Whether it's an inquiry, an appointment request, or a callback. Your agent handles it all, captures the details, and organizes the next step. You focus on the work that earns money.
Notice under EU AI Act Article 50:The preset greeting says right at the start that an AI is speaking. If a transfer number is on file, the agent hands callers over to a person on request.How we use AI
What does the AI phone assistant do for trades & crafts?
The AI phone assistant for tradespeople answers calls while the team is out on site, sorts them into quote, appointment, callback or emergency, and puts urgent cases straight through to the number you have set.
Servers in Germany · no US corporations
Stored in Germany. Processed in the EU, without US providers.
GDPR-compliant on EU servers
Many host in the EU and still send the data to US corporations like OpenAI. We don't. Calls, transcripts and knowledge data sit on servers in Germany, and the AI processing runs with European providers in the EU. A DPA under Art. 28 GDPR is in place.
Hosting in Germany, in data centres with ISO 27001 certification
AI processing runs with European providers in the EU, not with US corporations like OpenAI, Google or Amazon. No training on your data.
Speech recognition with EU processing and speech synthesis from a German provider, customers receive the named provider list in the dashboard.
Auto-deletion: 90 days by default, adjustable from 7 days
AI Act Art. 50: AI notice on by default
Since 2 August 2026, people must be told no later than first contact that they are talking or writing to an AI. With rinqo this notice is on by default in every channel.
Phone: the preset greeting says it is an AI; calls the agent places itself always open with it
Chat: notice always visible in the window. Email: notice below every reply from the agent
Generated images: AI label in the metadata, plus a visible label that is on by default
Penalty: up to €15M or 3 % global annual turnover, the lower amount for SMEs
Sources: GDPR Art. 28 + 32 · EU AI Act Regulation 2024/1689 · DSK guidance on artificial intelligence and data protection (German data protection conference, 2024). This overview does not constitute legal advice.
Why trades & crafts need an AI agent.
As a tradesperson, you're at a customer's site or in the workshop all day. Calls come in: quote requests, appointment inquiries, callbacks, complaints. You can't pick up. By evening, you have a list of missed calls and no energy to return them all. Some customers have already asked elsewhere.
On the job site or in the workshop, answering the phone is not possible
Callbacks in the evening often come too late
No budget for office staff just for the phone
Emergencies (water damage, power outage) need an immediate response
We can't afford someone in the office just for the phone. But 10 callbacks every evening cost just as much, only you pay in free time and lost jobs.
How the phone agent works for trades & crafts.
Your agent answers calls, captures the request (quote, appointment, callback, emergency), contact details, and the key information. You get a sorted summary by email. Urgent requests are put straight through to the number you have set. Appointments are booked directly into your calendar.
Move the sliders. The starting values are rough orientation, not a measurement — put your own numbers in.
100
25%
€250
30%
~108Missed calls per month
€8,063Lost revenue per month
€96,756Lost revenue per year
rinqo answers calls around the clock. At night, at weekends too.
Why rinqo for craft businesses, three hard facts on emergency, cost structure and construction-site reality.
A craft business doesn't need a phone system that sounds good, but one that works when the master is on the roof or welding in the basement. Three facts separating rinqo from office-staff models, US voice AI and classic answering machines.
No shift roster
The AI phone service handles the phone that would otherwise need an office assistant, around the clock.
An office assistant in Germany costs roughly €3,100 to €4,000 gross a month, around €3,800 to €4,900 including employer contributions (Entgeltatlas of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit, the German Federal Employment Agency). They are available Monday to Friday, 8 am to 5 pm, and the rest of the time is not covered. The AI phone assistant runs around the clock and picks up calls before the second ring. How much is left lying without one was measured by the Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung: out of 100 standardised enquiries, roofers answered 37, window builders 76. The rest went unanswered.
37 out of 100 enquiries answered · test by Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung · reachable around the clock
Emergencies passed on at once
Water damage at 11:47pm? The agent recognizes the emergency and puts the call through to your on-call number.
Craft businesses have a special call structure: almost everything is standard (appointment, quote, callback), a small remainder is emergency (water pipe burst, power outage, heating failure). Classic answering machines treat everything the same, so the emergency gets lost in the standard pile. You set your own emergency keywords in rinqo, such as burst pipe, no heating or power outage; suggestions for your trade are already built in. When one of them comes up, the agent asks for the job address and a callback number and puts the call through to your on-call number, if you allow it. After the call, your team gets an email with the issue, job address and callback number. If a caller mentions a smell of gas, the agent always points them to the emergency number first. Standard requests land sorted in the dashboard.
Your own emergency keywords · Transfer to on-call · Email after the call
GDPR + AI Act
Customer data stored in Germany, processed only in the EU.
GDPR obligations apply to small businesses too. rinqo runs on servers in Germany, uses AI models with contractually guaranteed EU data processing (no training on customer data), and the DPA is provided automatically at first login. Plus the AI disclosure under Art. 50 AI Act, built into the default greeting ("This is the AI assistant of Müller Sanitation, I am an AI"). Wording is editable; the note that it is an AI should stay in. Fines: up to €15M.
