How an answering service should handle emergency calls
What good emergency handling looks like for trades: urgency detection, live transfer, escalation when nobody answers, and keeping routine callers from paging you at night.
Updated October 17, 2026
You define what counts as urgent in plain words ("no heat", "water everywhere", "locked out"). A caller who matches is transferred to the person on call for that time window; if they do not answer, the backup is paged, then the owner. Everyone else gets a message taken and a promised callback.
Detect
Keyword matching on phrases you choose, plus the AI's own judgement when a caller describes something dangerous.
Transfer
A warm transfer to the on-call number, with the caller told what is happening. The clock on your minutes stops the moment the call is handed over.
Escalate
If the primary does not answer in your chosen minutes, the backup is paged, then the owner, each once. Nothing urgent sits unseen.
Protect the night
Routine callers get a message taken and a promised callback. Your phone only rings for the calls that should wake you.