What actually happens to a call after hours

Someone's kitchen cupboard door is hanging off its hinge and the worktop has swollen at the joint. They've had their tea, they've sat down with the laptop, and they've searched for a joiner. Yours is the third number on the list. They ring it at 7.40pm.

What happens in the next thirty seconds decides whether you ever hear about that job. There are five realistic things that can happen to that call, and they finish in very different places. Here's each one from both sides: what the caller gets, and what's waiting for you at eight the next morning.

The phone rings in an empty workshop, or it rings in your pocket while you're eating. Nobody picks up. The caller counts six or seven rings, decides you're shut, and hangs up.

Here's the part that costs you: they might not put the phone down and wait for you. They're already on a list, and number four is sitting right there. If number four answers, your call is gone and you'll never know it existed.

What you're left with depends on the line. On a mobile you get a missed call, so you have a number and a time. On a lot of business landlines you get nothing at all. Even at best, a missed call tells you somebody rang. It doesn't tell you who they are, what they wanted, or whether it's worth ringing back before or after your first job.

The caller hears your greeting and then the beep. Some people will talk to a beep. Plenty won't. You've probably hung up on one yourself this month.

When someone does leave a message, it's often half of what you need. A first name, a reason given in one vague sentence, and a mobile number said far too fast at the end, usually once. You play it back three times and you're still not sure whether that was a 7 or a 1.

What you end up with is a job for later: listen, write it down, ring back, hope they haven't already booked someone else. That's real work, and it lands at the exact time of day you're trying to get out the door.

Voicemail isn't useless. For a business whose work comes almost entirely from repeat customers who'll happily leave a message, it's genuinely enough.

For the caller this is the best of the lot. They ring a business at night and a human being answers. That's a good start to a job.

For you it's more mixed. You're at the pool waiting on your daughter's swimming lesson finishing, or you've got both hands in a sink, and now you're taking details on the back of a receipt. You'll answer well at 7.40pm on a Tuesday. You'll answer less well at 9.50pm on a Sunday, and by then you might be letting it ring anyway. When you do that, you're back at option one with extra steps.

There's a second thing worth thinking about. Once your mobile is the business line, the caller has your personal number in their phone, and they'll use it. Some people are fine with that. Some people are very much not, and it takes a while to undo.

The caller gets a person, which is what a lot of callers want. A good one is warm, handles the odd question, and doesn't sound like a script. You get a tidy message with a name, a number and a reason.

Two things to check before you sign. First, how it's billed. Per call, per minute, per bundle with an overage rate, or flat. That difference decides whether a busy month is a good month or an expensive one, so read the pricing page rather than the homepage.

Second, how much they'll know about you. Somebody answering for a lot of different businesses may be working from a short brief about yours, so ask what they'll actually be told. That's fine for taking a name and number. It's harder when the caller asks something specific.

I'll be straight with you here, since I sell the alternative: on anything unusual or emotional, a good human service will beat any AI on the market today.

This is what I do, so here's exactly what the caller gets, with no polish on it.

The phone gets answered instead of ringing out. A voice gives your business name, says you're not free at the minute, and asks three things: their name, the best number to reach them on, and what they're after. It reads the number back to check it. It's a short call, and the caller has been dealt with instead of dumped into a beep.

You get a text once the call ends. Name, number, what they need. You can read it at a red light and decide whether it's a ring back tonight or a ring back Monday.

Two practical bits. It sits behind the number you already have, using call forwarding, so nothing on your van or your website changes. And you choose when it picks up: only when you're already on the phone, after five, weekends, or all the time.

Where it isn't the answer: it won't quote your kitchen, it won't argue about an invoice, and it won't calm down someone who's raging. It takes the lead and hands it to you. That's the whole job.

A joinery I answer for was missing somewhere in the region of ten calls a month outside their working hours before they started with me. I'm not going to tell you what happened to their turnover afterwards, because I'd be making it up, and there's enough of that about. But ten a month is a number worth knowing about your own business before you spend anything.

Counting it is easy enough. Open your mobile's call log and go back a month. Count the calls that came in outside the hours you actually work, and knock out the ones you recognise. If your main line is a landline, your provider can usually tell you the same thing.

Then do the sum honestly. Missed calls times your average job value times the share of enquiries you genuinely win, which is not all of them. The missed call calculator will do it for you if you'd rather not.

Plenty of businesses don't need any of this, and I'd rather say so than sell you something.

• You get one or two out-of-hours calls a fortnight and your work comes from people who already know you. Voicemail is fine.
• Your average job is small. If a job is worth eighty quid, the maths on a monthly fee is hard and you shouldn't force it.
• You like answering your phone in the evening and it doesn't cost you anything at home. Keep going.
• Your quiet season is about to start. Wait and look again when the phone picks up.

If the calculator says the numbers don't work, they don't work. I'd sooner you came back in six months than cancelled in six weeks.

Three plans: Starter at £249 a month, Pro at £449, Enterprise at £749. Flat monthly, with no per minute charge inside your plan. If you go over your monthly call cap it's 65p a call on Starter and 45p on Pro.

I'm not VAT registered, so nothing is added on top of those figures. It's 30 day rolling, so you can cancel any time and there's no minimum term. Setup is free. Paying annually takes 15 percent off.

The detail is on pricing and services. If you're on the tools, the tradesmen page is the more useful read, and there's a local rundown on call answering in Northern Ireland. When you're ready, get started or just drop me a line and ask. More of these on the blog.