Out of Hours Call Answering Service

When your business is closed, calls still come in. An out of hours call answering service answers those calls on your behalf so callers reach a helpful voice instead of a ringing phone or a generic voicemail box. The service uses information you provide about your business, such as your services, hours and location, to answer questions and take messages.

This kind of service is meant to supplement the way most owners already work: you answer your own phone during business hours, and the service covers the times you cannot. It is not a replacement for you during the day, and it does not perform your trade's work. It handles the phone side of after-hours contact.

With AllDayDesk, the receptionist is available around the clock. When a caller asks something the service does not know, such as a price that is not in your saved information, it takes a message instead of guessing. Calls, transcripts, summaries and bookings appear in your dashboard so you can review after-hours activity.

• Answers calls during evenings, nights, weekends and holidays
• Uses your saved business details to respond accurately
• Takes a message when an answer or price is unknown
• Shows calls, transcripts, summaries and bookings in your dashboard
• Keeps your existing public phone number

You keep your public number. Calls reach the answering service because you forward them, and the forwarding instructions depend on your phone provider. During setup, AllDayDesk helps you choose the phone setup path that matches your service.

The method differs by carrier and product. Some mobile carriers use star codes from the phone itself, while many business landline and hosted voice products use an online portal. For example, Verizon mobile uses *72 plus the destination number for all-call forwarding and *73 to turn it off, and setup must be done from the mobile phone while in Verizon coverage. T-Mobile uses codes such as **21*1 followed by the destination and # for unconditional forwarding. Spectrum Business Voice manages forwarding through the SpectrumBusiness.net portal, where you pick the phone number, open Voice Settings or Forwarding Manager, and choose all calls or busy and no-answer forwarding.

One important limit: Google Voice explicitly does not support forwarding calls from a Google Voice number to an automated system, so a Google Voice number is not a compatible forwarding source. Check your own provider's documentation for your exact product, since codes and portal steps differ even within the same company's product lineup.

• Identify your exact phone product before following any forwarding instructions
• Mobile carriers often use star codes dialed from the phone itself
• Business landline and hosted voice products often use a web portal
• Google Voice numbers cannot be forwarded to an automated answering system
• Forwarding can usually be turned off just as easily as it was turned on

When a call comes in outside your hours, the receptionist greets the caller using your business information and handles the conversation based on what the caller needs. Simple questions that your saved details cover can be answered directly. New appointment requests can be booked into the built-in AllDayDesk dashboard calendar by default, once you have configured your services and availability. If you prefer, you can optionally connect Google Calendar in Settings after connecting and authorizing your Google account.

Changes to existing appointments work differently from new bookings. A caller asking to move or cancel an existing appointment creates a request for you to review, not a confirmed change. That keeps you in control of your schedule.

If a caller needs you directly, the service can transfer the call to a destination you have configured, following the rules you set up. A transfer is not guaranteed to be picked up or answered immediately, so the receptionist also takes messages for anything it cannot resolve. When an answer, a price or an appointment slot is unknown, the correct move is always to take a message rather than guess.

• New appointments book into the dashboard calendar by default
• Google Calendar connection is optional and set up in Settings
• Changes to existing appointments are requests for you, not confirmed changes
• Transfers require you to configure a destination and rules in advance
• Unknown answers, prices or availability become messages

Setup starts with your business information. You choose your business from a list or enter its website, and the service builds its knowledge from what it finds. You then check the details to make sure they match how you actually operate, because the receptionist will use this information on every call.

Next, you hear a personalized sample of how the receptionist would sound for your business. This sample is a preview only and creates no real booking. If the details and the sample look right, you move on to choosing your phone setup, which is where the forwarding instructions for your provider come in.

There is no need to hire anyone or change your public number. Most owners answer their own phone during the day and simply forward to the service for the hours they want covered.

• Choose your business or enter its website
• Check and correct the business details the service learned
• Hear a personalized sample before committing
• Choose your phone setup and follow your provider's forwarding steps
• Review calls and bookings in the dashboard from day one

Out of hours coverage works best when you think about when your callers actually call and what you want to happen. A plumber with genuine emergency work may want overnight and weekend coverage with transfers to an on-call destination. A salon or an accounting office may only need evenings and Sundays covered, with everything else taken as a message.

Ask yourself three questions. First, which hours produce calls you would want to catch? Second, during those hours, do you want calls transferred to you anywhere, or is a message enough? Third, what should the service say about your services, prices and booking rules so it never has to guess?

Answering those questions before setup makes the saved business information accurate, which is what keeps after-hours calls useful instead of generic. You can always adjust later as you see what kinds of calls arrive outside your hours.

• Match coverage hours to when your callers actually call
• Decide whether transfers or messages fit each time block
• Write down your services, prices and booking rules before setup
• Start narrow and expand coverage if the calls justify it

The main alternatives are doing nothing (callers reach voicemail), hiring staff for extended hours, or using a human answering service. Each has trade-offs. Voicemail costs nothing but gives callers no interaction. Adding staff hours means wages and scheduling for coverage you may only need a few hours a week, and in-house reception work includes far more than answering phones. Human answering services employ real people around the clock, which shows up in pricing; for example, one provider we checked advertises live virtual receptionist plans starting at $245 per month, though you should verify current quotes, included allowances and contract terms directly.

AllDayDesk plans are displayed separately from this page with their current pricing and included minutes, so you can compare the actual numbers rather than taking our word for it. Extra minutes beyond a plan's allowance are billed at that plan's per-minute rate.

When comparing any service, look past the headline price: check what happens when a call runs long, whether the service can book appointments or only take messages, and how you review what was said on each call.

• Voicemail is free but offers no interaction or booking
• Extended staff hours add wages and scheduling burden
• Human services typically cost more; one provider advertises plans from $245 per month
• AllDayDesk pricing and included minutes are shown on the pricing page
• Compare overage rates, booking ability and call review features, not just base price