For home services business owners · Front desk and inquiries
Sort after-hours voicemails by urgency
The night's voicemails sorted into call back tonight and call back tomorrow by your own rules, with safety words pulled to the top for you.
The prompt
Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and fill in each part in [BRACKETS]. Owners who take the after-hours phone, and whoever covers it.
I run a home services business and I cover the phone after hours. Tonight's voicemails are below. I need to know which ones need a call back tonight and which can wait for the office in the morning, sorted by my rules, not yours. What I have: - The voicemails or transcripts, one per caller: [VOICEMAILS] - My rules for what counts as an emergency tonight: [MY EMERGENCY RULES] - Words that always mean I call right away: [SAFETY WORDS] - What we do and do not take after hours: [AFTER HOURS SERVICE] What I want: 1. Put any message that has one of my safety words, or sounds like it could be a safety problem, at the top under CALL NOW. Quote the caller's words that made you flag it. 2. Sort the rest into TONIGHT and TOMORROW using only my emergency rules. Next to each one, name the rule you used. 3. If a message does not clearly fit my rules, put it under ASK ME instead of picking a side. 4. For each TOMORROW caller, write a short text from the office that says we got the message and will call in the morning. 5. For every caller, pull out what we need for the call back: the problem, how long it has been going on, and anything they said about getting in. Rules: - Write a draft for me to read. Do not send anything. - Use only what I gave you. If something is missing, ask me instead of guessing. - Never tell a caller their problem is safe, not urgent, or what is causing it. A person decides that. - Never quote a price, an after-hours charge or an arrival time I did not give you. - Leave out card details, door and gate codes, and anything else private. Give me back: - CALL NOW, TONIGHT, TOMORROW and ASK ME lists, one line per caller - A short morning text for each TOMORROW caller - Call back notes for each caller
When to use it
The phone went to voicemail after close and you have a stack of messages or transcripts. You need to know which ones cannot wait until morning.
When not to
Do not use it to decide whether something is safe. If you hear gas, smoke, sparks or water near power in a message, call that person back before you sort the rest.
What to paste in
- [VOICEMAILS]: The messages as left or as your phone system wrote them out, first names only, no phone numbers or street addresses.
- [MY EMERGENCY RULES]: In your words, what makes a call worth going out tonight, for example no heat in freezing weather or water that will not shut off.
- [SAFETY WORDS]: Words that mean you call back right away no matter what, such as gas, smoke, sparks or burning smell.
- [AFTER HOURS SERVICE]: What you do and do not handle after close, and who is on call this week.
Never paste
- Callers' phone numbers, street addresses or card details
- Door, gate, lockbox or alarm codes a caller left in a message
A filled-in example
Sample. Fictional business, fictional client.
VOICEMAILS: Dana, 9:40 pm: our furnace quit and it is getting cold, two little kids in the house. Mike, 10:15 pm: kitchen faucet drips, can someone come this week. Rita, 10:50 pm: water heater is popping and there is some water on the floor. Joe, 11:20 pm: I smell something like gas near the dryer, not sure if it is a big deal. MY EMERGENCY RULES: No heat when it is under 40 outside or there are kids or older folks in the house. Water that will not stop. No power to the whole house. SAFETY WORDS: gas, smoke, sparks, burning smell, water near the panel AFTER HOURS SERVICE: We go out for no heat, active leaks and whole-house power loss. Everything else is booked in the morning. I am on call this week.
What you should get back
- Every caller sorted into CALL NOW, TONIGHT, TOMORROW or ASK ME, with the rule used
- Any safety word pulled to the top, in the caller's own words
- A short morning text for each caller who can wait
- No diagnosis, no price and no arrival time you did not give
What stays with you
The prompt writes a draft. You decide what happens to it, and nothing should reach a customer until you have read it. Decisions about money stay with a person every time, and so do health questions and complaints. When KeenHand builds a routine like this, every message carries the same four decisions: Automate, Approve, Revise, Reject.
Related
- Write a phone script for a new office hire. A one-page call script for a new office hire: what to ask on every call, what to say, and which calls go straight to you.
- Turn call notes into a quote checklist. Rough notes from a request call sorted into what you know and what is missing before you can quote, plus a text asking the customer for photos.
More: every prompt for home services, front desk and inquiries, and AI for home services.
Which three fit your home services business?
The free quiz scores your home services business on sixteen things and picks the three prompts aimed at your three lowest. It takes about three minutes.