The short answer
A first call should collect eight things, in this order: the problem, the location, the urgency, the equipment, the access, the decision-maker, the time and the payment method. Ask them one at a time, in the same order on every call, and a routine intake fits in about two minutes.
The order is not arbitrary. The first three questions decide whether you can take the job. The next three decide whether the technician can finish it on the first trip. The last two close the booking.
As of October 2026, most service businesses still run intake from memory. The owner asks good questions because the owner knows what goes wrong on site. Everyone else asks whichever questions occur to them, and the gaps show up later as a second trip, a wrong part or a technician standing at a locked gate. This guide sets out the questions, the reason for each, the additions that matter by trade, and how the answers should be stored. Where it mentions software, it refers to Run with Jarvis, and capability claims are limited to its published plan list.
What the first call is for
It helps to be clear about the goal, because it shapes what you ask and what you leave out.
The goal is a bookable job. By the end of the call you should be able to put a job on the calendar with the right duration, the right technician and the right address, and the customer should know when someone is coming and roughly what it will cost.
The goal is not a diagnosis. A phone call cannot find the fault. Questions that try to diagnose add minutes and produce guesses. Ask what the customer sees, hears and smells. Leave the cause to the technician.
The goal is not a sales pitch. A caller with a problem wants to be understood and scheduled. Ask, confirm and book.
The call is also the first record. Whatever is captured now is what the technician reads in the driveway. If it is not written down, it was not asked.
The eight questions, in order
1. What is wrong?
Start with the customer's problem, in their words. It is why they called, and letting them say it first makes the rest of the call easier.
What to ask. "What is going on?" Then one or two follow-ups: when did it start, is it constant or does it come and go, and has anything been tried already.
Why first. It tells you the job type, which decides everything after it: whether you do that work, which technician is qualified, how long to block and which price applies.
What to capture. The symptom, not your theory. "No cold air, outdoor unit is not running, started last night" is useful. "Probably the capacitor" is a guess that will mislead the technician if it is wrong.
2. Where is it?
Get the service address, or at least the ZIP code, before anything detailed.
What to ask. "What is the address where you need service?" For roadside or mobile work, add the cross street, the parking lot name or a landmark.
Why second. If the job is outside your service area, both of you should find that out in the first thirty seconds. The location also sets any travel fee and identifies the closest technician.
What to capture. The full address including unit number, and whether it is a home, a rental or a business. Read it back. A wrong digit in a street number costs a wasted trip.
3. How urgent is it, and is anyone at risk?
What to ask. "Is this an emergency, or can it wait for a scheduled visit?" Then the safety check that fits your trade: is water still running, do you smell gas, is anything sparking, is anyone locked in.
Why third. Urgency decides whether this is a same-day dispatch, an after-hours call with a surcharge, or a slot later in the week. A safety risk changes the call entirely: the first instruction is to make the situation safe and, where appropriate, to call emergency services or the utility before you.
What to capture. The urgency level in your own terms, such as emergency, same day or routine, and any safety note. General workplace safety guidance for your crews is published by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and it is worth checking what applies to the hazards your technicians walk into.
4. What equipment or vehicle is it?
What to ask. Brand, type and approximate age. For vehicles, year, make and model. A model number if the caller can read it easily, but do not send anyone crawling behind a furnace for it.
Why fourth. This is the question that prevents the second trip. A technician who knows the brand and age can bring the likely parts.
What to capture. Exactly what the customer said, including "not sure". An honest unknown is more useful than a confident wrong answer.
5. How does the technician get in?
What to ask. Is there a gate code, a locked yard, a building entry system or a parking restriction? Are there pets? Will someone be home, and is that person an adult who can approve the work?
Why fifth. Access problems are the most avoidable cause of a failed visit. They are also the questions most often skipped, because they feel minor during the call.
What to capture. Gate and door codes, where to park, pets and where they will be, and anything unusual about reaching the equipment, such as an attic hatch, a crawl space or a rooftop unit.
6. Who makes the decision?
What to ask. "Are you the owner of the property?" If not: "Who approves the work, and will they be reachable during the visit?"
Why sixth. A tenant can report a problem but usually cannot approve a repair. A caller's spouse, landlord, property manager or employer may hold the decision. If that person is unreachable, the technician diagnoses, quotes and leaves without doing the work.
