Who rings after hours
Evening and weekend callers come in two kinds. Most have a job that can wait: a boiler service, a quote for a bathroom, a tap that drips. They ring at nine at night because that is when they sat down. The others cannot wait: no heating in January, water coming through a ceiling.
The first kind will happily wait until morning, if they know someone has their call. Left with silence, plenty of them ring the next name instead, and in the morning you are ringing back somebody who has already booked.
What an after-hours text should say
The same as the daytime one, with one change: tell them when they will hear from you. Who you are, that you have finished for the day, that you will ring first thing, and a question that gets them to tell you the job.
Corbel Plumbing here, sorry, finished for the day. Reply with what you need and where you are, and I'll call you first thing from my direct mobile.
In the morning you ring back knowing the job, the address and who to ask for, instead of starting cold.
If you take emergency call-outs
Then say so. Change the text to tell them how to reach you for an emergency, and tell them your call-out charge on the phone before you set off, so the price is never a surprise on the doorstep.
If you do not take them, say that too, kindly. A caller told plainly that you are not out tonight but will ring in the morning is better off than one left guessing, and often still books you for the follow-up.
How Slate OS handles it
- You set your hours. Inside them, a call you miss gets the missed-call text. Outside them, it gets your after-hours text instead.
- Your phone still rings after hours, so you can take a call if you want to. Slate only changes what a missed caller is told.
- Every word of both texts is yours to change, and either can be switched off.
Straight answers
- Should I answer the phone at 10pm?
- That is your call. What matters is that the caller you do not answer still hears from you, so the job is still there in the morning.
- Will they ring someone else anyway?
- Some will, especially in a real emergency, and that is a job you were not going out for. The ones whose job can wait mostly wait, once they know you have their call.
- What does Slate OS cost?
- £249 a month, one plan. The first 25 firms pay £199 a month for as long as they stay. You get 14 days free from the day you start, and if you are not happy within 14 days of your first payment, you message us and we refund it in full.
Slate OS gives you an office line that rings your own mobile. When you can’t pick up, the caller gets a text in your firm’s name within seconds, and the job lands on your phone. Quotes, invoices and a diary come with it, for when you want them.