An after hours answering service that actually answers
Most businesses lose more work between 6pm and 9am than they realise. The caller with a burst pipe, a toothache or an urgent question does not leave a voicemail — they call the next number on the list. SAM answers your line after hours in natural conversation, finds out what the caller needs, captures their callback details, and has the whole thing summarised in your inbox before you open up. You pay by the minute for calls actually handled, not for a night shift sitting idle.
What after hours coverage actually costs you today
- Voicemail loses most callers outright — a large share hang up without leaving anything at all.
- An answering-service contract usually means per-seat monthly minimums whether the phone rings or not.
- An on-call employee means paying for a whole night to handle two calls.
- SAM costs 9¢ a minute for the calls it handles. A quiet night costs close to nothing.
What SAM does on an after hours call
- Answers in a natural voice within the hours you set — nights, weekends, holidays, or all three.
- Answers what it can from your own information: hours, service area, pricing, what to do next.
- Takes the caller’s name, number, address and the reason for the call, and repeats it back to confirm.
- Flags genuine emergencies separately from routine enquiries so you know what cannot wait until morning.
- Emails you a written summary of every call, with a recording, before your day starts.
Set your own hours
You decide when SAM picks up: only outside business hours, only weekends, or every call that your team does not answer within a set number of rings. Nothing changes about your existing number — calls simply stop going unanswered.
Frequently asked questions
What is an after hours answering service?
It is a service that answers your business phone when your office is closed — at night, on weekends and on holidays — so callers reach a real conversation instead of voicemail. SAM does this with an AI voice agent that talks to the caller, captures their details and the reason for the call, and sends you a written summary.
How much does an after hours answering service cost?
SamCaller charges 9 cents a minute for calls handled, with no setup fee, no per-seat pricing and no lock-in. Traditional answering services usually charge a monthly minimum whether or not the phone rings, which is what makes quiet nights expensive.
Can it tell the difference between an emergency and a routine call?
You tell SAM what counts as urgent for your business — a burst pipe, no heat, a specific type of caller — and it flags those calls separately in your summary so you can act on them straight away instead of finding them the next morning.
Hear it answer an after hours call — free demo