Managed Agents at Previously $0.06 $0.03/minManaged Agents are Previously $0.06 $0.03/min.

ServiceNow#1 on EVA-Bench

Artificial Analysis#1 on Speech Agent Arena

After hours answering service that covers your phones at close.

Callers can hear when you reopen, leave a message for the morning list, and reach your on-call manager.

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Cover every call after the office closes

Urgent calls reach the person on call, and everything else waits on the morning list.

As each call starts, the agent checks your office schedule, holidays included, to decide whether to ring the front desk or use the closed script.

How an after hours answering service sorts the night's calls

What is an after hours answering service?

An after hours answering service covers your phones once the office closes, and this one runs on a voice agent. It checks your schedule, tells callers when staff return and sorts each call into urgent or morning. Your daytime setup stays as it is.

  • Check the office schedule
  • Add to the morning list
  • Page the manager on call
  • Transfer to the manager on call
  • Transfer to the front desk

What happens when a customer is stuck outside the gate?

At Foxglove Self Storage, a dark keypad, water or a break-in pages the manager on call, and the agent can ring them through. Smoke or fire gets told to hang up and call 911. A voicemail greeting would treat all of these like a billing question.

My gate code isn't working and I'm outside.

The office is closed, but a gate that won't open is on the urgent list. What's your unit number and name?

Unit 114, Tobiah Lang. The keypad is dark.

What does an after hours phone answering service do with the rest?

Anything off your urgent list goes on the morning list with a name, a number and the issue. The schedule check runs first on every call, holidays included, so the agent rings the front desk if you're open.

  • Gate keypad dark, manager paged2:12
  • Larger unit, morning list1:21
  • Water from unit 220, manager rung1:34

What does an HVAC after hours answering service page for?

Whatever you put on the urgent list. An HVAC company might page on no heat with a baby at home and a property manager on an active leak, and both have their own pages. In this sample, the agent can't open a unit, read out a gate code or waive a fee.

Closed-hours rule followed

Did the agent page the manager only for an item on the urgent list, and put every other request on the morning list?

Closed doesn't have to mean unreachable

An after hours answering service for small business needs what a big one does, a quiet phone for the person on call and a clean list at 8 a.m. Here's how the line gets you there.

The night script starts on its own

Holidays and early closes live in the schedule the agent checks on every call. Nobody has to remember to switch on the night greeting before locking up.

Your manager gets paged for the list only

A stuck gate pages Delphine. A hallway light doesn't. You write the urgent list, and the agent holds to it at 3 a.m. the same as at 7 p.m.

Morning opens with a sorted list

Each entry has the caller, the issue and a number, and the agent read it back before hanging up. Staff work down the list before the phones start.

Callers hear when you reopen

Someone ringing on a holiday learns you're closed today and back at 8 tomorrow. That small answer ends a lot of repeat calls.

Pages travel on tools you already run

Through tools you configure, the agent pages through PagerDuty and posts the morning list to Slack or Zendesk, so nobody learns a new inbox.

No gate codes, no fee waivers

The agent won't open anything or make exceptions, however good the story. Those decisions wait for your manager or the morning.

Spoken for callers stuck outside a locked gate

Night callers are often in a car, on a sidewalk or standing in a wet hallway. Cartesia's speech models handle the stop-start way they talk.

  • $0.03per minute
  • #1on Speech Agent Arena and EVA-Bench
  • 24/7answers every call, at any hour

Waits while they find the unit number

A caller digs out a lease or walks back to the keypad mid-call. The agent holds the thread and picks up when they do.

Schedule check, then your rules

Choose the LLM, then give it the tools that check the office schedule, add to the morning list, page the manager on call and transfer.

Says "we're closed" kindly

Use the voice library to find your front desk's 10 p.m. tone, calm enough to tell someone it can wait.

After hours answering service cost and cover, three ways

An after hours call answering service is usually weighed against an operator service or a staff member carrying the phone. Here's how each handles a night.

Cartesia agentLive after-hours serviceStaff on-call phone
Who answers at midnightThe agent, on every callAn operator, once one is freeWhoever drew the phone that night
Holiday scheduleChecked at the start of each callSomeone has to tell the serviceSomeone has to remember
Who gets woken upOnly your manager, only for the urgent listOften comes down to the operator's readThe on-call person, for every call
A caller who needs a decisionTransfers to the manager on callUsually a message or a patch-throughDecides on the spot, the best of the three
The morning handoffA list with name, number and issueOften an emailed message logWhatever got written down
CostPer call minute, plus LLM usage and telephonyUsually a monthly plan, often with minimumsOn-call pay and a tired manager

See which calls reached the right person or list

Every call is recorded and transcribed. See which calls paged the manager for an urgent item and which went on the morning list.

Launch an AI after hours answering service in three steps

Start building

  1. Clone the closing-time line

    Copy this agent, then enter your office schedule, holidays and urgent list in place of Foxglove's.

  2. Connect your schedule and pager

    Link the schedule check, PagerDuty and Slack or Zendesk, set the manager's transfer number, and forward your line for closed hours.

  3. Test both sides of closing

    Place one call while you're open and one after close with a stuck gate story. Go live once the first rang the desk and the second paged the manager.

Enterprise-grade security

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    HIPAA compliant

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    SOC 2 Type 2

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    GDPR

After hours answering service FAQs

What is an after hours answering service?

An after hours call answering service run by a voice agent. It answers your phones once the office closes, sorts each call into urgent or morning, and pages your on-call person for the urgent ones.

Is an after hours answering service worth it for a small business?

It is if calls that can't wait come in after you close, such as a stuck gate, water in a unit or a break-in. The agent pages your on-call person for those and puts every other call on the morning list. Agent time is billed per minute of call time, so a quiet night costs little, and every call is recorded and transcribed so you can check what came in.

Is there an after hours medical answering service?

Yes. The medical office answering service page shows the agent set up for a practice. It sends refill requests to staff, books care team callbacks and reads your 911 script for urgent symptoms.

Is there an after hours answering service property management companies can use?

Yes. The property management answering service page shows the agent set up for buildings. It sorts work orders by priority and pages each building's on-call vendor, so tenants can log a repair or flag an emergency at night. Your urgent list decides who gets woken.

Is there a dental after hours answering service?

Yes. The dental answering service page shows the agent set up for a practice. It holds a same-day slot for a toothache, answers plan questions from your list and routes clinical calls. Point your closed-hours line at it and set what counts as urgent for your office.

How much is an after hours phone answering service?

It depends on how busy your nights are, because you pay for call time and nothing while the line sits quiet. Agents are $0.03 per minute of call time. LLM usage is billed separately, and a Cartesia phone number adds $0.014 per minute, or nothing if you bring your own Twilio account or SIP trunk. The free plan includes $1 of agent calls a month, enough to test your closed script before you pay. See pricing.

Who decides what an after hours answering service treats as urgent?

You do. The agent pages only for calls that match your urgent list and puts everything else on the morning list.

Does an after hours answering service connect to PagerDuty, Slack or Zendesk?

Yes. The agent pages through PagerDuty and posts the morning list to Slack or Zendesk through tools you configure.

Can the agent transfer a caller to the manager on call?

Yes, for calls on your urgent list. The agent pages your on-call manager and connects the caller, and everything else goes on the morning list.

How is an after hours answering service different from an AI receptionist?

A receptionist handles the day, such as booking and routing. This agent takes over at closing and works from your schedule and urgent list, as what an AI receptionist does explains.

How should we measure an AI after hours answering service?

Score every recorded call on the outcome you care about. For example, measure what percentage of calls land on the morning list with a callback number, or what percentage of pages were for items on your urgent list.

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