> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.cloudtalk.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # VoiceAgent templates: After Hours AI Receptionist > Set up your AI Receptionist to handle calls, answer common questions, and take messages when your team is unavailable > [!NOTE] > > The After Hours AI Receptionist is a VoiceAgent configured to handle inbound calls outside business hours. It answers calls, responds to common questions from your Knowledge Base, and takes a structured message when it cannot help, so calls are handled and nothing is missed when your team is unavailable. > > This guide walks you through configuring the agent step by step, from the initial profile setup through to connecting it to your call flow. **User level:** Admin *** > [!WARNING] > > This article covers the after-hours setup specifically. For a general overview of the AI Receptionist template, see [VoiceAgent templates: AI Receptionist](https://help.cloudtalk.io/en/articles/14057883-voiceagent-templates-ai-receptionist.md). ## Before you start To set up an After Hours AI Receptionist, make sure you have: * An active **AI Receptionist or AI Specialist** package on your account * **Admin access** to the CloudTalk Dashboard * A Time Router configured (or ready to configure) in Call Flow Designer * A CRM webhook endpoint if you want call data sent automatically ## Configuring After Hours AI Receptionist ### Step 1: Set up your agent profile In **AI Voice Agents > Agents**, click **+ New VoiceAgent**. In the template gallery, select **After-Hours Message Taker** from the **Reception** category to start with a pre-configured agent, or choose **Receptionist** under **Manual setup** to configure everything yourself. Either way, check the settings below. | **Setting** | **Notes** | | - | - | | Name | Use a name that distinguishes it from your during-hours agent, e.g. "Aria – After Hours". | | Language | Select your primary language. Add secondary languages if needed; the agent detects the caller's language automatically. If you configure more than one, define language handling in your goal prompt. | | Voice | Preview options in the dashboard before choosing. | | Greeting | Keep it short and identify it as an AI agent. | **Example greeting:** ```text theme={"system"} Hello, you've reached [Your Company]. I'm [Agent Name], your AI receptionist. May I please take your name, and how may I help you? ``` You can add "You've reached \[Company] after-hours support" to the greeting if callers need to know they're outside business hours. Otherwise, the agent gets straight to helping. ![](https://mintcdn.com/cloudtalk/akDGinDOBsihWn_p/images/help-center/articles/15653481/4039395731d4-screenshot-2026-06-29-at-10-12-10.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=akDGinDOBsihWn_p\&q=85\&s=d38431b830dca40e4e2e4fac6cd9bfb9) ### Step 2: Configure VoiceAgent skills Skills define what the agent can do during a call. Each skill adds a specific capability (answering questions, transferring to a human, capturing data, or taking a message). You configure which skills are active and how each one behaves. For a full description of all available skills, see [VoiceAgent Skills](https://help.cloudtalk.io/en/articles/14072758-voiceagent-skills.md). #### Answer Questions (recommended) *[Answer Questions](https://help.cloudtalk.io/en/articles/14072758-voiceagent-skills.md#:~:text=from%20the%20payload.-,Answer%20Questions,-The%20Answer%20Questions)* is a fallback behaviour setting, not a routing skill. It tells the agent what to do when it cannot find an answer in the Knowledge Base. Callers always get a next step, even when the agent cannot find an answer. For after-hours, set the fallback to **Be honest**. The agent will say it doesn't know and offer to take a message. Do not set this to "Hand over to a person" unless you have an on-call line that is reliably staffed. ![](https://mintcdn.com/cloudtalk/akDGinDOBsihWn_p/images/help-center/articles/15653481/dc2be51bbf00-screenshot-2026-06-29-at-10-14-10.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=akDGinDOBsihWn_p\&q=85\&s=50a259118b076406f47d809c52ad68bf) #### Take a Message (recommended) *[Take a Message](https://help.cloudtalk.io/en/articles/14072758-voiceagent-skills.md#:~:text=your%20business%20needs.-,Take%20a%20Message,-The%20Take%20a)* skill captures the caller's name and message automatically. You configure the confirmation message shown after details are collected. No caller leaves without their details being recorded for follow-up. **Confirmation message:** ```text theme={"system"} Got it, I've noted your details. Someone from our team will be in touch as soon as possible. ``` ![](https://mintcdn.com/cloudtalk/akDGinDOBsihWn_p/images/help-center/articles/15653481/0a3cba138b68-screenshot-2026-06-29-at-12-00-52.