After-hours call answering

After-hours call answering that never misses a job.

Nights, weekends, the days you're shut. The H3llo AI receptionist answers every call to your business number. Urgent calls reach you or whoever's on call. Everything else is logged and waiting for you in the morning.

Talk to the agentSee what it costs
  • Keep your number
  • No lock-in contract
  • Answers 24/7
What it is

Your phone, answered around the clock.

An after hours receptionist, or a 24 hour receptionist, on the number you already have. Your greeting, your rates, your rules.

  • Nights

    From the moment you knock off until you're back on the tools, every call is answered in your business's name. No voicemail, no engaged tone, no caller trying the next plumber on Google.

  • Weekends

    Saturday sport, Sunday jobs, a long weekend away. The agent asks the same questions your office would ask on a Tuesday, and writes the answers down properly.

  • Public holidays

    Christmas Day, New Year, Easter. Tell us the days you're shut and it answers those too. Callers get a real answer and a next step while other phones ring out.

How urgent calls are handled

Urgent reaches you. The rest waits politely.

Every after-hours call starts with one question: is this urgent, or can it wait until business hours?

Urgent

Triaged to you, straight away

A leak, no water, no heat, a gas smell or an electrical hazard gets flagged urgent. The agent logs the job first, then puts the caller through to your on-call number. No on-call line? It tells them the on-call tradesperson will ring back, and you get a text with the name, number, address and what's happened.

Everything else

Logged for the morning

Quotes, questions, bookings and messages are taken down in full and logged to your system. The caller is told the office will be in touch next business day, so nobody's left wondering. The written summary is in your inbox before you've had a coffee. Nothing wakes you that didn't need to.

Real calls, handled

A 10pm call, answered like you would.

What after-hours cover sounds like on a bad night. An example, set up the way a plumber with an on-call phone would set it up.

Burst pipe, 10:07pm, Raumati

  1. 10:07

    First ring. The agent answers in your business's name and tells the caller the call is recorded.

  2. 10:07

    “Water's coming through the ceiling.” It asks: is this urgent, or can it wait until business hours? Urgent.

  3. 10:08

    It reads out your after-hours call-out rate, the one you gave it, and checks they're happy to go ahead.

  4. 10:08

    It finds the caller by their number in Fergus, confirms the street address, and logs the job as urgent.

  5. 10:09

    It tells the caller it's putting them through to the on-call plumber, and does. The summary lands by text and email.

What it doesn't do: talk anyone through turning the water off. Isolation advice is for a person, and your on-call has the caller on the line a minute later.

Storm on a Sunday

A southerly lifts a few roofs and the phone won't stop. The agent answers as many calls at once as your plan allows. The two genuine emergencies go to your on-call. The six quote requests are logged for Monday.

Nothing lost overnight

Whatever the hour, every caller hears your business name, gets told what happens next and leaves their details. In the morning you decide what's work. Every call has a transcript if you want to check what was said.

How it works

Live in days, not months.

We set it up with you. There's no form that switches it on by itself.

  1. 01

    Tell us your after-hours rules

    What counts as urgent, who gets the call and how, your after-hours rates (or none), your service area, and the questions you'd ask.

  2. 02

    Keep your existing number

    We port your number across. Signage, vans and your Google listing stay as they are. A port needs two business days' notice.

  3. 03

    Your phone rings first

    During the hours you choose, you get first go. After hours, or whenever nobody picks up, the agent answers instead of voicemail.

  4. 04

    Urgent gets escalated, the rest gets logged

    Emergencies reach you or your on-call. Everything else is summarised and waiting the next morning.

Plans & pricing

After-hours cover from $75/month + GST.

Your phone answered every night, weekend and holiday. Monthly, excl. GST.

H3llo AI 60

$75/month

For a sole trader who mostly needs messages taken.

  • 60 AI minutes a month
  • Conversational AI agent
  • 1 regional phone number
  • 2 concurrent calls
  • Message taking
  • Email notifications
  • $1 per additional minute

H3llo AI 200

$300/month

The full agent, for a crew.

  • 200 AI minutes a month
  • Multilingual conversational AI agent
  • 2 regional phone numbers
  • 5 concurrent calls
  • All agent actions incl. SMS & email
  • API / CRM integration
  • $1 per additional minute
View AI plans and pricing
Missed-call calculator

What are your missed calls actually costing?

Your calls, your conversion rate, your job value. No industry averages, just your maths.

Calls nobody answered

Out of 100

NZD, excl. GST

Work at risk a month
Fill in all three to see the sum.

The working: calls a week × 52 weeks ÷ 12 months × % × $ job value

  • H3llo AI 60 $75/monthYour result goes here, set against this plan's monthly cost.
  • H3llo AI 200 $300/monthYour result goes here, set against this plan's monthly cost.

Prices are monthly, excl. GST, from our price list. The sum assumes every missed call would have been answered; you know your trade better than a calculator does.

After hours is one part of it

The same agent covers the day too, picking up when you're on the tools.

After-hours answering FAQs

Common questions about 24/7 and after-hours call answering.

What hours does the AI answer?
The hours you choose. Most businesses have it answer outside business hours (nights, weekends and the days they're shut) and whenever nobody picks up during the day. It can also answer every call, 24/7.
How will I know about an urgent after-hours call?
The agent logs the job first, then puts the caller through to your on-call number, or tells them the on-call person will ring back. You get a summary by email and text, and you can set the text to arrive only when a call is urgent.
What happens to non-urgent after-hours calls?
The agent takes the caller's details and what they need, logs it, and tells them the office will be in touch next business day. The summary is in your inbox when you start.
Can I keep my existing business number?
Yes. We port it across, so the number on your van, your invoices and your Google listing stays the same. A port needs two business days' notice.
How much does after-hours call answering cost?
H3llo AI 60 is $75/month, excl. GST, with 60 AI minutes a month. It answers, takes messages and emails them to you. For urgent texts and jobs written straight into your job software, it's H3llo AI 200 at $300/month. Go over your minutes and it's $1 per additional minute. No lock-in contract, no termination fee.
Can it log after-hours calls into my job management system?
Yes. It writes jobs into Fergus, Simpro and iTrade, enquiries into Tradify and bookings into Graft, and looks callers up in Xero. Not on one of those? You still get the summary by email.
Is it a 24 hour receptionist, or only after hours?
Either. Point the after-hours schedule at it, or have it answer every call around the clock. Same agent, same rules, same summary after every call.
Can it handle a real emergency?
A burst pipe at 2am, yes: it flags it urgent and gets it to your on-call. It isn't a 111 service. For police, fire or ambulance, ring 111.

Ring it at 10pm. Or now.

Talk to the agent in your browser. Tell it the hot water's out and see what it does.

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