After hours answering for small business
For a small business, after hours answering means calls at night and on weekends reach a Yes AI voice agent instead of voicemail or the owner’s mobile. The Professional plan includes that coverage for $599 per month ex GST with 1,500 minutes, month to month, and you keep your existing phone number.
Why small businesses miss after hours calls
The ABS counted 2,814,778 actively trading businesses in Australia at 30 June 2026, including 689,600 with 1 to 4 employees and 232,912 with 5 to 19 (ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses). In businesses that size, the person who answers the phone is often the same person doing the work. During the day the phone is answered between jobs or appointments. After hours it is diverted to a personal mobile, sent to voicemail, or left to ring.
An answering agent does not change how many people you employ. It changes what happens to the calls that arrive when none of them can pick up.
What should be answered after hours, and what can wait?
Not every call needs action tonight. The point of after hours answering is that every caller gets a response and the right ones reach you. A starting point:
| Type of call | What the agent does after hours | Why |
|---|---|---|
| New enquiry from a potential customer | Answers, takes details, promises a call back at a set time | Someone shopping around may try the next business if nobody answers |
| Existing customer with a problem that gets worse overnight | Answers and escalates to you or your on-call person | These are the calls worth being woken for |
| Booking change or cancellation | Records it, or rebooks on the Professional plan | The slot is known about before you open |
| Supplier, sales or recruitment calls | Takes a message | They can wait, and you decide whether to reply |
| General questions about hours, location or services | Answers from the facts you supply | No follow-up needed |
| Complaint | Takes details and promises a call from a person | Complaints should be handled by you, not the agent |
Starter or Professional?
Both plans are month to month with 30 days notice to cancel and no lock-in (Yes AI pricing). The main differences:
| Feature | Starter | Professional |
|---|---|---|
| Suggested team size | 1 to 5 staff | 5 to 20 staff |
| Monthly fee, ex GST | $299 per month | $599 per month |
| One-off setup, ex GST | $499 | $999 |
| Included minutes | 500 a month | 1,500 a month |
| Coverage | Business hours only | Business hours, after hours and weekends |
| Notifications | Email and SMS | |
| Appointment booking | Not listed | Included |
| CRM integration | Not listed | Cliniko and Xero |
| Custom greeting | Not listed | Included |
Starter does not answer after hours. If after hours calls are the reason you are looking, Professional is the published plan that includes them. If your team is under 5 people but you need night and weekend cover, say so in your quote request and Yes AI will tell you which setup fits.
How many minutes will you use?
Yes AI bills the minutes its agent spends talking with callers. A call that is never answered costs nothing, and on a call the agent passes to you, the clock stops at the transfer.
A worked example for a four-person electrical business:
- About 12 calls a week arrive after hours, averaging 3 minutes with the agent: 36 minutes a week, or about 156 minutes a month.
- About 10 daytime calls a week overflow to the agent while everyone is on site, averaging 2 minutes: 20 minutes a week, or about 87 minutes a month.
- Total: about 243 minutes a month, well inside the 1,500 minutes included with Professional.
Your call log is the best guide. Count a month of missed and after hours calls before you choose a plan. The cost guide covers allowances in more detail.
Setting it up
Yes AI confirms the setup timeline in your written quote. The steps are the same for every business:
- List the types of calls you get and what you want done with each one.
- Write down the facts the agent may share: hours, service area, services, and any prices you are happy to state on the phone.
- Name who receives urgent calls and who receives the summaries.
- Yes AI builds the agent and tests it, then you make your own test calls and ask for changes.
- You switch on the diversion from your number, either on a schedule or when calls are not answered.
- For the first month, read every summary and adjust the rules where the agent did something you would not have done.
Diverting your calls and keeping your number
Your number stays with your current phone provider. Calls are forwarded to the agent by your phone system or carrier, so there is nothing to port and nothing to print on new business cards. If your business number is a Telstra mobile, all calls can be forwarded by dialling **21*, the destination number and *11#, and the forward is cancelled with ##21# (Telstra mobile call forwarding).
If you ever change carrier, the ACMA says you can usually port a local number (starting 02, 03, 07 or 08), a mobile (04) and 1300, 1800 or 13 numbers, but a disconnected number cannot be ported (ACMA, keep or port your phone number). Keep your phone service active when you start using an answering service; the agent sits behind your number, not in place of it.
Privacy for small businesses
The OAIC describes a small business as one with an annual turnover of 3 million dollars or less, and says the Privacy Act covers some businesses regardless of turnover, including health service providers (OAIC, small business). Whether or not the Act applies to you, tell callers that an AI agent answers after hours and explain on your website how you use the details they give.
Limits
- The agent works from the facts and rules you give it, so gaps show up as calls it could not place or questions it could not answer.
- It does not add capacity. If nobody can return calls the next morning, callers still wait.
- Some callers will want a person. The agent offers a call back instead of pushing them through a script.
For a broader AI receptionist that also covers business hours, see ai-reception.au. On this site, the after hours answering service page walks through a single call step by step, overflow call answering covers daytime peaks, and the provider checklist helps you compare options. When you are ready, ask for a quote.