24 Hour Answering Service

A 24 hour answering service answers your business phone whenever it rings, no matter the time or day. Instead of a caller hearing your voicemail at 9 p.m. or on a Sunday, they reach a receptionist service that speaks for your business.

With AllDayDesk, an AI receptionist answers using information saved about your business, such as your services and hours. It can answer common questions, take messages when it does not know an answer or a price, and book new appointments on the built-in AllDayDesk dashboard calendar once you have configured your services and availability. If you want appointments to appear in Google Calendar instead, you can connect and authorize your Google account in Settings — that connection is optional.

You keep your current phone number. Calls reach AllDayDesk because you forward your number to it, and the forwarding steps depend on which phone company or service you use.

• Answers calls day, night, weekends and holidays with one continuous service
• Uses your saved business details to answer questions in your company's voice
• Takes a message whenever an answer, price or appointment time is unknown
• Books new appointments on the dashboard calendar by default, with optional Google Calendar in Settings
• Shows calls, transcripts, summaries and bookings in your dashboard
• Existing appointment changes are passed to you as requests, not confirmed changes

Most owners answer their own phone during working hours, so a 24 hour service is often most valuable for the hours you cannot pick up: evenings, early mornings, weekends, holidays, and moments when you are on a job, with a customer, or simply unable to reach the phone.

Full-time coverage matters most when callers expect a quick human-style response. A homeowner with a leaking pipe at midnight, a client with an urgent legal question on a Saturday, or a patient trying to reschedule on a holiday all get a helpful conversation instead of a beep. Even during business hours, forwarding can catch calls you miss while your hands are full.

It also helps if you run the business alone. There is no front desk staff to rely on, so an answering service acts as your phone presence whenever you are unavailable.

• Evenings and weekends when you are off the clock
• Holidays when your regular line would go to voicemail
• Busy work hours when you cannot safely pick up
• Solo operations with no front desk to hand calls to

Setup starts by choosing your business or entering its website. AllDayDesk checks the details it finds about your business, and you confirm they are correct. You then hear a personalized sample of how your receptionist would sound — the sample is a demonstration only and does not create a real booking. After that, you choose your phone setup option.

To route calls, you forward your existing number to AllDayDesk. The exact steps depend on your phone provider. For example, Verizon mobile users activate all-call forwarding by dialing *72 plus the 10-digit destination and disable it with *73, while T-Mobile uses **21*1 followed by the destination and # for unconditional forwarding. Comcast Business, Vonage, Frontier, Optimum, Spectrum and AT&T each have their own methods, often through a portal or different codes, so it is important to follow the instructions for your specific service.

Once forwarding is active, callers reach your AllDayDesk receptionist whenever the call is forwarded. You can watch calls, transcripts, summaries and bookings appear in your dashboard. Note that around-the-clock availability describes when the service answers — it is not a guarantee that every single call connects, since phone networks and forwarding can fail on their own.

• Pick your business or enter its website, then verify the details found
• Listen to a personalized sample before going live (no real bookings in the sample)
• Forward your existing number using your provider's own instructions
• Review calls, transcripts, summaries and bookings in the dashboard

Sometimes a caller needs a person — for example, an emergency situation or a question only you can answer. AllDayDesk can transfer calls to you, but transfers only work after you configure a destination number and rules for when transfers happen. A transfer is not guaranteed to be picked up or answered immediately, so think of it as a handoff attempt rather than a promise.

When the receptionist does not know an answer, does not have a price, or cannot find an appointment slot, it takes a message instead of guessing. You see those messages in your dashboard along with the call transcript and summary, so nothing depends on a caller leaving a voicemail.

For appointments, new bookings go on the built-in AllDayDesk dashboard calendar by default once you have set up your services and availability. If a caller wants to change an existing appointment, that is passed to you as a request for you to approve — the service does not confirm changes to appointments already on the books on its own.

• Configure a transfer destination and rules before transfers can happen
• Unknown answers, prices or times become messages, not guesses
• New bookings use the dashboard calendar; Google Calendar is an optional connection in Settings
• Changes to existing appointments arrive as requests for you to handle

There are two broad kinds of 24 hour answering services: those staffed by people and those powered by AI. This section compares documented features from public pricing and product pages, not hands-on tests, and AllDayDesk — the site you are on — is the AI option.

Human services such as AnswerConnect offer 24/7 live answering by people, and Ruby advertises live virtual receptionist plans starting at $245 per month as of October 9, 2026. Smith.ai uses per-call pricing for its human receptionist service and also sells a separate AI receptionist product with on-demand escalation to its live agent network. With any human service, check what the starting price actually includes: the allowance of calls or minutes, overage charges, contract terms and covered hours all vary by plan and quote.

An AI receptionist like AllDayDesk answers using your saved business information, shows transcripts and summaries in a dashboard, and books new appointments on a built-in calendar with optional Google Calendar support in Settings. When comparing, look past the headline price and check: what happens when the service does not know an answer, whether appointment changes are confirmed or requested, how transfers work, and how you get your call records.

• Human services (AnswerConnect, Ruby, Smith.ai) staff calls with people; pricing and allowances vary by quote
• Ruby advertises live receptionist plans starting at $245/month as of October 9, 2026
• Smith.ai prices per call for human receptionists and offers a separate AI product
• AllDayDesk is an AI receptionist that answers with your business info and logs everything in a dashboard
• Compare included minutes or calls, overage rates, transfer behavior and record-keeping before deciding

You do not need a new phone number. Forwarding sends calls from your existing line to AllDayDesk, and the method depends entirely on your provider and product. Mobile carriers typically use star codes, while business VoIP platforms often use a web portal.

Verified examples: Verizon mobile uses *72 plus the destination for all-call forwarding and *73 to turn it off. T-Mobile uses **21*1 plus the destination and # for unconditional forwarding, with ##21# to disable. Optimum Business Phone uses *72, and Spectrum Business Voice manages forwarding through the SpectrumBusiness.net portal under Voice Settings or Forwarding Manager. AT&T, Comcast, Vonage and Frontier each have product-specific steps, and using the wrong product's instructions will not work.

One important exception: Google Voice does not support forwarding from a Google Voice number to an automated system, so a Google Voice line cannot be routed to AllDayDesk this way. If you are unsure which product you have, check your bill or provider account before choosing instructions.

• Verizon mobile: *72 + destination to activate, *73 to disable
• T-Mobile: **21*1 + destination + # for all calls, ##21# to disable
• Optimum Business Phone: *72, wait for dial tone, dial destination
• Spectrum Business Voice: portal-based under Voice Settings or Forwarding Manager
• Google Voice numbers cannot be forwarded to an automated system