After-hours answering service
An after-hours answering service that picks up when your office does not
Evoriqa is an after-hours answering service for the calls that arrive when you are closed. Forward your existing business line at night, on weekends or at lunch, and an AI agent answers from your own content, books on your connected calendar, takes the caller’s details and sends urgent calls to the on-call number you set. Every call is a transcript waiting in the morning.
Free plan, no credit card. Test it on your own line first.
How an after-hours answering service works
Four steps, and only the second one happens outside Evoriqa.
A caller dials the number they already know
Your published number does not change. Nobody is asked to remember a second one.
Your carrier forwards the call
Call forwarding on your existing line sends it to the Telnyx or Infobip number connected to Evoriqa. Your phone provider decides when that happens.
The agent answers and does the job
It answers from your website, docs and FAQs, books on your connected Cal.com or Calendly calendar, or takes the caller's name, number and reason.
You review the night in the morning
Each call is a transcript in your dashboard inbox, so the first person in reads what happened overnight and calls back the ones that need it.
It is the same agent described on the AI answering service page, pointed at the hours you are not there. If you want it on the phone all day as a front desk, that is the AI receptionist.
Set your hours once, forward the rest
The schedule lives where your phone number does.
Evoriqa answers whenever a call reaches its number, so when the agent is on is decided by call forwarding at your carrier or phone system, not by a second schedule to maintain. Set it once, or flip it when you lock up. Which schedules and conditions you can use depends on your provider, so check what yours offers.
- Nights and weekends
- Forward everything when you close and switch it back when you open. The agent answers whenever a call reaches the number.
- Lunch and breaks
- Forward for the hour you are out, so the line is covered without a rota.
- Busy or no answer
- If your phone system or carrier can forward only unanswered or busy calls, the agent takes the ones your team could not.
- All day
- Leave the forward on and let the agent take every call, handing the ones that need a person to your team.
The voice channel setup is a number connected to Evoriqa and a forward from the line you already publish. You do not need to move or change your published number.
Emergencies still reach a person
You decide what counts as urgent. The agent follows your rule.
An answering service that only takes messages is no use for a burst pipe or a locked-out tenant. In the agent’s instructions you write what counts as urgent for your business, and you set the on-call number. When a call matches, the agent tells the caller it is connecting them to your team and transfers the call, with the details it has gathered. Calls that are not urgent are answered, booked or logged for the morning.
Two honest limits. The transfer depends on that number being set and answered, so call your own line at night and test it. And the agent is not an emergency service: where a caller could be in danger, we suggest your greeting tells callers who may be in danger to contact local emergency services.
What it costs after hours
The same as the daytime: there is no after-hours rate.
Size it by the night, not the month. As an illustration, ten three-minute calls while you are closed is 30 voice minutes, about 75,000 credits, and the same minutes cost the same at midday. Chat draws on the same pool, so the figures below are what each plan funds if voice used all of it. The Telnyx or Infobip line you forward to is billed by that provider, on top.
- Free free
- 10 voice minutes / month
- Starter $29/mo
- 120 voice minutes / month
- Pro $99/mo
- ~520 voice minutes / month
- Business $399/mo
- ~2,100 voice minutes / month
If a busy month uses the allowance up, nothing breaks: the agent keeps capturing conversations for your team. A one-time top-up pack is priced at the same per-credit rate as the plan of the same size, and per-workspace spend caps keep usage inside your budget. The pricing page has the full credit table.
After-hours answering service or voicemail?
Where the two differ on what a missed call turns into.
| Voicemail | Evoriqa after hours | |
|---|---|---|
| What the caller hears | A greeting, then a beep | A voice that answers the question they called about |
| Questions about hours, prices or service | Unanswered until someone calls back | Answered from your own content, or an honest 'I don't know' |
| A caller who wants an appointment | Leaves a number and waits for you to ring back | Picks a free slot on your calendar and is booked before hanging up |
| An urgent call | Sits in the box until someone listens | Goes to the on-call number you set, if your rule says so |
| What you have in the morning | Audio to play back, if the caller left one | A transcript, with the caller's name, number and reason where the agent captured them |
Scroll sideways for more columns
Voicemail is free and, if almost nobody calls out of hours, it may be enough. Some callers also prefer a recorded message to talking to an AI, so say plainly in the greeting that it is an automated assistant. If you stay on voicemail, our free voicemail greeting generator writes a better script than most people record on the first try.
Frequently asked questions
What is an after-hours answering service?
It is cover for the hours your phone goes unanswered: overnight, at weekends, over lunch. Calls forwarded from your existing number reach an AI agent that handles them the way you have told it to, and whatever happened while you were away is written up as transcripts by the time you are back. Nothing waits for you except the calls that genuinely need a person.
How do I forward my number after hours?
Set up call forwarding with your carrier or phone system so your business line forwards to the Telnyx or Infobip number connected to Evoriqa. Callers keep dialing the number they know. When forwarding switches on is a setting at your phone provider, so check what schedule or conditions yours supports. The Telnyx or Infobip line is billed by that provider, separately from Evoriqa.
What happens when an urgent call comes in at night?
That is your rule, not ours. You write in the agent's instructions what counts as urgent and set the on-call number, and the agent tells the caller it is connecting them and transfers the call, with the details gathered so far. The transfer depends on that number being set and answered, so test it before you rely on it.
Can it book appointments overnight?
Yes. A caller who rings at 10pm is offered the slots that are actually free on your connected Cal.com or Calendly calendar, and the booking is already in the calendar when you open it in the morning. No callback is needed to make it stick.
Which languages does the phone line answer in?
One language per phone line, the one you configure. Chat, WhatsApp and SMS detect the customer's language automatically across 32 languages, so a caller who texts afterwards is not limited to the line's language.
What does an after-hours answering service cost?
There is no after-hours surcharge: a voice minute costs about 2,500 credits at 3am or 3pm. As an illustration, ten three-minute calls overnight is 30 voice minutes, and the Free plan includes 10 while Starter ($29/mo) includes 120. The pricing page has the full table. The Telnyx or Infobip line you forward to is billed by that provider, separately.
What happens if I run out of credits?
Nothing breaks. The agent keeps capturing conversations and hands them to your team. You can buy a one-time top-up pack, priced at the same per-credit rate as the plan of the same size, or upgrade. Per-workspace spend caps keep usage inside the budget you choose, and the Free plan has a fixed quota with no overage.
Put your support on autopilot today
Point Evoriqa at your website and help docs, and your agent starts answering questions, capturing leads and booking appointments across every channel. Free to start, no credit card.