The phone system is built into the software
Most field service software stops at the schedule and leaves the phone to somebody else. Claver runs the line too, so a call, a text, a voicemail, and the job it turns into all sit on the same customer record.
What's included
Claver gives you a business number, a two-way text inbox with photos, missed-call text-back, an AI text assistant, and call logging against the customer record. On the Business plan you also get the phone line itself: in-app calling, a press-one call menu, a voicemail inbox with transcripts, inbound call recording, and the AI receptionist. It's part of the plan price. You don't bolt on a separate calling product and pay again.
How it works
Here's the path a call takes, start to finish.
- The call comes in. Claver provisions a business number for you, and calls to it hit Claver first. The call gets written to your call log the moment it starts ringing.
- Claver rings the shop. The call forwards to the number you set, and it rings for 22 seconds. If you've built a press-one call menu, callers pick an option first, and each option can ring a person, take a voicemail, or send a text follow-up. On Business, your team can also take and place calls inside the app instead of a separate phone app.
- A missed call gets a text back. If the call comes back unanswered, busy, failed, or canceled and text-back is on, Claver texts the caller right then, in the same step that ends the call. Your cell gets an alert text too.
- AI picks up the thread if you want it to. Turn on the AI Text Assistant and it answers the customer's texts from your pricebook and their next job, then steps back the second they ask for a person or you reply yourself. The AI receptionist for voice sits on Business and is covered below.
- All of it lands on the customer record. Calls, texts, voicemails and their transcripts attach to the caller. An unknown number can be filed as a lead automatically, with the source set to Missed Call, so nothing sits in a call history nobody reads.
What's on each plan
Straight from the pricing page, with nothing rounded up:
| Phone feature | Starter $19 | Crew $39 | Business $79 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two-way SMS inbox with photos (MMS) | ✕ | 150/mo, $0.029 overage | 300/mo, $0.029 overage |
| Missed-call text-back | ✕ | Included | Included |
| AI Text Assistant (replies to customer texts) | ✕ | Included | Included |
| Built-in phone line and in-app calling | ✕ | ✕ | 150 min/mo, $0.039/min over |
| Call menus (IVR) and call routing | ✕ | ✕ | Included |
| Voicemail inbox with transcription | ✕ | ✕ | Included |
| Inbound call recording | ✕ | ✕ | Included |
| AI receptionist | ✕ | ✕ | 150 min/mo included |
MMS counts the same as SMS. Ad tracking numbers are billed at cost. Full plan details live on pricing and features.
Missed-call text-back, and the alert to you
This is the piece that pays for the plan. A homeowner with a leak calls three companies and books the first one that answers. If your phone rings out, that lead is gone before you've listened to the voicemail.
So Claver closes the gap for you. The line rings your forwarding number for 22 seconds. If it comes back no-answer, busy, failed or canceled, the caller gets your text immediately. The default reads: "Sorry we missed your call! Reply here and we'll get back to you ASAP." You can rewrite it, and you can drop your business name or number into it. Claver won't text the same caller more than once in three hours, and it never texts anyone who has replied STOP.
You get a text of your own at the same time. It names the caller and the time, then tells you what happened: that Claver auto-texted them and you can take over in Messages, that they're already in an active thread, or that no auto-text went out because text-back is off. Set that alert number under Settings, Automations, in the AI Text Assistant card. Leave it blank and the alerts simply don't send.
Two switches shape the rest. A business-hours guard keeps the auto-text inside your set hours, defaulting to 8am through 8pm, while still creating the lead after hours. And auto-create lead, on by default, files an unknown caller in Customers as a lead with the source set to Missed Call, so the follow-up has somewhere to live.
Missed-call text-back and the two-way inbox start on Crew at $39/mo. That's the plan most HVAC, plumbing, and lawn care shops run.
The AI receptionist, and where it stands today
Fair is fair, so here's the honest version. The AI receptionist is built and it's part of Business at $79/mo with 150 minutes a month included. It is not self-serve yet. In Settings, the after-hours option that routes calls to the AI is still labeled coming soon, voicemail for now, and turning it on for a real number takes setup on our side. If you need an AI answering your phone this week, don't buy on that promise.
What it does when it's on: your line sends after-hours calls to the assistant instead of voicemail. It picks up, talks to the caller, and captures five things. The name, what they need, the address, a preferred time, and a callback number. That goes into Claver as a booking request, and the caller gets a confirmation text about a minute later.
What it won't do, by design. It doesn't confirm an appointment time and it doesn't promise an arrival window, because your office confirms that by text. It doesn't quote prices unless you turn price quoting on, and then only from your pricebook. Known blocked numbers get screened before they ever reach it, so robocalls don't eat your minutes.
In the meantime, after-hours calls go to voicemail. The recording runs up to two minutes, comes back transcribed, and attaches to the caller's record, and your cell gets a text about it a minute later. That's live now on Business.
Why bundle the phone at all
Because the alternative is two systems that don't talk. Your scheduling software holds the jobs, a separate phone service holds the calls, and the customer's history is split down the middle. Somebody has to remember which app the conversation happened in.
Jobber doesn't include a phone system, so most Jobber shops pay a separate provider to call and text. Housecall Pro sells call answering and voice as add-ons rather than listing them in the plan price, which is one of the reasons shops end up shopping for an alternative. Claver puts the line, the texts, and the job in one place and prices the whole thing flat.
It also means the boring parts work without you. The call log is a call log, not a list of numbers. The voicemail is text you can skim between jobs. The lead is a lead in your CRM the same minute the phone rang.
Phone system FAQ
Does Claver come with a phone system, or do I need a separate provider?
How fast does missed-call text-back send, and what does it say?
What plan do I need for texting, the phone line, and the AI receptionist?
What does the AI receptionist do today?
Can my techs make and take calls in the app, and what do minutes cost?
Stop losing the call you didn't answer.
Start on Starter, move up to Crew when you want texting and missed-call text-back, and to Business when you want the line and the AI receptionist.