# After-hours answering service: nights, weekends and holidays When you close, Julius Answer by DealsFlow keeps answering. It takes the message, books the next open time, and puts a real emergency through to whoever is on call, so the night doesn't cost you the customer. An after-hours answering service answers your phone when you're closed, so night and weekend callers get help instead of voicemail. Julius Answer does it with AI: it answers in your business's name, books the next open time, takes messages, and puts real emergencies through to whoever is on call, from $79 a month. ## At a glance - Answers every call after hours, weekends and holidays, with your greeting and your information. - Books appointments and estimate visits for when you open, as requests you confirm in the morning. - Puts urgent callers through to your on-call person, or marks the message urgent if nobody picks up. - Tells callers with a life-threatening emergency to hang up and call 911 first. - One monthly price for all 24 hours: from $79/month, 7-day free trial. ## What happens to your calls after hours today Most of them go to voicemail, and most callers don't leave one. In CallRail's September 2025 survey of 1,000 US consumers, only 42% said they leave a voicemail when a business doesn't answer, and 21% immediately call another business. 52% said businesses that use AI assistants after hours offer better service. A receptionist covers about 40 of the 168 hours in a week, and a US receptionist's median pay is $38,010 a year before benefits (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025). The evenings and weekends, when homeowners finally have time to call, are left uncovered. 2:14 AM ## An after-hours call, answered The office is closed. A patient with a cracked tooth calls. Julius Answer picks up in your practice's name, says it's an AI assistant, offers the first open time tomorrow and books it as a request. In the morning, the request and a summary are waiting in your email and console. Nothing about the call depends on the time: the same greeting, the same answers from your information, the same care with names and numbers, read back to confirm. ## Emergencies at night, and everything else An after-hours service is only useful if it tells the two apart. Julius Answer sorts each call by what the caller describes, using the rules for your kind of business. How after-hours calls are handled | The caller | What Julius Answer does | |---|---| | Describes a life-threatening emergency (a gas smell, a fire, trouble breathing) | Tells them to hang up and call 911 right away. | | Has an urgent problem for your business (an active leak, no heat in a freeze, severe pain) | Takes the details, marks it urgent and offers to put them through to your on-call person. If nobody picks up, the urgent message is waiting for you. | | Wants an appointment, a visit or a reservation | Offers open times and books the one they choose as a request you confirm when you open. | | Has a question | Answers from your information: hours, services, prices you share, service area. | | Is a sales pitch, a robocall or a wrong number | Handles it politely and keeps it off your phone. | ## Only after hours, or all day You decide when Julius Answer answers, using your phone's call forwarding: - **Only when you're closed:** forward all calls when you lock up (on Verizon and most landlines, *72 and your Julius Answer number) and turn it off in the morning (*73). - **Only the calls you miss:** forward unanswered and busy calls (*71 on Verizon, **004* on AT&T and T-Mobile), so you still answer when you can, day or night. - **On a schedule:** many internet phone systems can forward on a timetable. The [forwarding guide](/guides/how-to-forward-business-calls/) has every step. ## After-hours answering for trades, clinics and offices [ ### Plumbers Burst pipes put through to your on-call plumber; drips booked for the morning.Answering service for plumbers](/industries/plumbers/) [ ### HVAC No heat in a freeze or no cooling in a heat wave goes to whoever is on call.HVAC answering service](/industries/hvac/) [ ### Law firms A deadline in the next day or two is marked urgent; consultations are booked.Legal answering service](/industries/law-firms/) [ ### Property management Flooding, no heat or a lockout goes to whoever is on call; routine repairs wait for the morning.Property management answering service](/industries/property-management/) ## Stop sending night callers to voicemail Start a 7-day free trial and have Julius Answer covering your after-hours calls tonight. [Start free trial](/signup/) [See pricing](/pricing/) ## Frequently asked questions ### What is an after-hours answering service? An after-hours answering service (or after-hours calling service) answers your business phone when you're closed: evenings, weekends and holidays. It takes messages, books appointments for when you reopen and passes real emergencies to whoever is on call, instead of sending callers to voicemail. ### How much does an after-hours answering service cost? Live services usually bill by the minute or by the call. Julius Answer is a flat monthly plan that covers every hour of the day: from $79 a month for 300 call minutes, with every feature on every plan and a 7-day free trial. ### Can I use it only at night and on weekends? Yes. Forward your line to Julius Answer when you close and turn forwarding off when you open, or forward only the calls you don't answer, so during the day it only picks up what you miss. Many internet phone systems can also forward on a schedule. ### Will it wake me up for every call? No. Routine calls become messages and booking requests in your morning summary. Only what you treat as urgent, like an active leak for a plumber, is put through to your on-call person or marked urgent, so you're woken for real emergencies only. ### What happens if a caller has a real emergency at night? If someone describes a life-threatening emergency, Julius Answer tells them to hang up and call 911 first. For urgent business problems it takes the details and offers to put the caller through to whoever is on call; if nobody picks up, the message is marked urgent. ### Does the after-hours service book appointments? Yes. It offers open times from your calendar and books the caller's choice as a request you confirm with one tap in the morning. With Google Calendar connected it never offers a time you're busy. ## Sources 1. [Missed calls cost businesses more than ever (survey of 1,000 US consumers)](https://www.callrail.com/blog/missed-calls-cost-businesses-more-than-ever), CallRail, September 25, 2025 1. [Receptionists: Occupational Outlook Handbook](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/office-and-administrative-support/receptionists.htm), US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 data Checked 2026-10-20. Third-party prices and features change; check the vendor before you buy. --- Source: https://julius.dealsflow.ai/after-hours-answering-service/ Updated: 2026-10-20