Answer website visitors after you close

Your office closes at six. Your website doesn't. People compare providers at 10 PM, on a lunch break three time zones away, or early on a Sunday. An assistant earns its keep in those hours if it answers what your website already says and takes a clean message for everything else.

What visitors ask when you're closed

Night-time questions are rarely exotic. Most of them are things your website already says, just spread across several pages:

• "Are you open tomorrow, and from what time?"
• "Do you cover my town?"
• "Do I need an appointment, or can I walk in?"
• "What should I bring to the first visit?"
• "Can someone come out this week?"

The first four can be answered from your approved business information. The last one needs a person who can look at the schedule. The job of an after-hours assistant is to answer the first kind well and to collect the second kind cleanly, so nobody has to call back just to ask what the visitor wanted.

Answer, or take a message? Setting the rule

The Allinaa assistant answers only from information you have approved. When a question is covered, it replies in a few plain sentences. When it isn't, it says so, offers to pass the question to your team, and marks the question as unanswered so it shows up in your monthly report.

Before you go live, sort your night-time questions into three groups and write them into the knowledge as plain instructions:

1. Answer fully: hours, service area, what you do and don't offer, parking, what to bring.
2. Explain, then offer the form: anything that depends on a look at the job, such as estimates, availability for a specific day or unusual requests. Example instruction: "We don't give estimates in the chat. Explain that an estimate needs a short visit and offer the request form."
3. Never handle in the chat: emergencies, diagnoses, legal or medical advice. Say what the assistant should tell people instead.

Taking the message: the request form and your morning inbox

When a visitor wants a call back, the assistant asks up to three short questions, one at a time, then offers the request form; contact details go into the form with the visitor's consent, never into the chat. How the form, the consent box and the confirmation e-mail work is on lead capture, and the New, In progress and Completed routine for your morning is on the inquiry inbox page.

Time zone and opening-hours settings

The first step of the setup wizard asks for your time zone and opening hours. Dates and filters in the inbox use your time zone, so "yesterday evening" means your evening, not the server's. The assistant itself doesn't know the current time: for "are you open now?" it repeats your written hours and the visitor compares.

Write your hours in the knowledge exactly as you'd say them on the phone, including the time zone and what happens to night-time requests: "We are open Monday to Friday, 8 AM to 6 PM Central. Requests sent after hours are answered the next business morning." The assistant repeats what you wrote, so update it before holidays and seasonal changes. It won't know you're closing early on December 24 unless the knowledge says so.

When to say "call 911" or "call our emergency line"

A website chat is not an emergency service. Overnight requests wait until someone opens the inbox, and an AI can misread a worried message. Write explicit instructions for the cases that can't wait:

• If a visitor describes a fire, a gas smell, someone hurt or anyone in danger, the assistant should tell them to call 911 now, before anything else.
• If you run an emergency service, such as plumbing, locksmithing or heating repair, put the emergency number and the cases it covers in the knowledge. Also show it on your website, not only in the chat.
• If you have no emergency service, say that too, so the assistant doesn't suggest one you don't offer.

Trades that get many night-time emergencies have their own page: AI chatbot for home services.

Illustrative overnight conversation

At 7 AM the plumber reads a notification email with the reference number, the service ("ceiling leak below upstairs shower"), the timing ("morning is fine") and the phone number the visitor entered. Nobody has to ask the basic questions again.

Compare this with a phone answering service in Chatbot vs. answering service, or read how the same flow qualifies sales leads in Lead capture and qualification.

Questions and answers

Does the assistant answer at 3 AM?

Yes. The AI replies whenever a visitor writes, at any hour. People from your team reply when you are back, through the request the visitor sent.

Will visitors think they are chatting with a person?

The assistant is instructed never to pretend to be a person. On Standard it says the request will be forwarded and the team will get back to them.

What happens if we reach the monthly reply allowance overnight?

Standard includes 2,000 AI replies per month. If the allowance runs out, the chat shows the request form instead of AI answers, so contact capture keeps working. Premium has no monthly cap on AI replies (per-channel flood limits apply).

Can the assistant book appointments while we're closed?

It collects appointment requests and your team confirms them. See Appointment requests for how that works.