Customers don’t only call between nine and five. Pipes burst at night, people book appointments on their lunch break, and plenty of new enquiries come in on weekends when people finally have time to sort things out. You don’t need to work around the clock to handle that. You need a simple plan that decides, in advance, what happens to every after-hours call.
Step 1: decide what “urgent” means for you
Write down the few situations that really can’t wait until morning. Be specific. “Urgent” means different things in different businesses:
- Plumbing: water that can’t be turned off, no water at all, sewage overflowing.
- Electrical: sparking, burning smell, no power to the whole property.
- Property management: unsafe, not secure, no water, power or hot water.
- Salons, clinics, professional services: usually nothing, and that’s fine.
Everything else can wait for a call back. Having it written down stops every caller sounding like an emergency, including to you at 10pm.
Step 2: decide where urgent calls go
You’ve got three realistic options:
- To you, but only the urgent ones. Someone or something screens the call first and only puts the urgent ones through.
- To an on-call roster. If you have staff, rotate who’s on call and forward urgent calls to that week’s phone.
- Nowhere. Some businesses don’t do after-hours work, and that’s a fine answer. Say so clearly, and point genuine emergencies to the right place.
If you do take urgent work after hours, decide what you charge for it before the call comes in, and make sure whoever answers can say so.
Step 3: tell people your hours, everywhere
Many after-hours calls are simply people checking if you’re open. Make your hours easy to find:
- Your Google Business Profile, including special hours for public holidays.
- Your website header or contact page.
- Your voicemail greeting or after-hours message.
- Your email signature and booking page.
Step 4: make sure every caller gets an answer
The worst after-hours experience is a phone that rings out to a full mailbox. At the very least, the caller should hear:
- That they’ve reached the right business.
- When you’re open again.
- What to do if it’s urgent.
- How to leave their details so you can call back.
A voicemail greeting can do this (we have ready-made scripts). An answering service or receptionist can do it better, because it asks the questions for the caller instead of waiting for them to leave a good message.
Step 5: have a morning routine
An after-hours plan only works if the calls get followed up. Block 20 minutes at the start of each day:
- Go through every message, missed call and text from overnight.
- Call urgent ones and new customers first. They’re the ones most likely to go elsewhere.
- Text anyone you can’t reach, so they know you tried.
- Note any question that comes up again and again. It probably belongs on your website or in your greeting.
Step 6: look after yourself
Being reachable doesn’t mean being always on. Set a time after which only urgent calls reach you, and stick to it. Turn on your phone’s focus or do-not-disturb mode with an exception for your on-call number, or for calls that ring twice within a few minutes.
A one-page plan
Fill in these lines and you have an after-hours plan:
- Our hours are: ______
- After hours, an urgent call is: ______
- Urgent calls go to: ______ (and cost: ______)
- Everyone else hears: ______
- We call back by: ______ the next business day
- The person who clears messages each morning is: ______