Trade services dispatch (HVAC, plumbing, electrical)

Text messaging for trade services dispatch apps.

Arrival windows, on-the-way ETAs, pay-by-text invoices — the texts that tell the customer when the tech is coming and close out the invoice while the visit's still fresh.

Free to author & testNo credit cardUS & Canada

9:41
Saturday, June 13

Acme: Cool Air HVAC: your appointment with your technician is confirmed for Tue, June 24, 8am-12pm. Reply STOP to opt out.

Our free message templates are live.
Sending arrives Summer 2026.

The moment

A text can change the outcome.

A customer sits through a four-hour arrival window with no idea if the tech is five minutes or two hours out. A text lands the moment the technician leaves the last job, and the wait turns into a known ETA.

Cool Air HVAC: your technician is on the way, ETA about 20 min. Reply STOP to opt out.
Thanks - I'll leave the side gate open for him.
The messages

Trade services dispatch apps messages. And all of the others.

All nine message categories are included — one registration.

Booking confirmation & window

Confirms the job the moment it's scheduled and reminds the customer of the arrival window as the visit approaches.

Job booked
Window reminder, day before
Window reminder, morning of
Job complete, invoice & pay-by-text

Marks the visit done, delivers the invoice with a pay-by-text link, and follows up if it goes unpaid.

Job complete
Invoice ready, pay by text
Invoice still open
Reschedule & cancellation

Handles the customer or dispatcher moving the job, and offers an easy rebook if nobody was home.

Rescheduled
Cancelled
Nobody home
Dispatch & arrival chain

Keeps the waiting customer informed from tech dispatch through arrival, so the four-hour window stops feeling like a black box.

Technician dispatched
Technician en route, ETA
Maintenance membership billing

Keeps the recurring service agreement's autopay active — the churn-critical money workflow behind HVAC and plumbing membership plans.

Autopay declined
Membership renewed
The details

Common questions

How close to arrival should the on-the-way text go out?

The moment the technician leaves the previous job, not on a fixed clock.

More detail

A fixed send-time doesn't work when drive times vary — a tech stuck in traffic burns the buffer before it even goes out. Trigger the text off the technician's own GPS or trip-start event instead, so the ETA in the message stays accurate when it lands.

Should the invoice text include the dollar amount, or just a payment link?

Include the amount — the customer decides whether to pay before they even tap the link.

More detail

A bare 'your invoice is ready' link reads like spam right after a repair. Naming the amount up front is the difference between an immediate tap and a text that sits unopened until the office calls to follow up.

What's the difference between the no-show text and the cancellation text?

A cancellation confirms the customer's own choice — a no-show follow-up fires when nobody was home for the visit.

More detail

Cancellation fires the moment the customer cancels through your app — a simple acknowledgment plus a rebook link. No-show fires afterward, when the tech arrived and nobody was home, and reads as an offer to rebook rather than a complaint about the missed visit.

When do I ask users if it's okay to text them?

Right when they give you their phone number for the first time.

More detail

For trade services, that's usually when the customer books the job. That's when texting makes sense to them and the ask feels natural. RelayKit hosts an opt-in page for your app — your AI tool will know how to link to it from the right spot in your flow.

The paperwork

You build the feature. We handle the bureaucracy.

Every text message carries a stack of carrier rules. We've read all of it, so you don't have to.

Registration handled

Getting approved on your own can take weeks.

Most registrations clear in about three days. We handle the filing, so you can keep building your app.

Messages compliant

Send the wrong kind of message and carriers block it — silently.

Every message is checked against carrier rules before it sends, not just passed through.

Opt-ins & opt-outs covered

Miss a single STOP and the fines add up fast.

We stop instantly. Consent is tracked and enforced at delivery, not wired up by you.

The build

Give your AI tool a build spec, not a pile of docs.

RelayKit generates implementation instructions for your AI tool. Messages, variables, event triggers, testing steps, and integration guidance arrive for smooth integration.

Claude CodeCursorWindsurfGitHub CopilotClineCodex

Slots into ShipFast, Supastarter, MakerKit, and Vercel + Supabase.

import { RelayKit } from 'relaykit';

const relaykit = new RelayKit();

await relaykit.appointments.sendConfirmation(customer.phone, {
  date: 'Fri, Jun 6',
  time: '2:00 PM',
});

That's the send.

