AI phone assistants for after-hours calls

What after-hours cover should do

After-hours callers fall into three groups, and each needs different handling:

• Genuinely urgent: a burst pipe, a client with a deadline in the morning, a locked-out tenant. These may need a person tonight.
• Ready to book: someone who wants a time. The assistant can book or take a request for the morning.
• Just asking: opening hours, prices, whether you service their area. The assistant can answer these from what you've told it.

A good after-hours set-up answers all three, puts only the first group through to you, and has the rest waiting in the morning.

Four options for nights and weekends

Upfirst: after hours only, if you want

Upfirst can answer every call, only overflow, or only after hours. That makes it a good fit for a business with daytime staff. It books into Google, Outlook, Clio, Acuity, Calendly and Square, offers warm and waterfall transfers, and handles two-way SMS. It bills per call, from US$24.95 a month for 30 calls. Calls under 15 seconds and spam aren't billed, which helps when after-hours lines attract robocalls.

Johnni: Australian, nights to public holidays

Johnni says it answers "nights, weekends and public holidays". It's Brisbane-based, gives you a local number, and offers warm transfer and a scheduler that syncs with Google Calendar or Outlook. Prices start at A$44 a month ex GST on annual billing for 60 minutes, which may be enough if after-hours calls are few. Monthly billing starts at A$49.

Rosie: 24/7 with mobile apps

Rosie answers 24/7, takes messages and can text callers during the call. It has iOS and Android apps, and supports English and Spanish. Booking on your calendar and warm and waterfall transfers start on the Scale plan (US$149, 1,000 minutes). The Professional plan (US$49, 250 minutes) has neither. We couldn't confirm Rosie's overage charges.

Dialzara: low entry price

Dialzara answers 24/7, books, qualifies leads, transcribes voicemail and works in 10 languages. Its SMS agent is free with voice plans. Lite is US$29 for 60 minutes, then US$0.48 a minute. Transfers are only on Elite (US$349, 1,000 minutes) and above, so on cheaper plans it can't put an urgent call through to you.

Set the rules for what wakes you up

The most common after-hours mistake is being too vague. "Put urgent calls through" will either wake you for everything or for nothing. Write the rules out:

1. List the two or three situations that justify a call tonight.
2. Name who gets the transfer, and who's next if they don't answer. Upfirst, Rosie (from Scale) and others offer waterfall transfers for this.
3. Decide what the assistant says when nobody answers, such as "we'll call you back by 8am".
4. For anything dangerous, tell the caller to contact emergency services first.

Then test it with calls at 9pm and on a Sunday. Transfer settings often differ by time of day.

Per-call or per-minute for after hours

After-hours lines usually carry fewer calls than daytime lines. That changes which billing model is cheaper. A per-call plan like Upfirst's is easy to predict if you know roughly how many calls come in after 5pm. A minute bundle like Johnni's or Dialzara's suits short calls, but check what happens past the allowance. Dialzara charges US$0.48 a minute on Lite, and some products stop answering when the minutes run out. Look at a month of your missed-call log before you pick a plan.

Switching it on

Most after-hours set-ups forward your number to the assistant at set times, or when you don't answer within a few rings. Some phone providers handle time-based forwarding better than others, so check with yours. Then:

• Record your opening hours and public holidays in the assistant.
• Check the morning summary arrives where your team starts the day.
• Read every after-hours summary for the first two weeks and fix the script.

If your phone is busy during the day too, see high call volume.

Questions people ask