Hetzner DE · DPA automatic · AI disclosure built in
Sub-specialties.
Carpenters and Joiners
Carpenters and joiners have similar call structure: requests for custom furniture, repairs, stairs, doors, mostly with concrete dimension idea. Agent captures order type (furniture/stairs/door), material wish, approximate dimensions, delivery or installation wish and appointment wish. For larger orders suggests on-site appointment for measurements.
Challenges
Custom inquiries need measurement appointment before quote, manual coordination time-consuming
Customers with unrealistic price expectations cost hours for quotes not accepted
Workshop appointments vs on-site appointments must be handled differently
Use cases
Order type classification (custom furniture / repair / stairs / door)
Coordinate measurement appointment
Capture material wish (oak / beech / pine / modern)
Communicate price range (from-to instead of fixed price)
Order confirmation as email with photo attachment wish
Electricians and Electrotechnicians
Electrical businesses have a high share of emergencies: power outages, fuse problems, faults at the service connection. Standard orders are installations (EV wallbox, smart home, lighting) and maintenance. The agent tells emergencies from standard jobs by your keywords and puts emergencies straight through to on-call.
Challenges
Emergency calls at night and weekend are obligation, nobody can constantly answer phone
Wrongly classified emergency costs hours of travel for non-acute problems
EV wallbox inquiries need pre-consultation on funding applications (KfW)
Use cases
Emergencies by your keywords (power outage / fuse / house connection)
Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning businesses have the highest share of emergencies of all trades: burst pipes, heating failures in winter, blockages. Standard orders are bathroom renovations, heating modernization (heat pump), maintenance. The agent recognizes emergencies by your keywords, puts the call through to on-call, and after the call an email goes to your team. For bathroom renovation inquiries it asks for photos.
Challenges
Water pipe burst at 11pm is a chargeable emergency, missed = order lost
Craft businesses compare three options: office staff (full-time or part-time), a voice-only AI (phone-only subscription solution), or answering machine. Honest overview.
Feature
rinqo
All channels, one plan
Office staff
Full-time secretariat
Voice-only AI
phone-only solution
Answering machine
Classic
Call answering 24/7
Also weekend + holidays
Business hours Mo-Fr
24/7
24/7 but recording only
Emergency: transfer to on-call and email to the team
Keywords
Manual, business hours
Configurable
Monthly cost at 35 calls/week
By scope, in the first call
approx. €3,100–€4,000 gross, full-time (Entgeltatlas of the Federal Employment Agency)
One plan for every channel
€0
Industry templates (carpenter/electrician/SHK)
3 sub-templates incl.
Manual training
Craft-specialized
GDPR + AI Act compliance
Hetzner DE, DPA incl.
Local
DACH provider
Local
An office assistant brings human empathy, but only during office hours. Voice-only AI providers are partly specialised in the trades and available as a subscription with included minutes; rinqo, by contrast, covers phone, chat and email from one knowledge base. An answering machine ends the conversation instead of holding it. rinqo is for trades businesses that want emergency call forwarding around the clock and deep templates for joinery, electrical and plumbing/heating.
What your agent does for trades & crafts
Capturing job inquiries
Appointment scheduling
Communicating price ranges
Organizing callbacks
Emergency routing
What the Phone agent can do
Answers common questions automatically
Books appointments directly in your calendar
Qualifies inquiries and captures contact details
Routes complex cases to your team
Main language from 17+ languages
Answers from your website and documents
Honest answers to real concerns.
The questions that come up before the start.
I work on my own. Is it really worth it?
Especially for you. An office assistant costs around €3,100 to €4,000 gross a month (Entgeltatlas of the Federal Employment Agency). Save just 2 jobs a month and the agent has paid for itself.
Is this really GDPR-compliant out on site?
Yes. The agent replaces the phone calls, not the paperwork. Personal data is stored on servers in Germany. After every call you get the summary, which you then transfer to your job management as usual.
What if someone only wants to speak to you personally?
The agent politely points this out, takes down the callback request with a preferred time, and you get back to them as soon as you're down from the roof or up from the basement.
Frequently asked questions for trades & crafts.
Especially then. You can't work and talk on the phone at the same time.
No. The agent captures the inquiry with all details. You create the quote based on the captured information.
You define what counts as an emergency (e.g. water damage, power outage). For these cases, the agent puts the call straight through to the number you have set, and you get an email.
Multi-channel for your industry
rinqo for Trades & Crafts, all channels
Telephone, chat and email from one platform: business case, ROI, GDPR and integrations.
Founder of rinqo. Builds a company memory where an organisation's knowledge comes together and stays available, and the AI agents that work from it: on the phone, in the inbox, in chat, in marketing and in further roles. Writes here about bringing AI into companies, about data protection, and about what holds up in daily operation. Developed in Germany, processed in the EU, no US providers.
