How after hours call triage works
After hours call triage puts each call into one of three groups: urgent now, next business day, or information only. You write the rules, the answering agent applies them during the call, and urgent calls go to your on-call person straight away. Start with 10 rules or fewer and refine them after 4 weeks of calls.
What are the three triage groups?
| Group | What it means | What the agent does | What you receive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Urgent now | Someone could be hurt, damage is spreading, or a client cannot operate until it is fixed | Asks your confirming questions, then transfers the call live or texts the on-call person | A live call or an SMS, then a written summary |
| Next business day | Real work that can wait: quotes, bookings, non-urgent repairs, account questions | Takes full details and, if your booking system is connected, offers a time | A summary waiting for the morning |
| Information only | Questions with a set answer: hours, service area, parking, how to book | Answers from information you have approved | A short log entry, or nothing if you prefer |
A fourth situation sits outside your business altogether: a caller describing a danger to someone’s life. The agent tells that caller to hang up and dial 000, then lets you know the call happened. The Triple Zero page run by the Australian Government describes 000 as the main emergency number for situations that are life threatening or time critical.
Where do the first rules come from?
From your own calls, not from a template. The answering agent does not know your callout fee, which of your staff hold the right licence for a job, what response time you promised a commercial client, or how much work your on-call person can take on tonight. Rules built from your call history reflect those limits. The urgent call escalation page covers why guessing fails; this guide covers how to write the rules.
To build the first set:
- Gather four to eight weeks of after hours call records and voicemails.
- Group the calls by reason: leaks, lockouts, bookings, cancellations, price questions and so on.
- Count each group, so you write rules for the calls you actually get first.
- For each group, decide what you would do if you answered it yourself at 11pm. That decision becomes the rule.
- Write two or three yes or no questions that separate the urgent cases from the rest within each group.
- Name the on-call person for each time slot, a backup who also gets the SMS alert, and how long a live transfer should ring before the agent falls back to SMS.
- Decide what each caller is told about timing, and check the business can keep that promise.
- Add exceptions: existing jobs, commercial clients with contracted response times, or numbers that should always be put through.
What does a single rule look like?
Every rule has four parts. Here is one for a plumbing business:
- Trigger: the caller mentions water, a leak, a burst pipe or a flooded floor.
- Confirming questions: Is water still coming out now? Have you been able to turn it off at the meter? Is it near power points or the switchboard?
- Action: if water is still flowing, or is near anything electrical, transfer to the on-call plumber. Otherwise record it as next business day.
- What the caller hears: either that they are being put through to the plumber on call, or that the office will ring after 7.30am with a time.
Written this way, a rule can be checked against any call summary. If the agent sent a dripping tap to the on-call phone, you can see which answer triggered it and change the question.
What do triage rules look like in different industries?
| Industry | Urgent now | Next business day | Information only |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbing and gas | Water that cannot be turned off, sewage backing up inside, no water at all | Dripping taps, slow drains, quotes | Service area and callout hours |
| Electrical | Sparking, a burning smell, power out to the whole property | New circuits, non-urgent faults, quotes | Whether you do solar or data cabling |
| Locksmith | Locked out at night, a front door that will not lock after a break-in | Rekeying, spare keys, safe servicing | Hours and suburbs covered |
| Medical or dental practice | None decided by the agent: danger to life goes to 000, other health worries to healthdirect | Appointment requests, cancellations, messages for a practitioner | Opening hours, parking, what to bring |
| Property management in Victoria | Repairs on the legal urgent list, such as a burst water service or a gas leak | Other repairs and inspection questions | Office hours and how to pay rent |
| Criminal law practice | A client in police custody | New enquiries and messages for a lawyer | Office hours and location |
Three sources sit behind those rows. For gas, Energy Safe Victoria directs people to the emergency number on their gas bill, so the agent should give that advice while it alerts your on-call gasfitter. For health worries that are not emergencies, healthdirect runs 1800 022 222, where callers talk to a nurse or doctor about what to do. For rentals, Consumer Affairs Victoria lists the repairs that count as urgent and says they must be done immediately. Trade businesses can read how this fits a callout business on the trades page.
How do you test triage rules before go-live?
Role-play the calls before real callers do. For each rule, write at least two test calls: one that should trigger it and one that sounds similar but should not. Then add the awkward cases.
| Test call | Expected result |
|---|---|
| Caller insists a routine job is urgent | Confirming questions asked; group set by the answers, not the insistence |
| Caller will not give an address | Agent explains why it is needed, then records what it can |
| Caller on a bad mobile line in a car | Agent asks for repeats and reads the number back |
| Caller asks for a person straight away | Transfer or message, exactly as your rule says |
| Caller is upset and talking fast | Calm handling, then the escalation your rule sets for upset callers |
| Two problems in one call, one urgent | The urgent part escalated, the other part logged |
| Wrong number, then a sales call | Polite close, logged as information only |
For every test, check five things: the group was right, every detail was captured and spelled correctly, the transfer reached the on-call phone, the SMS or email arrived, and the caller was promised something the business can deliver. Fix the rule, the question or the roster, then run the failed test again.
How should you review calls in the first month?
Book 30 minutes a week for the first 4 weeks to read what the agent did.
Each week:
- Read every urgent call record from start to finish.
- Read every call the agent could not place in a group, and every call where the caller asked for a person.
- Skim a sample of next business day calls for missing details.
- List any transfers nobody answered and fix the roster.
- Note questions the agent could not answer and write approved answers for them.
On the Yes AI Custom plan you can read full transcripts and play recordings; on Starter and Professional, work from the written call summaries. After the first month, a monthly review is usually enough, unless you change services, staff or opening hours.
What should the agent never decide?
- Clinical questions, medicines, or whether a symptom is serious.
- Legal advice, or anything about a client’s matter beyond taking a message.
- Refunds, discounts and complaints about a staff member.
- Whether a caller who sounds unsafe is actually safe.
These calls get a message for a person, a transfer or a referral to 000, never an answer from the agent. The checklist for choosing a service covers what to ask any provider about its triage. To have rules like these written and tested for your business, use the enquiry form.
Frequently asked questions
- Can weeknight and weekend triage rules be different?
Yes. Rules can follow a schedule, so Saturday morning can be treated like business hours for a trade business while Saturday night uses the stricter overnight rules. Public holidays can use the weekend set. Write each schedule down before setup so the changeover times are clear to everyone on the roster.
- What happens when a caller says it is urgent but the rules say it can wait?
The agent asks your confirming questions and, if the answers do not meet the rule, explains when the business will ring back. Some businesses add a safety valve for callers who still insist: their details go to the on-call person by SMS rather than a live transfer, so a person makes the final decision without being woken for every request.
- How many names should be on the on-call roster?
At least two for every time slot, a first contact and a backup. Urgent calls are transferred live to the first contact; if that transfer is not answered, the details go by SMS to the first contact and the backup, and the caller is told when to expect contact. A roster with one name has no answer when that person is asleep, driving or out of range.
- Can the agent tell callers about an after hours callout fee?
Yes, if you give it the exact wording. The agent states only the fees and conditions you have approved, so every caller hears the same thing. Update the wording whenever the fee changes, and the next caller hears the new amount.