The 48-Hour Seat · the 5 o’clock gap
You close at 5. Your phone doesn’t.
A receptionist covers 40 of the 168 hours a week your phone can ring. The other 128 go to voicemail, and the emergency callers, the second-shift workers and the people who finally sat down at 8pm to deal with the leak all call someone else. An AI Front Desk covers all 168, live in 48 hours.
Cover the after-hours gap Or call (704) 741-3141 nowThat number is answered by our AI Front Desk. Interview it. If it can’t handle you, don’t hire it.
Why the calls after 5 are worth more than the calls before
Emergency calls happen at night and on weekends: no heat, no water, a tooth, a flooded basement. Those are your highest-ticket jobs, and voicemail loses them to whoever answers.
Most homeowners handle household business after work. If your line rings out at 6:15pm, you were never in the running.
You already know this, which is why your cell rings at dinner. The AI takes the dinner calls and only interrupts you for the real ones.
What to do this week
Whether or not you call us. Find out what the gap is costing you first.
- TodayCheck your call log for calls outside business hours in the last 30 days. Count them. Most owners are surprised.
- TodayDefine an emergency for your business, and what you charge for one. That is the AI’s triage rule.
- TomorrowDecide what after-hours callers can book (next-day slots? emergency dispatch?) and who gets woken up for what.
- Day 2Go live on after-hours and weekends only. Your daytime desk changes nothing.
- Month 2Count the after-hours jobs booked. Then decide if the AI should take overflow during the day too.
What the AI Front Desk does from day two
- Answers every call from 5pm to 8am and all weekend, in your business name.
- Triages by your emergency rules; texts or calls the on-call person immediately for real ones.
- Books next-day appointments into your calendar for everything else.
- Takes intake so your morning starts with a list, not a voicemail queue.
- Sends the caller a text confirmation so they don’t keep dialing competitors.
- Takes daytime overflow when your desk is on another line, if you want it to.
Your options for the other 128 hours
| Option | Live in | Does the work? | Cost | Afterwards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Let it ring to voicemail | Now | No | Every emergency job you didn’t get | Same |
| Owner’s cell after hours | Now | You do | Your evenings and weekends | Burnout |
| Answering service | 1–3 days | Takes a message | $200–$400/mo + per-minute overages | You still call back in the morning |
| The 48-Hour Seat (after-hours) | 48 hours, guaranteed | Books the job, wakes you only for emergencies | $497/mo flat | Keep it, or extend it to daytime |
The 48-Hour Seat
AI Front Desk, trained on your business, live in two days.
Month-to-month. No per-call fees. Replace-or-Retrain Guarantee on the seat itself.
Book the callThe honest part: if on the setup call we think your seat isn’t a fit for AI, we’ll say so and point you to a faster human option instead.
Questions owners ask at 9pm
I have a daytime receptionist. Do I need to change anything?
No. The AI only answers when your desk doesn’t: after hours, weekends, and optionally overflow during the day. Your person keeps their job and stops getting voicemails to return.
Will it wake me up for nothing?
You write the rules. Most owners set “no heat under 40°F, active leak, no water” as call-now and everything else as next-day booking.
Same price as the full-time seat?
Yes, $497 a month flat. It is the same seat; you decide which hours it works. Most owners extend it to daytime overflow within a month.
What happens if you miss 48 hours?
Setup is free. You pay the monthly fee only from the day it is live. We put that in writing because speed is the whole point.
What does it cost after?
$497 a month, flat, no per-call or per-task fees. Year one including setup is $7,464. For comparison, the median receptionist salary is $38,010 (BLS May 2025), about $56,039 fully loaded.
What does the AI Front Desk NOT do?
Deciding which tech rolls at 2am. It follows your on-call rules and reaches the human; the human decides.
Tonight’s calls are already coming.
Set it up in 48 hours and stop handing the after-hours jobs to whoever answers.
Start the 48-hour clock Call (704) 741-3141See what a receptionist really costs in your metro: AI Headcount Index · Employee Cost Calculator · All staffing scenarios