise. Nothing goes out at 2am.
- Two messages, then stop. Initial text, one follow-up at 20 minutes, done. A capped sequence stays inside carrier and TCPA norms and does not read as a robot.
- Write-back. The lead lands in Jobber, ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, or HubSpot tagged with source missed call, so recovered jobs are attributable at the end of the month.
- Watch out for. Multi-line systems that log a ring on every extension. Without a dedupe window on the caller number, one missed call sends five texts.
Deciding who should build this? Best AI Automation for HVAC Contractors (2026) compares the five provider types on three-year cost and ownership.
Video transcript
When an HVAC call goes unanswered, that job usually goes to whoever picks up next. The customer doesn't wait. Eighty percent of customers go with the first company that responds.
Here's the automation. A missed call gets logged and your phone system triggers the workflow. The system checks: is this number already in an open job? If yes, it skips. If not, an SMS goes out in under sixty seconds. No reply in twenty minutes, one follow-up sent. And if the message contains emergency keywords, no heat, flooding, no hot water, it skips the text entirely and calls dispatch immediately.
The important part isn't the first message. It's the exception handling. Without it, you're texting customers who are already mid-job, or missing the calls that needed a phone, not a text.
I mapped the full workflow at aplosai.com/hvac-missed-call-text-back.