How to stop losing emergency calls at night
An emergency caller rings until somebody answers, and stops at whoever does. Out of hours is not a nice-to-have in trades; it is where the margin is.
Why are out of hours calls worth more?
Because the caller has an urgent problem, less time to shop around, and is choosing on availability rather than price. A burst pipe at eleven at night is decided by who picks up.
It is also the least competitive time. Most of your local competition is not answering either, which is what makes it worth solving.
What are the options for covering out of hours?
Divert to your mobile, use an answering service, use an assistant that answers and routes, or publish honest hours and stop pretending. All four are defensible; only the last one is free.
Diverting to a mobile works until it wakes you for a quote request. The value of anything else is mostly in filtering: an emergency reaches you, a Tuesday quote request waits until morning.
What should happen on an emergency call?
The caller should get your own emergency instruction, then a person. Nothing should attempt to diagnose the problem or advise on gas, water or electrical safety.
Write your emergency instruction down in advance, whatever answers the phone. Under pressure people improvise, and improvising about a gas smell is how somebody gets hurt.
If this is your trade
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