Inbound
After-hours and 24/7 answering, without a night shift
The agent takes the calls that arrive at nine on a Sunday. It captures the details, decides what is urgent against rules you set, and wakes someone only when they should be woken.
Incoming call
What this is for
The calls that arrive after six are not evenly boring. Most can wait until Monday. A few absolutely cannot, and a voicemail box treats both the same. Staffing a real night shift to tell them apart only pays if the urgent ones are frequent, and if they were frequent you would already have one.
How the night shift works
- 01
Picks up whenever the office does not
Evenings, weekends, bank holidays, and the middle of a Tuesday when everybody is out. Same agent, same number, on whatever schedule you set.
- 02
Triages against rules you wrote
You define urgent. A gas smell, an alarm, a hospital transfer, whatever it means in your business. The agent applies the same test at three in the morning as at three in the afternoon.
- 03
Wakes someone only when it should
Urgent calls page the on-call person with the caller's details and the reason. Everything else is captured and waiting when the office opens.
- 04
Hands the morning a readable queue
Overnight calls arrive as transcripts with recordings and outcomes, sorted by what you said mattered. Not a voicemail box to work through.
Related
- AI answering serviceNights, weekends, and the twenty minutes everyone is in a meeting. It takes the message, captures the details, and gets it to whoever needs it.
- AI receptionistIt answers on the first ring, works out what the caller needs, and either handles it or puts them through to the right person. Every call leaves a transcript.
- Virtual receptionistIt greets callers the way you would, answers the questions you have given it answers to, and hands over the ones you have not. You write the script; it follows it every time.
- Missed-call callbackA call that goes unanswered gets returned within minutes, while the person still remembers why they rang.
After-hours answering: common questions
Is this the same as a 24/7 answering service?
It covers the same need. Run the agent only outside office hours, or around the clock so it also catches the daytime calls that arrive while every line is busy.
How does it decide what is urgent?
You do, in the flow. The conditions are explicit branches based on what the caller says, what a lookup returns, or which site they are ringing about. Consistent, and reviewable afterwards.
Who does it escalate to?
Whoever you nominate, by transfer or by an alert to an on-call number. You can rotate that by day or by shift as part of the flow.
Does it work on bank holidays?
It works on whatever schedule you configure, including the dates you mark as closed. There is no rota to fill.
What does out-of-hours cover cost?
Per minute of call time, so a quiet night costs almost nothing. No unsocial-hours premium, because there is no shift being staffed.
Still stuck? Talk to our team.