What to capture. The name and number of whoever approves, and whether a property manager needs to authorize a spending limit in advance.
7. When works for you?
What to ask. Offer two specific openings instead of asking an open question. "I have tomorrow between 8 and 10, or Thursday between 1 and 3. Which is better?"
Why seventh. By now you know the job type, location and urgency, so the slots you offer are ones the right technician can actually fill. Offering times earlier in the call means offering blind.
What to capture. The agreed window, and the best number for the on-the-way text. How the booking itself works when the call is handled automatically is explained in how AI appointment booking works.
8. How will you be paying?
What to ask. "We take card, cash and payment by link. Which do you expect to use?" Mention any diagnostic fee or deposit at this point if it was not already stated with the price.
Why last. It sets the expectation that payment is due at completion and surfaces anything that changes the job: a home warranty company, an insurance claim, a landlord paying, a purchase order for a business.
What to capture. The method and any third-party payer. Not the card itself. That comes later, through a secure channel.
Trade-specific add-ons
The eight questions are the same for every trade. Each trade then adds two or three of its own. Keep the list short, because every extra question lengthens the call.
| Trade | Extra questions to ask | Why they matter |
|---|---|---|
| HVAC | Is it heating or cooling that failed? Is the thermostat showing anything unusual? When was the filter last changed? Is the unit in an attic, a closet, the roof or the yard? | Splits the job type, catches simple causes, and tells the tech what ladder and access to plan for |
| Plumbing | Is water running or leaking right now, and can you reach the shutoff? Which fixture, and on which floor? Is it one drain or several backing up? | Sets urgency, limits damage before arrival, and separates a single clog from a main line problem |
| Electrical | Is anything sparking, hot or smelling of burning? Has a breaker tripped, and does it reset? Is it one outlet, one room or the whole building? | A safety screen first, then the scope of the fault |
| Locksmith | Is it a home, a business or a vehicle? For vehicles: year, make, model and whether any working key exists. Is anyone or anything locked inside? Can you show proof that it is yours? | Decides tools and key stock, sets urgency, and prepares the customer for the ownership check |
| Appliance repair | Which appliance, what brand, and roughly how old? Is there an error code or a light flashing? Is it gas or electric? Is it built in or freestanding? | Narrows the likely parts and tells the tech what removal is involved |
Write your own row. If your trade is not listed, ask your best technician one question: "What do you wish you had known before you arrived?" The top three answers are your add-ons.
Do not let the list grow. Review it twice a year. If a question's answer never changes what you do, remove it.
Keeping it under two minutes
Eight questions plus two or three add-ons sounds long. It is not, if the call has a structure.
One question at a time. Stacked questions, such as "What is the address and when are you free and is it gas or electric?", get one answer and force repeats.
A fixed order. When the order never changes, the person answering does not have to think about what comes next, and nothing is skipped.
Short confirmations. Read back the address and the appointment window. Do not read back the whole call.
Let the customer talk first, once. People need to describe their problem. Give them that at the start, then lead with questions. Interrupting early makes the call longer, not shorter.
No diagnosing. The moment the person answering starts explaining what the fault might be, the call doubles in length and a guess enters the record.
Skip what you already know. A returning customer's address, equipment and access notes should be on file. Confirm them in one sentence instead of asking again.
A rough time budget. Problem, 30 to 40 seconds. Location and urgency, 20 seconds. Equipment and add-ons, 30 seconds. Access and decision-maker, 20 seconds. Time and payment, 20 seconds. That is about two minutes of questions.
One practical check is to score a handful of calls each month against the list: was each question asked, in order, and was the answer recorded. A simple method for doing that is in the phone call quality scorecard.
When the caller cannot answer
Real callers do not have every answer, and the intake should not stall when they do not.
"I do not know the brand." Record "unknown" and move on. If it is easy, ask whether they can text a photo of the equipment after the call. A photo answers brand, model and access in one step.
"I am not at the property." Common with landlords, adult children calling for a parent and office managers. Get the name and number of the person who will be on site, and ask the access questions about that person's situation, not the caller's.
"I just want a price." Answer it if your price list has a line for the job, then continue with the location question. If the job needs a visit before it can be priced, say so plainly, state the diagnostic fee and offer a time. How to quote safely by phone is covered in how an AI receptionist quotes prices from your price list.
"It is an emergency." Shorten the list. Problem, address, safety and a callback number are enough to dispatch. The remaining questions can be asked by the technician on the way.