The test

Preview list

Your safe audience for sending test messages, before and after launch.

  • JoelVerified
    (555) 867-8842
  • SarahVerified
    (555) 412-5519
  • MikeInvited
    (555) 290-3301
+ Invite someone

Run test messages through real phones.

Add yourself, your team, your beta testers. Each person verifies once. After that, your app's messages work for them exactly the way they'll work for customers.

Trigger your real flows — a booking, a code, a reminder — and see the whole loop land: sent, delivered, your database updated.

The process

What it takes to go live.

No telecom expertise required. We handle the carrier side.

01 · PLAN

Choose your messages

Pick the messages your app needs from templates that already know the rules.

Browse the messages →
02 · BUILD

Build and test

Hand the spec to your AI tool, then test the full flow on real phones before launch.

03 · LAUNCH

Go live

RelayKit handles registration and delivery. A few days to approval.

The price

Simple pricing.

Stage 1

Build for free

Set up your messages. Add the code to your app. Test with real phones. No credit card.

Stage 2

Go live for $49 + $19/mo

We file your registration with carriers. Approval takes a few days. 500 messages included per month, then $8 per additional 500. Full refund if you're not approved.

What $19/mo includes.

500 messages a month
Your own sending number
Delivery, opt-outs & quiet hours
A hosted compliance site
Carrier rule-change tracking

Marketing messages add $10/mo. Volume pricing above 5,000 messages. US and Canada at launch. We don't handle HIPAA, healthcare-regulated workflows, or enterprise procurement.

The numbers

When a message can't wait, send a text.

Messages from an app only work when someone sees them. Here's how text and email compare.

Gets opened
Text message98%
Email~20%
Time to first open
Text message~90 sec
Email~90 min
Gets a reply
Text message~45%
Email~6%
Gets through
Text message~98%
Email~84%

Industry SMS-vs-email benchmarks, 2025–26 — open and response from SMS-marketing aggregates; email inbox placement from Validity's 2025 deliverability report. SMS open is inferred from delivery, not pixel-tracked; reported email open rates are distorted by tracking-pixel prefetch and blocking.

The problem

The rules show up after you start building.

US carriers require these from every business that sends texts. Getting approved can take weeks if not done right.

Registration

Before anything sends, your business gets registered in a central registry that every US carrier checks — legal name, tax ID, website, and what you plan to send. Details have to match your IRS records exactly, or the application bounces.

RelayKit collects this during setup and files the registration for you.

Carrier review

Reviewers check your registration and your messages against carrier rules before you're allowed to send. Other providers typically take two to three weeks — and every rejection restarts the clock, with no guarantee the next round clears.

RelayKit submissions are prepared to pass the first time; approval typically takes a few days.

Consent requirements

You have to collect and keep proof that every recipient agreed to get texts from you — how they opted in, when, and which kinds of messages they agreed to. Someone who signed up for appointment reminders hasn't agreed to marketing.

RelayKit provides the opt-in language and keeps the consent records automatically.

Build a compliance website

Reviewers visit your website looking for a privacy policy with specific mobile-data language, posted terms, and a visible description of your texting program. A missing or half-finished site is the single most common reason registrations get rejected.

RelayKit generates and hosts a compliance site for you — privacy policy, terms, and opt-in page included.

STOP and HELP handling

A reply of STOP has to halt messages to that person immediately, and HELP has to get a real answer — automatically, every time. Getting it wrong is a fast way to get a number shut down.

RelayKit handles both at the delivery layer; when someone replies STOP, we stop.

Message restrictions

Carriers limit what businesses can say over text: entire content categories are banned, links get scrutinized, and messages outside your registered use case can get your number flagged. The rules live across multiple carrier policies, and they change.

RelayKit's templates already follow them, and custom messages are checked before they send — not just passed through.

The start

The messages are ready now. Sending arrives Summer 2026.

You can start with the messages today. When sending launches, your AI tool wires up the integration, you test on real phones, and registration and opt-outs stay handled behind the scenes.

Keep exploring