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=akDGinDOBsihWn_p\&q=85\&s=3a602cdb05cd41c77311775969f11c0a) This skill does not offer message-taking on its own. You need a Scenario that explicitly triggers it, otherwise the agent will not offer it. * Add a Scenario: *"When you can't answer, offer to take a message and collect the caller's name and contact number."* * Add a task-complete Scenario to close the call cleanly after the message is taken. * Do not use this as a fallback for unanswered transfers. Use Transfer to Call Flow with a fallback branch for that. #### Extract Information (recommended) *[Extract Information](https://help.cloudtalk.io/en/articles/14072758-voiceagent-skills.md#:~:text=an%20available%20option.-,Extract%20information,-The%20Extract%20Information)* skill captures structured call data and sends it to your CRM or automation endpoint via webhook. Your team has full context on every call before they follow up. | **Property name** | **Type** | **Instruction for AI** | | - | - | - | | `name` | Text | Extract the caller's name as provided during the conversation. | | `email` | Text | Extract the caller's email if provided. Leave empty if not given. | | `call_summary` | Text | Summarize the call and what the caller needed in one to two sentences. | Add a `phone_number` field if your team needs to call back rather than email. * Property names are case-sensitive. Do not rename them after setup, as they're used to send data to your CRM. * Test webhook output on several real calls before connecting your production CRM. ![](https://mintcdn.com/cloudtalk/akDGinDOBsihWn_p/images/help-center/articles/15653481/6e59b1a51c55-screenshot-2026-06-29-at-10-26-36.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=akDGinDOBsihWn_p\&q=85\&s=436669fe0c10e21b7adbda0fdd44cfd5) #### Transfer to Call Flow: emergency only (optional) Only configure this if you have an on-call or emergency line with someone reliably available to answer. An unanswered transfer is a worse experience than taking a message. Use **Transfer to Call Flow** rather than Transfer to Human/Group so you can define a fallback branch for when the emergency line goes unanswered. | **Transfer rule** | **Destination** | | - | - | | Caller mentions an emergency or urgent situation | Continues in Call Flow > Group > \[On-call / Emergency Line] | | Transfer unanswered | Fallback branch > voicemail or external redirect | > [!WARNING] > > Always configure a fallback branch in Call Flow Designer to handle unanswered calls. ![](https://mintcdn.com/cloudtalk/akDGinDOBsihWn_p/images/help-center/articles/15653481/0fb9df1566ba-screenshot-2026-06-29-at-14-49-16.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=akDGinDOBsihWn_p\&q=85\&s=4a486884d1324b6ab31f9c509c317691) ### Step 3: Build your Knowledge Base The agent only answers from the documents you upload. It will not use external knowledge or guess. For a full guide on setting up your Knowledge Base, see [Knowledge Base for VoiceAgents](https://help.cloudtalk.io/en/articles/11204159-knowledge-base-for-voiceagents.md). After-hours callers typically ask about opening hours, location, what to do in urgent situations, and when someone will call them back. Scope your Knowledge Base to those topics. 1. **One source of truth per topic.** If opening hours appear in multiple documents, consolidate them. Conflicting information produces inconsistent answers. 2. **Structured content.** Use Q\&A format or short paragraphs. Do not paste entire policy documents. 3. **Keep it current.** Outdated information causes wrong answers. Update documents when things change. 4. **Scope it to after-hours queries.** Do not upload your entire knowledge base. 5. **File limits:** 21MB per file. Accepted formats: `.pdf`, `.txt`, `.docx`, `.html`, `.epub`. You can also add URLs pointing to FAQs or public help content. Adding more documents does not improve the agent. A smaller, well-structured Knowledge Base performs better than a large, inconsistent one. ![](https://mintcdn.com/cloudtalk/akDGinDOBsihWn_p/images/help-center/articles/15653481/d64c7a7b69ed-screenshot-2026-06-29-at-10-33-34.