Can ServiceTitan's virtual agent follow up on unsold estimates automatically?

Yes, over text. ServiceTitan’s Virtual Agent can follow up on unsold estimates automatically, in Private Preview, if you have SMS Agent access. It holds a two-way text, answers from the estimate, and can send an approval link. That is the reminder that never forgets. The hold-up still needs a person on the phone.

This is the split for a 2-to-10 truck HVAC, plumbing or electrical shop on ServiceTitan whose change-outs sit open after the visit.

Is a Virtual Agent text as good as a person calling?

For the reminder that has to go out when the desk is empty, yes. For the hold-up, the person on the phone still wins.

Estimate follow-up is two jobs. The reminder confirms the file arrived. The callback answers what is holding them: price, the spouse, a second bid, financing, or a repair instead of the change-out.

ServiceTitan’s own X post on 2026-03-27 put the split in one line: “Stop chasing follow-ups. Text + email go out automatically. Customer views estimate → you call.” The inbound Virtual Agent that books a 7 p.m. no-cool is a different product. Unsold estimates are a separate SMS goal.

Job	Virtual Agent on unsold estimates	A person on the phone
Sends every time	Yes, on the schedule you set, if the goal is on	Only if someone owns Follow Up
Channel	Two-way SMS	Live call. Follow Up has Call the customer
First touch	You set it. Help example: a couple of hours later	Same business hour
Answers “does this include labor?”	Yes, from the estimate on file	Yes, from the notes
Answers spouse, second bid, financing	Only if they type it back	Yes, from the visit notes
Approves after hours	Yes. Help example: 9 p.m. tap, Sold Estimates overnight	Shop hours, unless someone is still dialing
Books the install	Notify & Handoff: Sold Estimates, your team books. Convert & Book: job in the unassigned tray	Yes, then book from Sold Estimates
Logs why they said no	Not captured unless you write it	Only if you write it
Cost, read 2026-10-26	Quote-only Pro add-on. No public dollar	Time, a CSR, or a hire. Job posts for a sales VA list about $700 a month

The Virtual Agent wins the rows that never forget. The phone wins the hold-up. Text reminders vs phone calls is that split.

What the Virtual Agent actually does

ServiceTitan’s unsold-estimate Virtual Agent help (updated 2026-10-16) is the source. Optional. Private Preview. Not on every account. Requires Virtual Agents SMS Agent access. Ask Customer Support or your Pro Product Specialist to turn it on.

Notify & Handoff holds a two-way SMS on the schedule you set, answers common questions from the estimate on file, and sends a secure link to approve. Approved estimates land on Sold Estimates. Your team books from there.

Convert & Book is the same text conversation, then the agent asks when they want to schedule, creates the job from the estimate’s job type, and puts it in the unassigned tray of the Dispatch Board. Enable the Voice Agent to book install jobs under Agent Settings > Job Types.

You can set a minimum estimate value and limit it to specific Business Units.

ServiceTitan’s own example, same article: a water heater estimate the homeowner did not approve on the spot. A couple of hours later the agent texts. They ask whether it includes labor. The agent answers from the file. They tap the link at 9 p.m. It is on Sold Estimates in the morning.

Keep it off the same audience as Marketing Pro. The same help article says the two operate completely separately, and running both for the same customer results in duplicate outreach. Marketing Pro’s Unsold Estimates SMS (updated 2026-10-16) can send up to four texts and stop on Call Created, Job Booked, or no trigger. ServiceTitan names Marketing Pro as the right tool for older, historical estimates.

The AI Virtual Agent product page (read 2026-10-26) is inbound booking. Outbound Virtual Agents (updated 2026-10-16) is Speed to Lead on new marketplace leads. That help says leads and opportunities are handled separately. Last week’s unsold change-out sits on Follow Up.

ServiceTitan pricing (read 2026-10-26) is request-a-quote. Virtual Agent sits under Pro. No public dollar.

What a person on the phone actually does

How to track unsold estimates in ServiceTitan is the list. Follow Up, Unsold Estimates, filter Open, sort by value. ServiceTitan’s Follow Up screen (updated 2026-10-15) does not send. A person clicks Call the customer (updated 2026-10-15), then sells it, logs a next date, or dismisses it.

The call is a check-in. Read the estimator’s notes first. Confirm the file arrived. Ask what they are actually deciding. Book the yes. Log the no. Tonnage, line-set, permit, or a different outdoor unit goes back to the comfort advisor.

How to follow up on HVAC estimates that haven’t closed is the habit: same business hour, then days 2, 4, 7 and 14. How many times is five live attempts, then a logged ending.

On ContractorTalk, one contractor put it: “One simple phone call to ask if they have any questions or if they’ve made a decision is not desperation.” On r/HandymanBusiness in October 2026, shops said people ignore the texts and pick up on a day-7 call, and that is when you find out it is price, timing, or they went with someone else.

There is no reliable public number for how much a call raises close rate versus the Virtual Agent’s text. Score it from your own Follow Up list: open this month, VA text sent, called within a business hour, booked after a call, lost with a reason.

Where the Virtual Agent stops

This goal is SMS. The Voice Agent that calls is inbound overflow, or Speed to Lead on new leads. Private Preview as of 2026-10-16, so last month’s Open pile is still a phone list. It answers from the estimate on file, so “does this include labor?” it can do, and a cheaper bid that left out duct still goes back to the advisor. Approvals move to Sold Estimates. A no with “hired someone else” is still a person on Follow Up. Bulk dismiss is not supported. Two SMS cadences on the same open estimate is how homeowners get duplicate nags. Pick the Virtual Agent or Marketing Pro for that Business Unit. Keep the five calls.

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

1. Run Follow Up as designed

Office, every morning. Unsold Estimates, Open, highest dollar first. Log or dismiss before you leave the row. Right answer when someone is at the desk. It breaks the first full week.

2. The estimator calls from the truck

Same-hour check-in from the person who wrote the quote. Best first call. It stops the afternoon they have three more houses. Leave the Virtual Agent text on if you have it.

3. Turn on the Virtual Agent for the reminder, still own the list

If you have SMS Agent access and the preview, use Notify & Handoff on high-dollar change-outs. Turn off the matching Marketing Pro campaign for those Business Units. Work Follow Up for the ones who do not tap the link. Convert & Book only if Adaptive Capacity is real and someone watches the unassigned tray.

4. Put the open estimates on a daily call list

Leave ServiceTitan in place, including the Virtual Agent text if it is on. Pull open estimates onto a call cadence so the office, or a caller working as the shop, actually dials. We make Escloser, which does this, so weigh that suggestion accordingly. Ask who is on the phone, whether they have the estimator’s notes, and whether a no gets a reason.

How to tell this week

The split is working when yesterday’s unsold change-outs have a same-day call, the Virtual Agent or Marketing Pro text went out once, thinking and financing have a next date, and lost jobs are Dismissed with a reason. If the texts sent and the Open count only grew, nobody is calling.

Open last month’s estimates on Follow Up. Filter Open. Lay those rows next to the phone. If the Virtual Agent is texting, leave it on. Start with the list. It already exists.