Call protocol
After-hours triage script: what’s urgent and what can wait
Short answer
After hours, a 100% AI receptionist answers in your business’s name, tells callers it’s an AI and sorts every call into one of three buckets: Urgent now, First thing tomorrow or Message. Before any bucket it asks whether anyone is in danger; then it checks the call against your urgent list and asks whether it can really wait until you open. Only Urgent now wakes anyone up, and every call reaches you as a summary.
This is the general after-hours triage script we start from. Industry protocols, such as plumbing or heating and cooling, plug into it. You adapt it and approve it before it answers.
Free setup · No contract · Cancel anytime
Example call: a clinic that can’t log in before opening
Northgate IT Support · A clinic that can’t log in before opening
- AI
- Northgate IT Support, this is AI Receptionist, the AI assistant. The office is closed, but I can help.
- Caller
- Nobody at our clinic can log in, and we open at seven.
- AI
- Is anyone in danger right now?
- Caller
- No, it’s the computers.
- AI
- Your name, business and number?
- Caller
- Mara Okoro, Westfield Dental, 555-0108.
- AI
- Thanks, Mara, 555-0108. A whole office down can’t wait, so I’m alerting the on-call engineer now.
Summary sent to you
- Urgent now
- no one at Westfield Dental can log in; they open at 7 a.m.
- Caller
- Mara Okoro, 555-0108.
- Done
- on-call engineer alerted by email. No time promised.
The script, step by step
-
Greet, and say you’re closed
The caller hears your business name, that they’re speaking with an AI assistant, and that the office is closed, so they don’t expect a person.
The AI says: “Thanks for calling Northgate IT Support, this is AI Receptionist, the AI assistant. The office is closed, but I can help.”
-
Is anyone in danger?
Fire, a gas smell, someone hurt, someone threatened. It asks once, and if the answer is yes, the script stops: the caller is told to hang up and call 911, and your on-call person is alerted.
The AI says: “Is anyone in danger right now? If so, please hang up and call 911.”
-
What’s happening?
An open question, then the questions from your industry protocol. A property manager’s AI asks about water, heat and locks; an IT company’s asks whether a whole office is down.
The AI says: “Tell me what’s going on, and I’ll make sure it gets to the right person.”
-
Urgent now?
Your urgent list, in your words, decides. If the call matches, it goes to whoever is on call: the call is put through, or they’re emailed at once.
The AI says: “This can’t wait, so I’m reaching the person on call now.”
-
First thing tomorrow?
Some calls aren’t on the list but shouldn’t wait for an ordinary callback: a customer who needs to know if you’re coming tomorrow, a job starting first thing. Those go to First thing tomorrow, at the top of the list your team sees when they open.
The AI says: “I’ll mark this for first thing tomorrow, and the team will call you when they open.”
-
Everything else is a message
Name, number, what it’s about. It repeats the number back and tells the caller when the office opens.
The AI says: “We open at 8 tomorrow. Can I take your name and the best number?”
What it never says on this call
- “Someone will call you back tonight,” unless the call is Urgent now.
- An arrival time, a price or a promise you haven’t approved.
- That something is “not an emergency” when the caller says someone is at risk.
- Advice on fixing the problem, beyond safety lines you approved.
What you decide
- Your hours: when “after hours” starts, weekends and holidays included.
- Urgent now: what wakes someone up, in your words, with examples.
- First thing tomorrow: what gets flagged for the start of the day, and who sees it.
- Who’s on call each night, plus a backup, and whether they get the call put through or an email.
- What callers hear: your greeting, your opening time, and your words for “the on-call person has your details.”
We set it up with you, and you approve it.
The three buckets
Before any bucket comes one question: is anyone in danger? If so, it’s a 911 call first. After that, these are the defaults we start from for after-hours call routing. You decide what goes where.
| Bucket | What happens | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Urgent now | Call put through to whoever is on call, or they’re emailed at once | Water that won’t stop, a whole office offline before opening |
| First thing tomorrow | Flagged at the top of the morning list | A job booked for 8 a.m. needs changing |
| Message | In the summary, for a normal callback | A quote, a billing question |
Why this protocol works
Our call protocols come from nearly two decades of running phone reception for small businesses. The after-hours line is where a protocol earns its keep, because it fails in two ways: it wakes you for a quote request, or it lets a real emergency sit until Monday. Two of our rules fix that. It escalates real emergencies, with the list decided in advance, and you see every call, so you can move a call from one bucket to another next time. The full method is on our method; the service itself is the after hours answering service.
Questions about after-hours call triage
How does the AI decide what’s urgent?
It doesn’t decide on its own. It asks the questions in your protocol and compares the answers with your urgent list. If the caller describes something on the list, the call is Urgent now. If they say someone is in danger, it’s a 911 call first, whatever the list says.
What happens to calls marked first thing tomorrow?
They’re flagged at the top of your call list and summary, separate from ordinary messages, so whoever opens up sees them first. The caller is told the team will call when the office opens, not at a time you haven’t promised.
Will my on-call person get calls all night?
Only the calls that match your urgent list. That’s the point of triage. If you find a type of call waking people up that could have waited, tell us and we move it to First thing tomorrow or Message.
What does the person on call receive?
A short heads-up before the call is passed to them, or an email with the caller’s name, number and what’s wrong. Every call, urgent or not, is also recorded, transcribed and summarized for the morning. How hand-offs sound is on call transfer; rotations and backups are on the on call answering service page.
Put this triage script on your line tonight
Give us your hours, your urgent list and who’s on call, and we build your after-hours protocol as part of your free setup. Nothing is forwarded until you approve it. On Pay As You Go there’s no monthly fee: $0.99 per answered call, at any hour. See pricing and the full call protocol library.
Free setup · No contract · Cancel anytime