# After-hours & missed calls

> After-hours and missed call cover keeps enquiries moving when your team can't answer, including evenings, weekends and bank holidays. Callers get help when they ring, and your team starts the next morning knowing what came in.

Type: Workflow (Inbound)
Last reviewed: 3 October 2026
Web page: https://www.intavia.ai/docs/after-hours-and-missed-calls
Product page: https://www.intavia.ai/capabilities/after-hours-call-answering

## At a glance

- What it does: Answers calls your team can't take and leaves the rest ready for them
- Channels: Inbound calls, with additional channels available
- Integrations: Your phone line and practice management system, such as Dentally
- What you can customise: Your reception hours, what callers can do out of hours, how urgent calls are handled and what happens next
- What your team sees: Bookings in your system, a task for every message and a summary of each call
- Setup: Done for you by our team, around your opening hours

## How it works

After-hours and missed call cover is built around your practice's hours. Our team does the setup work: we agree with you how calls should be handled when reception is closed or can't pick up, turn that into rules, and Intavia applies them to every call that reaches it.

1. Plan: we agree with you when Intavia answers, what callers can do and the next step for every kind of call. Our team builds the rules from that.
2. Answer: your phone system forwards calls to Intavia outside reception hours, or when nobody picks up, and Intavia answers with your practice's greeting.
3. Understand: Intavia checks your reception hours, including bank holidays, and works out what the caller needs.
4. Act: questions are answered and appointments are booked, moved or cancelled directly in your system where that's set up. Anything else becomes a message for your team.
5. Outcome: every call ends with a recorded outcome and a summary in your dashboard.
6. Next step: messages become tasks for your team to pick up when reception opens, and urgent calls follow your urgent call rules.

## Rules

These are the options we agree with you, not fixed settings. Each one can be shaped around how your practice works, and anything not listed here can be built into the plan.

| Rule | What we agree with you |
| --- | --- |
| Coverage | When calls reach Intavia, such as evenings, weekends, bank holidays or when your team can't pick up during the day |
| Reception hours | The hours your reception is staffed, from your practice system or agreed with you, and the bank holiday calendar for your part of the UK |
| Appointments | Which appointments can be booked, moved or cancelled out of hours, and which wait for your team |
| Messages | What details are taken, such as a callback number, and what callers are told about when to expect a reply |
| Urgent calls | How urgent concerns are handled out of hours, such as a transfer to your on-call number, safety advice, sharing your urgent-care contacts or an urgent task for your team |
| Hand-over | The situations that become a task for your team, and which of them are urgent |
| Alerts | Who on your team hears about new tasks, by SMS or email |
| Fallbacks | Alternative routes that keep things moving, such as offering another time, giving your urgent-care contact or taking a message for the morning |

## Outcomes

Each outcome has a default next step. Any of them can be changed to suit your practice.

| Outcome | What happens next |
| --- | --- |
| Booked, moved or cancelled | The change is made in your system and confirmed with the caller |
| Question answered | Recorded with a summary, with nothing for your team to do |
| Message or call back requested | A task is waiting for your team, with the caller's details and a callback number where they gave one |
| Urgent concern | Your urgent call rules apply, such as a transfer to your on-call number, safety advice or an urgent task for your team |
| Needs the practice | A task is created for your team to pick up when reception opens |

## Safeguards

- Transfers to reception are offered only during your reception hours. Outside them, Intavia takes a message for your team instead.
- Callers are told what happens next, without promises about exactly when your team will reply.
- Identity is confirmed before any appointment details are shared.
- Where bank holidays are set up, they come from the official UK calendar for your region.

## Works together with

- [24/7 call answering](https://www.intavia.ai/capabilities/call-answering): Inbound calls answered with a natural conversation, day or night.
- [Urgent & emergency calls](https://www.intavia.ai/docs/urgent-calls): Urgent calls recognised early and routed, advised or booked the way your practice decides.
- [Overflow call handling](https://www.intavia.ai/capabilities/overflow-call-handling): Intavia picks up the calls your team can't, so callers still get help.
- [Appointment booking, changes & cancellations](https://www.intavia.ai/capabilities/appointment-booking): Appointments booked, moved and cancelled during the call, directly in your system.
- [Team hand-off, tasks & alerts](https://www.intavia.ai/docs/team-hand-off): Clear tasks and alerts so your team knows exactly what to do next.
- [Call routing & transfers](https://www.intavia.ai/capabilities/call-routing): Calls that need a person reach the right one, with context.

## FAQs

### Which channels does after-hours cover use?

Phone calls to your practice number are the default. Out-of-hours enquiries by text, WhatsApp or your website widget can be handled the same way.

### What counts as a missed call?

A call your team can't pick up while the practice is open. Your phone system can forward it to Intavia after a set number of rings, so the caller still gets help, and our team helps you set that up.

### Does it know about bank holidays?

Yes. Your reception hours include the bank holiday calendar for your part of the UK, so callers aren't offered a transfer to reception on those days. Appointment booking can carry on as normal where it's set up.

### What are callers told about hearing back?

Callers are told what you've agreed, such as the team getting back to them, and the task shows your team exactly what was said.

### Can the rules change after launch?

Yes. Tell your support team what you need and they update the rules. There's nothing for you to configure.