After-hours answering
Nights, weekends and holidays, on your schedule.
Forward calls to ShiftSill when the office closes. The agent qualifies every caller, books what it’s allowed to book, and wakes your on-call tech only for calls that meet your urgent rules.
Schedules
Coverage starts and stops when you say.
Set weekday hours, weekend hours and a holiday calendar. Change the on-call rotation as often as your team does.
- Weekday evenings and overnight, from close until the office reopens.
- Weekends, all day or only outside Saturday office hours.
- Holidays from your calendar, including the day before Thanksgiving if you close early.
- Overflow during the day when every line is busy.
Example: weekday with lunch overflow
- Your team answers
- Overflow when lines are busy
- ShiftSill answers
- Your on-call team
Holidays and weekends
Example holiday weekend.
Illustrative schedule for a two-location contractor. Your actual rules are set during onboarding.
| Window | Who answers | Urgent calls go to | Routine calls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday 5:30 PM – Saturday 8 AM | ShiftSill | On-call tech A | Queued for Saturday |
| Saturday 8 AM – 12 PM | Your office, overflow to ShiftSill | Dispatch desk | Booked if schedule connected |
| Saturday 12 PM – Monday 7 AM | ShiftSill | On-call tech B | Queued for Tuesday |
| Monday (holiday) | ShiftSill, all day | On-call tech B | Queued for Tuesday |
Fallback options
Plan for the transfer that doesn’t connect.
On-call phones die, ring out or land in voicemail. You approve what happens next before go-live.
Try the primary on-call number
A standard transfer to a US number, included in every plan.
Try the backup, if you have one
A second tech or the service manager, in the order you set.
Run the approved fallback
For example: confirm the callback number, send the call summary to your on-call contact, and tell the caller the team was alerted but not reached.
Never promise what didn’t happen
The caller isn’t told help is on the way. If the situation sounds dangerous, your safety prompt tells them to call 911 or their utility.
Questions
After-hours specifics.
Do we need a separate phone number?
No. You keep your number and set forwarding on your phone system by schedule or busy condition. We help you configure it during onboarding.
Can ShiftSill staff answer calls if the AI can’t?
Not by default. ShiftSill is an AI answering service. Any human coverage would be scoped and quoted separately.
How do we change the on-call rotation?
You send the updated rotation and we apply it. How rotation updates are handled is agreed during onboarding.
What if we get a spike at 2 AM after a storm?
Calls keep being answered at your plan’s overage rate once included minutes run out. You receive usage alerts at 80% and 100% of your included minutes.
Close the office. Keep answering.
See a scripted call built around your trade, your service area and your on-call rotation. Bring your current after-hours setup and we’ll map it together.