Best estimate follow-up service for HVAC companies?

The best estimate follow-up service for an HVAC company is a person who owns the open replacement list and calls from the estimator’s notes. Jobber and Housecall Pro already send the reminder texts. A VA, an answering service, or an outbound campaign is the callback.

This is the buy for a 2-to-10 truck HVAC shop on ServiceTitan, Jobber, Housecall Pro or Workiz whose change-outs go quiet, and who is weighing a sales VA, Ruby, Smith.ai, or calling back after hours.

What the job actually is

Estimate follow-up is two jobs. The reminder confirms the file arrived. The callback answers the hold-up: price, the spouse, a second bid, financing, or a repair instead of the change-out. On r/ProHVACR, one shop said their estimate software already sends a day-2 text and an expiry text, and that this is standard. That is the reminder. How to follow up on HVAC estimates that haven’t closed is the call: same business hour, then days 2, 4, 7 and 14.

Best estimate follow-up software is the reminder layer. This page is the person who dials. On X in November 2026, one operator put the desk rule as every open estimate gets one owner and a next-contact date.

There is no reliable public number for how much a service raises close rate. Score it from your own FSM: open this month, called within a business hour, booked after a call, lost with a reason. Prices below are from each vendor’s own page, read 2026-11-02. They are not a ranked list. The shop’s own CSR still wins when someone is at the desk.

Five services we priced

Service	Cost	Pulls the open list	Who is on the phone	Reason for a no
VirtuHire	Quote follow-up specialist $1,500 to $1,900 a month full-time	Yes, if they sit in your FSM	One dedicated VA, after you train them	Lost-deal log, if you check it
Time etc	US assistant, 20 hours $760 a month. 40 hours $1,480	Only if you point them at the list	A US assistant, phone, email, or text	Only if you build the log
Ruby	$250 a month for 50 receptionist minutes. $395 for 100. $720 for 200	No. You send a name, one request at a time	A live receptionist, on a request	A message note if they wrote one
Smith.ai Outreach	Warm engagement from $600 a month, $12 a contact, 50-contact minimum, $750 setup	No. You send contacts	North America agents, five calls per contact	In Smith.ai, unless the CRM writes it back
A daily call list from open estimates	Software $149 a month. Managed $350 a month plus a capped 3%	Yes. Leave the FSM reminders on	The office from a daily list, or a trained caller working as the shop	Logged on the estimate

VirtuHire wins a dedicated HVAC quote-follow-up seat. Time etc wins a US assistant billed by the hour. Ruby wins nights and one-off outbound if you type the names. Smith.ai wins a five-attempt campaign on a list you send. A call list wins the FSM cadence and the logged no.

VirtuHire

VirtuHire’s HVAC page (read 2026-11-02) names quote follow-up as the first hire: a 3 / 7 / 14 day cadence, financing pre-qual, booking onto the install calendar, and a lost-deal log. The specialist is $1,500 to $1,900 a month full-time. Staff sit in South Africa and work US hours. Month to month, with a 30-day replacement.

That is closer to this job than a general admin VA who also posts reviews and chases AR. You still grant FSM access, write the script, and listen to week-one calls. Tonnage, line-set, or a different outdoor unit goes back to the comfort advisor. Should I hire a virtual assistant to follow up on HVAC estimates? is the hire version of the same seat.

VirtuHire wins a shop that wants one person on replacements, on the FSM it already runs. It stops when the notes are blank, or when you wanted after-hours no-heat covered.

Time etc

Time etc pricing, read 2026-11-02: a dedicated US assistant at $390 for 10 hours, $760 for 20, $1,480 for 40, $2,160 for 60. Unused hours roll over on the 20-hour plan and up. Work is email, text, phone, or Zoom. No setup fee.

Time etc does not publish an HVAC quote-follow-up role. You write the cadence. How many times should a contractor follow up on an estimate? is five live phone attempts, then a logged ending. Listen to a sample call before they dial 18 Maple.

Time etc wins a shop that wants a US voice and 20 hours a month. It stops at the script you failed to write.

Ruby

Ruby’s HVAC page (read 2026-11-02) is missed emergency calls, after-hours gaps, and appointment scheduling while the crew is on a job. Live receptionists, 24/7, including weekends and holidays. Average answer time under 10 seconds, on that page.

Ruby plans that day: $250 a month for 50 receptionist minutes, $395 for 100, $720 for 200, $1,725 for 500. Outbound call assistance is in the plan. Ruby’s outbound page says they aim to call within 30 minutes, Monday through Friday, 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific. Outside those hours, next business day. A batch of two to about 30 names by email may wait up to 48 hours.

Ruby’s outbound follow-up guide lists quote and estimate follow-ups as a type of request you can write. You still type the name, the number, and what to say. Nothing on that page pulls Unsold Estimates from ServiceTitan. Can an answering service follow up on unsold estimates? is that split. Keep Ruby for nights. It stops at the list nobody exported.

Smith.ai Outreach

Smith.ai’s outreach pricing (read 2026-11-02) is two products. Warm engagement starts at $600 a month, $12 a contact, 50-contact minimum, $750 setup. Cold prospecting starts at $10,000 a month, $10 a contact, 1,000-contact minimum. Last week’s change-outs belong on the warm card, if they belong at all. The $10,000 card is new names.

Every campaign lists 24/7 North America-based agents and five calls per contact. Smith.ai publishes Zaps that send HomeAdvisor leads into outreach. That is speed-to-lead on a marketplace inquiry. It is not Follow Up, Unsold Estimates, sorted by value.

Smith.ai wins a shop that will export a contact list and pay per name for five attempts. It stops when the hold-up is in the estimator’s notes and those notes never left the ticket.

A daily call list from open estimates

Leave the FSM, and Ruby if you have it, in place. Pull open estimates onto a call cadence so the office, or a caller working as the shop, actually dials. We make Escloser, so weigh this entry accordingly. Software is $149 a month and the shop’s own office makes the calls from the daily list. Managed is $350 a month plus 3% of a quote that closes within 30 days of the call, capped at $250 per job.

That is the callback on top of Jobber’s two follow-ups or Housecall Pro’s resends. It does not answer the after-hours no-heat line. Should the CSR or the technician follow up? is who in the shop still owns the first hour.

If they reply STOP, or they ask you not to call, stop that day. The FCC (updated 2026-02-27) prohibits telemarketing calls to the home before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m. local time, and says telemarketers must comply immediately with a do-not-call request. This is not legal advice. Check with your own counsel.

What most shops actually run

A 2-to-10 truck shop already paid for the reminder. Turn it on. Work Follow Up, awaiting response, Pipeline, or Pending every morning, highest dollar first. The BLS puts the US CSR median at $21.53 an hour in May 2025. That is enough when someone is at the desk. The estimator’s same-hour check-in is still the best first call.

Ruby on inbound, owner or CSR on the list, is the shop whose nights have to get answered and whose open list still fits an afternoon. Keep the answering service.

A quote-follow-up VA is the shop whose open list is growing and whose reminders are already sending. Smith.ai outreach is the shop with names it will pay to dial five times, usually marketplace leads. Export last week’s change-outs only if you also send the visit notes.

How to tell this week

A follow-up service is doing its job when yesterday’s unsold change-outs have a same-day callback, lost jobs have a reason, and Friday’s open list is shorter than Monday’s. If the texts went out and the list only grew, nobody called.

Open last month’s estimates in the FSM. Lay the open ones next to the phone. Start with that list. It already exists.