A general contractor's phone is the whole front office — estimates, referrals, subs, inspectors, and suppliers all ring the same number, usually while the contractor is standing in somebody's half-finished kitchen. The consultation requests that fill next month's pipeline are the calls with the least patience and the highest value. TextBack answers them by text, in seconds.
Start your 7-day free trial · What are missed calls costing you?
You're walking a client through their project when a homeowner with a real remodel and a real budget calls your number. It rings out. They don't think 'he's busy' — they think 'he's not responsive,' which for a six-week project is the whole evaluation. A text in seconds changes the first impression from silence to professionalism, and opens the consultation thread.
GCs run on referrals, and referrals are fragile: a past client gives your number to a neighbour, who calls once, gets no answer, and doesn't want to be a bother. No voicemail, no record, no second try — the highest-trust lead in your business evaporates without a trace. A text-back catches exactly these callers, because it doesn't ask them to do anything twice.
On job-site days the same phone takes sub scheduling, inspection windows, a supplier delay — and three new-work enquiries, all between 10 and 2. The new-work calls are the ones that can't be returned 'when things calm down,' because the homeowner has already had two other conversations by then. The text holds them; the inbox sorts them.
Published research puts unanswered business calls at 28–48% (CallRail's 2025 all-business figure is 28%; Invoca's 2026 home-services figure is 48%) — calls that never reach a person. For a GC, the missed call is rarely a small job: it's a consultation, and consultations are the top of a pipeline where one signed remodel outweighs months of service calls.
There's no honest 'average GC ticket' to quote you, and we won't invent one. The real arithmetic is your own: what one signed project is worth, against a flat monthly price that only needs to save one consultation a year to be trivially worth it.
Conditional call forwarding sends only the calls nobody answers — missed, busy, or after hours — to your TextBack number. Your customer gets a friendly text in seconds, from your business by name, and can reply 1 to book a real appointment slot, 2 for a free quote (they can attach a photo of the problem), or 3 for a callback — or just write back in their own words. The AI drafts your replies; you approve every one before it sends. If the caller goes quiet, one gentle follow-up goes out; when a job is done, exactly one review request follows. Spanish-speaking callers are answered in Spanish, end to end, and STOP or ALTO ends texts instantly. You keep your number, your carrier, and your phones — nothing is ported, and turning the forwarding off is the whole exit if you ever leave.
Free trial: 7 days, and the clock starts when TextBack catches your first missed call — not at signup. Cancel during the trial and you're never charged for the subscription (the one-time carrier registration fee is the exception, if your registration was already filed). Full pricing, in one place →
My sales cycle is weeks long. A text feels too small for a remodel enquiry.
The text isn't the sale — it's the save. It responds in seconds, offers the consultation booking or a callback, and keeps the thread in one place while the relationship develops at its real pace. Homeowners judging a contractor for a long project start with whoever answered; the text makes that you, and everything after happens the way it always has.
Can prospects send photos of the space?
Yes — through the quote path: reply 2 opens a quote request and the caller can attach photos, so the kitchen, bath, or water damage is in front of you before the first site visit. You walk in already knowing which questions matter.
Half my calls are subs and suppliers, not customers. Will they get texted too?
Only calls that go unanswered trigger a text, and it's a businesslike message from your company — a sub who called while you were on a ladder gets a professional acknowledgement and a thread, same as anyone. Nothing about it reveals a system; it reads as your office being on top of things.
What does it cost a GC, all in?
$49/month per location at the founding price, locked in while you stay subscribed, with no setup fee. The one-time $25 carrier registration fee is charged when your registration is filed — it is not a subscription charge, and cancelling the trial never charges the subscription. The free trial runs 7 days and the clock doesn't start until your first missed call is caught.
The general contractors' guide: missed-call text back, in depth →
Missed call text back software, compared — the honest hub →
For other trades: HVAC · Plumbing · Electrical · Roofing