A WhatsApp AI agent built for plumbers

Most of your money arrives as a WhatsApp message when your hands are wet. CIERA answers it. It works out in the first reply whether this is a burst geyser or a dripping tap, dispatches the emergency without waiting to be paid, holds the call-out fee on everything else, books the slot on your calendar and invoices the job when it is done. From R799 per month.

See CIERA in action

Triage first, price second

The single most important thing a plumbing front desk does is triage. Not booking, not quoting — triage. CIERA sorts every incoming message into one of three bands before it says anything about money.

Emergency — burst pipe, active flooding, sewage backing up, total water loss, a smell of gas. The plumber is dispatched immediately. No delay, no apology, no handover, and critically no payment gate: dispatch first, invoice after.
Urgent — a burst or leaking geyser, no hot water, a blocked main drain, a leak that is visibly getting worse. Booked at the next real slot, with the fee taken.
Routine — a dripping tap, a slow drain, a planned installation. Quoted and scheduled normally.

A customer who says "my ceiling is dripping" gets a different first sentence to one who says "how much for a new tap". That distinction is the difference between winning the job and being the plumber they messaged third.

Customer, 22:14 — Geyser burst, water coming through the ceiling. Can someone come?

CIERA, 22:14 — Switch the geyser isolator off if you can reach it safely, and put a bucket under the worst of it. A plumber is on the way now. What's the address?

Customer, 22:15 — [shares location pin]

CIERA, 22:15 — Got it. He'll call when he's close. I'll send the invoice once he's assessed the damage — let's get the water stopped first.

Illustrative. Your own fees, hours and policies drive what the agent actually says.

It knows what not to do

A plumbing agent that is too helpful is dangerous. CIERA will coach exactly three things over chat: close the main shut-off valve, switch a geyser isolator off, swap a tap washer. It will not talk a customer through dismantling a P-trap, swapping a geyser element or touching a soldered joint. That is your job, on site, and it is where your call-out fee comes from.

It also knows when there is no job at all. When someone reports no water, it asks whether the neighbours are out too — and if it is a municipal supply issue, it says so rather than booking you a call-out you will not be able to charge for. When someone has poured drain cleaner down a blocked drain three times, it flags it, because that is a hazard for whoever opens that drain.

Estimate, quote, and not lying to the customer

Every plumber knows the trap: give a number over the phone, arrive, find something else behind the wall, and now you are the one who changed the price. CIERA does not guess. It explains the difference between an estimate and a quote, commits only to the numbers in your price book — your call-out fee, your hourly rate — and books the visit that produces the real written quote.

The call-out fee, held politely, every time

A call-out fee is real money and it is owed before you pull into the driveway. CIERA states it as part of the same sentence as the service and the time slot, sends the payment link, and holds the slot against it. When a customer pushes back, it does not get defensive and it does not escalate a R600 argument to you — it explains that the fee is what holds the slot, and moves on. Waivers and refunds stay yours alone.

Emergencies are the exception, and deliberately so. Nobody's flooding kitchen waits for a payment link to clear.

Slots, not vague windows

The agent offers real clock times from your calendar — "2:30pm today" — never "sometime this afternoon". It matches the after-hours rate to the slot that is actually after hours. It never re-proposes a time after the customer has said yes. And it will not cancel a booked call-out even if the customer asks; that stays a decision for your office, because a cancelled slot is a lost day.

The paperwork after the job

Invoice on completion — a branded PDF and a payment link in the same conversation.
Certificates of Compliance — it knows a plumbing CoC is legally required after a geyser install or replacement, and that the customer will need it for insurance and for selling the house.
Insurance claims — it supplies the invoice, the CoC and the photos. It stays informational and never advisory, because claim wording is a regulated activity.
Warranty callbacks — a revisit under warranty carries no new call-out fee, and gets logged for you.

Tenants, landlords and who can say yes

A tenant reporting a burst geyser cannot authorise R8,000 of work. CIERA knows the difference, flags the authorisation question to you, and still never withholds an emergency response while the billing question gets sorted out.

A CRM that fills itself in

Because the agent handles the conversation, the customer record writes itself: who called, what the fault was, which slot they took, what was quoted, what was invoiced and whether it was paid. Next winter's cold front is a list of geyser-risk customers rather than a memory. See how the WhatsApp CRM works.

What does it cost?

From R799 per month for a solo operator. Every plan is the complete platform — the agent, the CRM, bookings, quoting, invoicing and payment links — and the tier only sets how many WhatsApp conversations are included. It runs on your existing WhatsApp Business number through Meta's official platform, so you keep the number your customers already have. Most businesses are live within about two working days.

Get started

Not a plumber? See electricians, hair salons, tutoring centres, or all 22 industries. More on how the AI agent works.