Answer Correctly by Time of Day: Store Hours and After-Hours Handling with Voka

Why Store Hours and After-Hours Handling Matter

For small and medium businesses, phone calls are a critical source of leads and bookings. But your business isn’t open 24/7. When calls come in outside your store hours, many SMBs lose those opportunities. Research shows small businesses miss over 60% of after-hours calls, and 75% of those callers prefer speaking to a live person or at least getting a clear, helpful response.

Simply sending after-hours calls to voicemail isn’t enough. Callers often hang up, frustrated, and move on to competitors who answer promptly—even if it’s automated.

How Voka Handles Store Hours and After-Hours Calls

• Configurable Store Hours: Set your business hours precisely by day and time. Voka uses this to determine how to answer each call.
• Correct Responses Around the Clock: During open hours, Voka answers with natural, multi-provider voice quality, routes calls to the right agent, or books appointments instantly.
• After-Hours Handling: Instead of voicemail, Voka captures after-hours bookings with 2-way conversational SMS or schedules callbacks for the next business day—so you don’t lose leads.

Before Voka

• Calls after hours go to voicemail or ring unanswered.
• Potential customers hang up or call competitors.
• Lost revenue and wasted marketing spend on unreachable leads.

After Voka

• Callers always get the right answer based on your store hours.
• After-hours callers can book appointments via SMS or schedule callbacks.
• Higher lead capture rates and improved customer experience.

Who Benefits?

Every SMB with fluctuating business hours or after-hours call volume benefits. Retailers, salons, professional services, and more can:

• Reduce missed leads by up to 60% after hours (industry average).
• Increase bookings with automated, natural-sounding voice and SMS follow-up.
• Free staff from answering calls outside business hours.

Setting It Up in Voka

1. Log into your Voka dashboard.
2. Go to Business Settings > Store Hours and enter your open and close times by day.
3. Configure after-hours call handling preferences: enable SMS booking links or callback scheduling.
4. Integrate your calendar (Square, Acuity, Calendly, or Google Calendar) to sync bookings.
5. Test by calling during and after your store hours to confirm correct responses.

ROI and Impact

Consider this example: If your business receives 100 calls per week, with 20% after hours, that’s 20 calls missed without proper handling. Industry data shows 62% of after-hours calls are missed, so roughly 12 calls go unanswered. If 75% of those callers hang up without leaving a message, that’s 9 lost leads weekly.

With Voka’s after-hours handling, you can capture 70-80% of those 9 leads via SMS booking or callback scheduling, adding 6-7 new opportunities weekly. Over a month, that’s 24-28 additional leads, directly impacting revenue.

Trade-Offs to Consider

• Setup Time: Initial configuration requires setting accurate store hours and integrating calendars.
• Automation Limits: While Voka’s voice quality and SMS booking are advanced, complex after-hours queries may still require live follow-up.
• Pricing: Available on Flex and Value plans. Choose the plan that matches your call volume and feature needs.

Voka’s store hours and after-hours handling isn’t just about answering calls—it’s about capturing revenue opportunities you currently lose. Setting it up takes minutes but can improve your lead capture by up to 70% after hours.

Ready to stop losing after-hours leads? Get started with Voka today.