For deck & exterior contractors
The AI receptionist for deck & exterior contractors
The first warm Saturday of spring, a homeowner walks the backyard with a tape measure and starts messaging deck builders about summer. Your summer schedule gets built right there, that weekend — by whoever answers first with a real conversation.
Plinth answers in seconds — evenings and weekends included — books the consultation on your calendar, collects the payment, and asks for the Google review the moment it’s paid.
Set up in minutes. No new software for your crew to learn.
Example conversation
New text · your decks & exteriors line
Answered
- We want a deck ready by summer — is that still possible?
- Let’s find out — the design consultation is where the timeline gets real. What day works to walk the space?
Answers from your own services, hours, and service area — and hands the thread to you the moment it’s unsure.
Why answering first wins
The spring rush builds the summer schedule
Deck season is decided in a handful of spring weekends, when every homeowner who spent winter looking at the backyard finally reaches out — several builders at a time. The consultations you book in April are the decks you build in July. Plinth answers those Saturday-evening inquiries in seconds, asks the right questions, and books the consult while the other builders reply on Monday.
What it handles for a deck & exterior business
- Design and estimate consultations — booked onto your real calendar with a confirmation the homeowner can hold onto
- Composite vs wood questions — answered from what you actually build, with the full walkthrough saved for the consult
- Rebuild-vs-repair scoping — the right questions up front, so you arrive knowing the deck
- Permits and timeline questions — handled honestly, with specifics at the consultation
- Railings, pergolas, and exterior add-ons — from your actual service list
- Quotes that went quiet — a polite follow-up until they book or say no, and a win-back check-in for past customers when it’s time
See it answer
What it says when a homeowner texts you
Composite or wood — what do you recommend?
We build both — the right call depends on budget and how much upkeep you want, and it’s an easy conversation at the consult. Want me to set one up?
How much would a 12x16 deck run?
It depends on materials and the site, so we don’t quote sight-unseen — the consultation is how you get an honest number. Does a weekday evening or a weekend work better?
Example responses, shown for the demo. The live assistant answers from your real services, hours, and service area — and books the visit on your actual calendar. It never quotes a price you didn’t approve.
The Plinth standard
Month-to-month, with the $50/month minimum credited against our share. No borrowed case studies — here’s the standard every account is held to from day one.
Want to see it on your own leads? Book a demo and we’ll walk you through it on a real example shop.
- < 60 sec
- Target reply to every call, text and web chat
- 24/7
- Booked on your real calendar — nights, weekends, holidays
- Tap to pay
- Deposit or balance — card, wallet or bank
- Every job
- Asked for a Google review once it’s paid
Paying is effortless
A deposit up front, the balance when the work’s done — card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or bank, in a couple of taps. The money lands in your own account; Plinth never holds it.
Reviews that compound
The moment a job is paid, Plinth asks for the Google review — the one moment the customer is happiest. That reputation is what makes you the answer the next homeowner finds.
Past customers come back
The quote that went quiet and the customer from two winters ago get a polite, automatic follow-up — turning people you’ve already earned into the next booked job.
Straight answers
Questions deck builders ask
How will it know how to answer deck and exterior questions?
You teach it your business in minutes — and it never makes anything up. In setup you give it your services (decks, railings, pergolas, exterior work), the materials you build with, your service area, and hours — you can even import them straight from your website. It answers from your facts and books the consultation for anything it shouldn’t answer.
My leads all come in over a few spring weekends — can it keep up?
That rush is exactly what it’s built for. Every call, text, and web inquiry gets answered in seconds — Saturday evening included — and every consultation lands on your real calendar, so the busiest weekend of the year never double-books you or slips a lead.
Will it quote deck prices?
Never a number you didn’t approve. Its job is to book the consultation and leave the pricing to you. If you choose to share rough ranges, it relays only the ranges you wrote — never a firm quote.
I already use ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, or Jobber — does this replace them?
No — keep them. They run the work once it’s sold; Plinth wins the customer in the first place. Those tools have added AI answering of their own by now, and it is decent — so the honest difference is scope and cost, not quality. They run the work once it’s sold. Plinth does four things around it: answers the lead, books it, collects the payment, and turns the finished job into the Google review that wins the next one — and its share applies only to jobs it wins you. Different jobs, so they run side by side with nothing for your crew to learn.
Is this an AI assistant, an AI receptionist, or a virtual receptionist?
All three, depending on who is asking — and it’s AI, not a person on a shift. For deck builders the inquiries bunch up in spring and land in the evening, after people have spent the day in the yard thinking about it. An AI assistant that answers those at 9 p.m. and puts the estimate on your calendar is doing the job the word implies.
What does it cost?
$50/month as a minimum, or a small share of the jobs Plinth causes if that’s more — never both. The share is charged only once the job is paid. If we don’t make you money, we don’t make real money. See how pricing works at joinplinth.com/pricing.
Win more Decks & exteriors jobs from the leads you already get.
Plinth starts answering the day you set it up — and it works the same for every big-ticket trade, Decks & exteriors included.
Not ready for a demo? Drop your email and we’ll keep you posted.