After-hours (5pm-8am) is roughly 65% of every 24-hour day. Plus weekends (48 hours/week). Plus lunch (5 hours/week). That's ~75% of every week where most small businesses have zero call coverage. The calls that come in during those windows: 100% miss rate. The only question is what % of those callers were ready to buy.
Industry pricing: domestic 24/7 answering service with dispatch capability = $3,000-$5,000/mo (depending on minute volume + after-hours rate). Offshore: $1,500-$2,500/mo but accent + cultural fit can be a problem in some verticals. Hiring an overnight in-house person: $35K-$50K/yr fully loaded. AI: $797/mo flat.
Risk profile: if AI doesn't perform during business hours, your existing front desk catches the miss + the brand impact is contained. If AI doesn't perform after-hours, the call hits voicemail (same as before AI). You haven't added downside, only upside. Most owners we work with start with after-hours-only for 30 days, measure the recovered bookings, then expand coverage based on actual numbers.
Week 1-2: after-hours only (5pm-8am + weekends). Measure recovered bookings. Week 3-4: add lunch + Saturday morning coverage. Measure delta. Week 5-6: add peak-hour overflow (when front desk is on another line). Measure delta. By end of month 2: full coverage if numbers support it. 60-day full pilot lets you make the deploy decision on YOUR data, not the vendor's marketing.
After-hours-only AI: $797/mo (same as full coverage — pricing isn't usage-based). Setup typically 7-10 days. To hear after-hours AI: +1 (877) 640-3761. To run YOUR after-hours math: free 5-min audit.