After hours is when the good calls come in.
Your customers are at work when you are. They notice the problem in the evening, and that is when they start calling.
Ava covers every hour you do not, at the same flat price as the hours you do.
The hours you are closed are the hours they are free
A homeowner cannot call a plumber at 11am from a meeting. They call at 6:30pm when they get home and find the water heater has failed, or on Saturday morning when they finally have time to deal with it.
Which means your voicemail greeting is answering some of the highest-intent calls you get. Someone ringing at 8pm on a Sunday is not comparing three quotes. They want it handled.
Most trade businesses take a meaningful share of their annual enquiries outside business hours, and convert the worst on exactly those calls.
What after-hours coverage should actually do
The economics of the night shift
Paying a person to cover nights is rarely viable for a small trade business. The call volume does not justify a salary, but the calls that do come are disproportionately valuable.
Traditional answering services solve coverage but often charge a night premium, so the hours you most need them are the hours they cost most.
Software has no night rate. The same flat fee covers 2am on a bank holiday as covers Tuesday lunchtime, which changes what after-hours coverage is worth entirely.