Out of Hours Telephone Answering Service

An out of hours telephone answering service sits between you and your after-hours callers. Instead of a caller reaching your voicemail at 9 p.m. or on a Saturday, the call is answered by a receptionist service that speaks in your business name. It can answer general questions using information you provide, take a detailed message, and book new appointments when your services and availability are configured.

The key idea is that this supplements your daytime answering rather than replacing it. Most owners answer their own phone during business hours, and the service only takes over when calls are forwarded, which is typically outside your working hours. You stay in control of what callers hear and what the service is allowed to do, because everything is based on the business details you save and review.

With AllDayDesk, the receptionist is an AI trained on your saved business information. It answers around the clock, and when it does not know an answer, a price, or an available appointment time, it takes a message instead of guessing. Nothing is promised to a caller that you have not approved in advance.

• Answers after-hours calls in your business name using your saved details
• Takes messages when an answer, price or appointment time is unknown
• Books new appointments into the built-in dashboard calendar by default
• Shows calls, transcripts, summaries and bookings in your dashboard
• Keeps your existing public phone number through call forwarding

You keep your public business number. To route after-hours calls to the service, you turn on call forwarding on your phone line and point it at your AllDayDesk number. The exact steps depend on who provides your phone service, so it helps to know your product name before you start.

Some carriers use star codes you dial from the phone itself. For example, Verizon mobile uses *72 plus the destination number for all-call forwarding and *71 for unanswered calls, with *73 to turn forwarding off. Verizon business landlines use *72 and *73 from the same line. AT&T Phone for Business uses *72 for all calls, *92 for no-answer, and *90 for busy forwarding, each followed by the destination and #. Optimum Business Phone uses *72 and *73, and confirms forwarding when the destination answers.

Other providers manage forwarding through a portal or app instead. Spectrum Business Voice handles it in the SpectrumBusiness.net dashboard under Voice Settings or Forwarding Manager, where you can choose all calls or busy/no-answer forwarding. Vonage Business Communications lets you enable Call Forwarding to a phone number from its settings. Comcast Business manages features through My Account and the Comcast Business App, and features depend on which services you subscribe to.

One important limit: Google Voice does not support forwarding calls from a Google Voice number to an automated system, so a Google Voice line is not a compatible path to AllDayDesk. If you are unsure which product you have, check your bill or provider support page first, because steps differ even within the same carrier's product lineup.

• Identify your exact phone product before using any forwarding instructions
• Star-code carriers include Verizon, AT&T Phone for Business, and Optimum Business Phone
• Portal-based carriers include Spectrum Business Voice and Vonage Business Communications
• Google Voice numbers cannot be forwarded to an automated answering system
• Test forwarding with a real call from another phone after activating it

Setup starts by choosing your business or entering its website so the service can pull in your details. You then check that the information is accurate, because the receptionist will use it to answer caller questions. Next, you hear a personalized sample of how your receptionist will sound. This sample is a demonstration only and creates no real booking.

After you approve the sample, you choose your phone setup option and follow the forwarding instructions for your carrier. Once calls are forwarded outside your hours, the receptionist answers them using your saved information.

For appointment booking, new appointments go 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 are passed to you as requests to review, not confirmed changes, so you always approve modifications to your schedule.

If you want callers to reach you directly for urgent situations, you can configure call transfers with a destination number and rules for when they apply. Transfers depend on that configuration, and neither pickup nor an immediate response is guaranteed, so the receptionist takes a message whenever it cannot confirm an answer, price, or appointment.

• Choose your business or enter its website to build the receptionist's knowledge
• Review the pulled-in details before going live
• Hear a personalized sample; it creates no real booking
• Configure services and availability to enable dashboard calendar booking
• Optionally connect Google Calendar in Settings after authorizing your account
• Configure transfer destinations and rules if you want direct handoffs

Out of hours coverage is a supplement, so the first decision is which hours to forward. A common approach is to forward only the hours you are closed, such as evenings after 6 p.m., weekends, and holidays, and answer your own phone the rest of the time. Since you control forwarding on your phone line, you can turn it on and off around your schedule.

Think about what kinds of calls arrive when you are closed. Appointment requests and general questions are usually safe for a receptionist to handle on its own. Situations where a caller needs you personally may be better handled by a configured transfer to a destination you choose, with rules for when transfers apply. Because transfers are not guaranteed to connect, the receptionist takes a message when it cannot confirm something.

Also decide what the receptionist should never do. It will not guess at prices, availability, or answers it does not know; it takes a message instead. You can shape what information you save so callers get useful answers, and review transcripts in the dashboard to see how after-hours calls are going and adjust your saved details over time.

• Forward only your closed hours and answer your own phone the rest of the time
• Use transfers, with configured destinations and rules, for calls that need you directly
• Remember transfers are not guaranteed to connect; messages cover the gap
• Review transcripts and summaries in the dashboard to refine your saved details

Costs vary by service type and plan, so it pays to compare what is included rather than just the headline price. Human answering services employ people to take calls, and their published starting prices tend to be higher; for example, Ruby advertises live virtual receptionist plans starting at $245 per month as of October 2026, and Smith.ai uses per-call pricing for its human receptionist service. Those starting prices alone are not a complete comparison, because included minutes, overage rates, hours and contract terms all affect the real cost.

AllDayDesk plans are shown with their current pricing on this site separately from this page. Plans include a set number of minutes per month with a per-minute rate for extra time, so you can match a plan to your after-hours call volume. Because the receptionist is an AI rather than a person, availability is around the clock without human staffing schedules.

A practical way to decide: estimate how many after-hours calls you get in a typical month, check which plan's included minutes cover that volume, and compare the total against alternatives. Also weigh scope. An in-house receptionist, per the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, does far more than answer phones, including greeting visitors and office tasks, so a phone service is not a full employee replacement.

• Compare included minutes and overage rates, not just starting prices
• Human services like Ruby and Smith.ai publish their own current pricing to verify directly
• AllDayDesk plan pricing is displayed separately on this site
• Match the plan to your estimated after-hours call volume