A caller who prefers Spanish. The questions are the same. What changes is that the caller should be able to answer them in the language they are most precise in. On Run with Jarvis the AI Receptionist handles English and Spanish.
The rule behind all of these: an incomplete answer recorded honestly is better than a blank, and far better than a guess.
What never to ask
Some questions create risk or irritation with no benefit to the job.
Card numbers read aloud. Do not ask a customer to recite a card number, expiry and security code over the phone. Calls can be overheard, written down or recorded. Send a payment link, or take the card on site through your payment provider's reader. If a deposit is required to hold a slot, the link is the way to collect it.
Bank details or identity numbers. A service call does not need a bank account number or a Social Security number. If financing is involved, that application belongs with the finance provider, not on your intake call.
More personal detail than the job needs. You need a name, a phone number, an address and the facts of the job. You do not need to know who lives there, their schedule beyond the appointment, or what else is in the house.
Whether they have called other companies. It puts the caller on the defensive and tells you nothing you can act on.
Leading diagnostic questions. "Is it making a clicking noise?" plants an answer. "What do you hear?" does not.
Questions you will not use. Every field on the form should change a decision. If it does not, it is noise.
If your calls are recorded, tell callers in the way your state requires. Consent rules for recording vary by state, so check with an attorney. For general guidance on protecting customer information, the Federal Trade Commission publishes data security resources for small businesses.
Where the answers should land
Intake is only as good as what the technician can see at the door.
On the customer record. Name, phone, address, property type, decision-maker and payment notes belong to the customer, not to one job. They should be there the next time that number calls.
On the job. The symptom, urgency, equipment details and add-on answers belong to this visit.
As access notes on the address. Gate codes, pets and parking should attach to the location so they survive from one visit to the next.
In the technician's hand. All of it should be visible in the mobile app before arrival, not in a text thread or on a sticky note in the office.
On Run with Jarvis, the CRM and customer portal are part of every plan, and the AI Receptionist writes what it collects onto the customer record and the booked job. How that record builds over time, and why it matters for follow-up, is covered in an AI receptionist with built-in CRM and lead tracking. On Pro, AI transcription and lead scoring add a searchable account of what was said.
The test is simple. Pick yesterday's first job and ask the technician what they knew before they knocked. If the answer is "the address and a name", intake is not reaching the field.
Handing intake to an AI receptionist
Intake is one of the most suitable tasks to automate, because it is a fixed list asked the same way every time.
What you write. The eight questions in your wording, the add-ons for your trade, your service area, the safety instructions you approve for emergencies, and the rules for when a call must reach a person.
What the AI does. It asks each question in order, in English or Spanish, at any hour, and does not skip the access question because it is tired. It then quotes from your price list where a line applies and books the visit.
What you check. In the first month, listen to a sample of calls every few days. Look for questions that confuse callers, answers that were recorded wrongly, and calls that ran long. Adjust the wording. The week-by-week process is in the first 30 days of an AI receptionist.
What stays with a person. Upset customers, active safety emergencies beyond the first instruction, and unusual jobs. The AI collects the facts and routes them.
The same written list also trains a human. A new office hire given eight questions and a table of add-ons is useful on day one.
Common mistakes
Asking for the time before the location. You offer a slot and then discover the caller is forty miles outside your area.
Skipping access. The single most common cause of a visit that accomplishes nothing.
Recording a diagnosis as a fact. "Needs new compressor" in the notes, from a phone call, sends the technician out with the wrong expectations.
Not asking who decides. The technician quotes a tenant who cannot say yes.
Different questions from different people. If three people answer the phone three ways, the record is unreliable and no one can tell which calls were handled well.
Never updating the list. Jobs change, equipment changes, and the add-ons should change with them.
Taking cards by voice. Convenient until the day it goes wrong.
Where to start
Write the eight questions on one page in your own words. Add the two or three questions your best technician wishes were always asked. Hand that page to everyone who answers the phone and use it for two weeks. Then ask the technicians whether they are arriving better prepared.
If calls are going unanswered while your team is on jobs, the same page becomes the instruction set for an AI receptionist that asks every question on every call.
Plans are on the pricing page: Core $500, Pro $750 and Elite $1,200 per month, with zero setup fees, unlimited users and month-to-month terms. To see your intake list running on live calls, get in touch.
