The AI receptionist for residential cleaning companies
Your cleaners are in somebody else’s home when the phone rings, and the person asking about every other week is often calling round. She answers, gets the bedrooms, bathrooms, pets and how often, and books the first clean — and a move-out due tomorrow reaches your cell tonight.
- Answers quote calls while your crews are mid-clean
- Hears deep clean, move-out, turnover, baseboards and inside-the-oven
- Books recurring cleans into your real openings, or takes the details for your quote
Every call answered. Every one.
Recurring work, booked
Every week, every other week, every four weeks — with the home’s size and the pets on the ticket before anyone arrives.
Deadlines reach you
A move-out, closing or turnover due within two days rings your cell, because tomorrow it is somebody else’s job.
Hang-ups get a call back
Somebody who hangs up mid-call is rung back once, so a price question can still become a booking.
Three steps. Zero voicemails.
She answers and gets the address
First ring, day or night, in a calm voice that knows cleaning work. The address comes first, because every other part of the job depends on it.
She sorts it by your rules
By default, an emergency is a move-out, closing or rental turnover due within two days, or a same-day clean before guests, a showing or an inspection. You change that during setup — it is your company.
She books it or your phone rings
Routine work goes onto your real schedule. An emergency rings your cell with the job and she can put the customer straight through.
The questions your tech wishes got asked
After the caller picks a time, she asks the one or two that change what the cleaner brings — and skips anything they already said. The same questions as your Book Online page.
Recurring Cleaning
- How often?Every Week · Every Other Week · Every Four Weeks
- How many bedrooms?
- How many bathrooms?
One-Time Deep Clean
- How many bedrooms?
- How many bathrooms?
- Any pets in the home?Dogs · Cats · Dogs and Cats · No Pets
Move-Out / Move-In Clean
- Will the home be empty?Empty · Some Furniture Left
- How many bedrooms?
- How many bathrooms?
Vacation Rental Turnover
- How often do guests check out?Several Times a Week · About Once a Week · Now and Then
Post-Construction Clean
- How much of the home?One Room · Several Rooms · The Whole House
Add-Ons Only
- Which would you like?Inside the Oven · Inside the Fridge · Interior Windows · Blinds · Baseboards
This isn't a hunch. It's the most measured problem in the trades.
Three figures, each with the study it came from. No vendor surveys of eighty businesses.
Magpie vs. an answering service for cleaning
What changes when the phone is answered by something that knows your trade and can put work on your schedule.
| Magpie | Typical answering service | Voicemail | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Picks up every call, nights and weekends | Every call, the first time | Usually, with hold queues at peak | Nobody picks up |
| Knows your trade’s words | Primed on the parts and faults of your trade | A general script | — |
| Books the job straight into your software | ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, or your diary | Takes a message | — |
| Emergency: your phone rings with the address | And she can put the customer through | Some patch calls through | You find out later |
| Safety first on gas, CO and burning smells | Gets them out before anything else | Depends on the operator | — |
| Callers who hang up get a call back | Once per enquiry, never pestered | Rarely | Most never leave a message |
| When you can’t make it, the customer is rung with real times | From your live openings | — | — |
| Every job on your phone to accept or decline | Crew board, pinged to your lock screen | Emails or messages | — |
| Priced | Flat monthly | Often per minute | Free — and it costs you the job |
Answering services vary; this is what a contractor should expect from a typical one, not a claim about any named company.
Where a missed cleaning call hurts
Move-out tomorrow, cleaner cancelled
The deadline, how the crew gets in and the landlord’s checklist — then your cell rings, because it cannot wait for morning.
Every-other-week quote
Bedrooms, bathrooms, pets and how often, then the first clean booked into your real openings.
Rental host with back-to-back guests
How often guests check out, so your team can quote the whole season rather than one visit.
Residential Cleaning questions, answered
Can she quote my prices?
She gives callers the rates you set during setup — per clean, per room or a range — and never makes up a price for a home she has not been told the size of.
What counts as urgent for a cleaning company?
Deadlines, not dangers. By default: a move-out, closing or rental turnover due within two days, or a same-day clean before guests, a showing or an inspection. Those ring your cell; everything else gets booked.
Does she ask about pets and access?
Yes — pets, how the crew gets in, and anything to avoid, so the first visit does not start with a surprise.
Can she book recurring cleans?
Yes. Every week, every other week or every four weeks, booked into your real openings or passed to you to confirm.
Explore Magpie for other trades
Pest Control
Ants to wasps to rodents, qualified by what, where and how long — and a swelling sting is a 911 call first.
View industry page
Garage Door Repair
Broken springs and stuck doors booked fast, a trapped car flagged — and nobody told to touch a spring.
View industry page
Plumbing
Burst pipes, backed-up drains and dead water heaters — answered on the first ring, booked, or put straight through to you.
View industry page
HVAC
No heat, no cooling, tune-ups and replacements — and a gas smell is a get-out call, never a booking.
View industry pageReady to hire the receptionist that never misses a call?
Hear her answer as your shop in your browser right now — no signup, no card. Or book fifteen minutes with Tom and get a straight answer on whether it's worth it for you.