Carlsbad Heating and Cooling Gets 24/7 Customer Coverage Without a Call Center

Managing customer communication at Carlsbad Heating and Cooling meant moving between scheduling tools, phones, payments, and invoicing while trying to stay responsive. But keeping up with customer calls often came at the expense of evenings, weekends, and personal time. The team wanted a way to continue supporting customers without staying available 24/7.

The Challenge

Before Podium, customer communication depended heavily on manual effort and disconnected systems. Amy Miles, Office Manager at Carlsbad Heating and Cooling, shared the main challenges the team faced:

Staying responsive created pressure to always be available

Customer calls didn’t stop after business hours. Without a reliable way to capture requests and schedule appointments, customer support often extended into evenings and weekends.

“You can't run your business 24/7 or man the phones 24/7. We've tried that and it overran our life."

Managing operations across multiple systems created friction

Scheduling, invoicing, payments, communication, and reporting happened in at least four platforms, creating extra work and opportunities for mistakes.

“We had to go into several different [tools] to just do daily work."

Limited visibility made it harder to support customers

Customer information, communication history, and operational updates weren’t always easy to access. Without one place to understand what had already happened, supporting customers required more manual follow-up and coordination.

The Day-to-Day Impact of Podium for Carlsbad Heating and Cooling:

The Solution

With Podium, the team created a blended model where staff members answer the phone during business hours and AI supports overflow, weekends, and after-hours communication. Instead of relying on employees to stay available around the clock, customers still receive support while the team focuses on running the business.

24/7 customer coverage without adding after-hours staffing

If the team doesn’t answer within four rings (or a lead calls outside of business hours) their AI Employee responds and helps schedule appointments so customers still receive support.

“If we don't answer it within four rings, the AI picks up and gets the lead scheduled. Plus, she’s booking on the weekends and after hours because she never calls in sick and she shows up every day.”

More life back outside of work

With the AI Employee supporting call overflow and after-hours conversations, the team now has better customer coverage without sacrificing personal time.

“Podium has given us our life and our time back because we don't have to worry about customer calls getting missed. The phones are manned pretty much 24/7, whether it's by a human or the AI.” 

4 systems consolidated into 1 platform

The team consolidated phones, scheduling, invoicing, reporting, and customer communication into one workflow instead of managing it all across four disconnected systems.

“I think now the biggest advantage is everything's in one place. We don't have to go to dispatch and then go over here and then go over here. It’s amazing to have everything in one platform.”

Better visibility into customer conversations

With call recordings and conversation history in one place, the team can quickly review customer activity, answer questions, and keep work moving without relying on memory or manual updates.

“Now I can check what everybody's doing and see it so I can understand what happened.”

AI improves while the team stays in control

Instead of treating AI as fully autonomous, the team actively reviews calls, gives feedback, and adjusts the experience over time. It’s continually learning so it can provide better customer support and help to the team with customer conversations.

“We're still tweaking [the AI Employee] and helping her learn. And that’s the cool thing, she keeps getting better and helping more.”