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=akDGinDOBsihWn_p\&q=85\&s=3a2c4d3523606b54f7ca289c272304fb) ### Step 4: Set up scenarios Scenarios define how the agent handles situations its normal behaviour cannot resolve. For a full guide, see [VoiceAgent Scenarios & Guardrails](https://help.cloudtalk.io/en/articles/14073408-voiceagent-scenarios-guardrails.md). The after-hours setup requires a task-complete scenario to close calls cleanly after a message is taken. | **Trigger** | **Response** | **Action** | | - | - | - | | Caller says goodbye or has no more questions | "You're welcome! Have a great rest of your day. Goodbye!" | Hangup | | Caller idle 15+ seconds | "I haven't heard anything, are you still there? Feel free to call back anytime." | Hangup | | Task complete: message taken and details collected | "Thank you for calling. Someone from our team will be in touch soon. Have a great day. Goodbye!" | Hangup | | Caller wants to leave a message | "Of course, go ahead and I'll make sure it gets passed on." | Response only | | Caller asks to speak to a human | "Our team isn't available right now, but I can take a message and they'll get back to you as soon as possible. Would that work?" | Response only | | Caller asks if they're speaking to a human | "I'm an AI assistant for \[Company]. I'm here to help or take a message for the team." | Response only | ![](https://mintcdn.com/cloudtalk/akDGinDOBsihWn_p/images/help-center/articles/15653481/33b33a57cd28-screenshot-2026-06-29-at-10-54-40.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=akDGinDOBsihWn_p\&q=85\&s=5ff1f7974e8140dd94eb65dcf292285d) ### Step 5: Connect to your call flow Connect the agent to your phone number using a [Time Router](https://help.cloudtalk.io/en/articles/9652337-day-time-splitter.md) to route after-hours calls to it. > [!WARNING] > > For correct results, use a separate agent for after-hours calls. The Time Router directs calls to the correct agent based on business hours. For the during-hours setup, see [VoiceAgent templates: During Hours AI Receptionist](https://help.cloudtalk.io/en/articles/15645612-voiceagent-templates-during-hours-ai-receptionist.md). ```text theme={"system"} All inbound calls → Time Router During hours → [During Hours Agent] After hours → AI Voice Agent → [After Hours Agent] → Call ends (question answered) → Call ends (message taken, data sent to webhook) → (Optional) Urgent transfer → Group → [On-call / Emergency Line] → Transfer unanswered → fallback branch ``` * Set the Time Router to your exact business hours and timezone. * Test both the during-hours and after-hours branches before going live. * Always add a fallback branch for the emergency transfer route. ![](https://mintcdn.com/cloudtalk/akDGinDOBsihWn_p/images/help-center/articles/15653481/9125ed4930ab-screenshot-2026-06-29-at-13-57-58.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=akDGinDOBsihWn_p\&q=85\&s=1601cd820e9b2c88211618ad289db610) ## After you go live On your first morning, check: * What messages came in and whether the summaries are accurate * Whether any questions fell outside the Knowledge Base (add answers if so) * Whether the webhook is populating your CRM correctly Adjust your Knowledge Base and Scenarios based on what you find in the first week. ## FAQs * **Do I need a separate agent for after hours, or can I reuse the during-hours one?** You need separate agents. After-hours behaviour is different: there are no team transfers, message-taking is the primary output, and the tone should reflect that no one is available. Use a Time Router to direct calls to the right agent. * **The agent said we were open when we were actually closed. Why?** The Time Router is likely not configured correctly, or the business hours and timezone settings do not match your actual hours. Check the Time Router settings in Call Flow Designer. * **Can I set up an emergency transfer?** Yes, but only if someone is reliably available to answer. An unanswered transfer is a worse experience than taking a message. Use Transfer to Call Flow with a fallback branch so calls do not drop if no one picks up. * **How do I make sure overnight messages reach my team?** Use the Extract Information skill with a webhook pointing to your CRM or automation tool. The structured data will be available when your team starts the day. * **What if a caller asks something the Knowledge Base doesn't cover?** The agent will tell the caller it doesn't know and offer to take a message, as long as you have set the Answer Questions fallback to "Be honest" and added the appropriate Scenario. *** *Need help or have a question?* Just reach out through our [Support portal](https://support.cloudtalk.io/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=26305535257884) — we’re here for you. ## Related topics - [VoiceAgent templates: During Hours AI Receptionist](https://help.cloudtalk.io/en/articles/15645612-voiceagent-templates-during-hours-ai-receptionist.md) - [VoiceAgent templates: AI Receptionist](https://help.cloudtalk.io/en/articles/14057883-voiceagent-templates-ai-receptionist.md) - [Getting Started with VoiceAgents](https://help.cloudtalk.io/en/articles/11053795-getting-started-with-voiceagents.md) This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.