A homeowner with a leaking water heater calls three plumbers. The first one who answers, or texts back, usually gets the job. If you’re on a roof or under a sink when the phone rings, that caller is gone in about the time it takes to dial the next number. This guide sets up two things in Jobber: an automatic text to anyone whose call you miss, and an instant reply to anyone who fills in your online request form. At the end, nobody who reaches out gets silence.
What you need
- A Jobber plan with two-way texting. Jobber’s pricing page lists two-way text messaging on Connect, Grow and Plus, not Core. It’s available in the US, Canada and the UK, and Jobber’s help center says it is not available while you’re in a trial.
- A dedicated phone number (DPN). Jobber’s Receptionist won’t run without one. You pick it under Gear icon > Settings > Dedicated Phone Number. US businesses are prompted to register the number with carriers, which is a normal anti-spam step.
- The Receptionist add-on, or the Plus plan. Missed-call text-back is part of Jobber’s Receptionist (powered by Jobber AI). Per Jobber’s help center, it’s included with unlimited use on Plus. On other plans it’s an add-on at $29/month for 30 conversations, then $0.79 per extra conversation. Conversations tagged as spam or “no conversation” don’t count.
- Admin access. Only admin users can open the Receptionist dashboard and the Automations settings.
- Optional: a Zapier account and a texting tool for the instant text reply to web requests (more on why below).
Step by step
1. Pick and register your dedicated phone number
Go to Gear icon > Settings > Dedicated Phone Number and choose a local number. If you’re in the US, finish the carrier registration Jobber prompts you for. Texts can be filtered by carriers until that’s done, so do this first.
You don’t have to give customers a new number. Jobber says you can forward your existing business line to the Jobber number. Your truck wraps and Google listing stay the same.
2. Run the Receptionist setup
Select Receptionist > Get Started. Jobber walks you through six steps:
- Set up your greeting. Keep it short. Something like: “Thanks for calling Ridgeline Plumbing. We’re on a job right now, but I can help you book or take a message.”
- What should Receptionist do automatically. You can switch on scheduling jobs and taking requests. If you’re nervous about AI booking straight into your calendar, start with taking requests only. You can turn on scheduling later.
- Who is in the loop. Choose which team members get notified, and add escalation keywords such as “flooding”, “no heat”, “gas smell” or “sparks”. The escalation phone number has to be different from your business number and your DPN, so use the owner’s or on-call tech’s cell.
- Essential information. Add your service area, hours, the services you do and don’t offer, and your call-out fee if you charge one. The Receptionist answers from this, so vague input gets vague answers.
- Test your Receptionist. Call it from your own phone. Then call and hang up during the greeting to check the text-back.
- Receptionist is set up! Buy the add-on here if you’re not on Plus, and confirm the DPN.
3. Understand who gets the text-back
Per Jobber’s help article, when a caller hangs up during the greeting, the Receptionist can text them. It goes to new callers and existing clients alike, but not to anyone who already got a text-back in the past 24 hours, or anyone who has replied STOP. That 24-hour rule matters: if a customer calls five times in a panic, they get one text, not five.
If a caller isn’t ready to book or submit a request, the Receptionist creates a task on your calendar for a human to follow up. Check those tasks every morning and after lunch.
4. Set the reply for web requests
Phone calls are half the problem. The other half is the request form on your website. Go to Gear icon > Settings > Requests and Bookings and edit the confirmation the client sees after submitting. You can change the Message title and Message description, or send them to a custom confirmation page (custom pages don’t work on embedded forms).
Example description: “Got it. Someone from our office will call or text you within 2 business hours. If water is actively leaking, call us now at 555-0142.”
Then go to Gear icon > Settings > Emails and Text Messages and edit the Submitted requests notification. This is sent automatically when a client submits a request. Jobber’s help center says it’s email only. Use Insert Variable to drop in the client’s name. In the same screen, pick which team member gets replies to request emails.
5. Add an instant text for web requests (workaround)
Here’s the gap: Jobber’s custom automation builder only has date-based triggers on quotes and invoices. There is no “request created” trigger, and the submitted-request message can’t go by text. So if you want a text within a minute of a web request, you need Zapier.
Jobber’s Zapier app has a New Request Created trigger. The basic Zap:
- Trigger: Jobber, New Request Created.
- Filter: only continue if a phone number exists.
- Action: send an SMS through your texting tool (many have Zapier apps).
- Optional action: Jobber, Add Note to Request, writing “Auto-text sent” so the office knows.
Example text: “Hi {first name}, this is Dana at Ridgeline Plumbing. We got your request for {service}. I’ll call you by 3pm today. Reply here if it’s urgent.”
One caution: this text comes from your texting tool’s number, not your Jobber DPN, so replies land in that tool, not Jobber. If that bothers you, skip the Zap and rely on the email plus a fast human call.
6. Test the whole thing from a stranger’s phone
Borrow a phone that isn’t in Jobber as a client. Call and hang up. Submit a web request. Time how long each reply takes. Then check that a request or task showed up in Jobber for each one.
Common mistakes
- Using your own cell as the escalation number and the DPN forward. Jobber requires the escalation number to differ from the business and dedicated numbers. Use a second phone.
- Thin “Essential information”. If you don’t list what you don’t do (no gas lines, no commercial), the Receptionist can’t turn those calls away politely.
- Skipping carrier registration. Unregistered numbers get texts filtered. Do it on day one.
- Promising a callback time you can’t hit. “Within 2 hours” only works if someone checks Receptionist tasks every 2 hours. Pick a promise you’ll keep.
- Turning on auto-scheduling before your calendar is clean. If tech availability in Jobber is wrong, the AI books into the wrong slots.
When it’s worth getting help
Most shops can get the Receptionist running in an afternoon. The fiddly part is the request-text Zap, deciding where replies land, and tuning the greeting and escalation keywords after the first few weeks of real calls. If you’d rather hand that off, I set this up for trades businesses. See the Jobber page, or run your numbers on the trades cost calculator first to see whether it’s worth paying anyone for.