24/7 answering service

8,760 hours

in a year. A 9-to-5 with weekends off covers 2,080 of them

One number

No night line, no rota, no forwarding rule to remember to switch on

Flat

Priced on how many customers you answer for, never on how many times the phone rang

Every one of these is something the product does on a real call, not a capability statement. Where it refuses to act, that refusal is the design.

There is no out-of-hours mode to switch on

This is the part that breaks with a human service. Cover starts when someone forwards the line and ends when someone remembers to unforward it, and the calls lost to that are lost silently on both edges. Here the agent answers every call on the number; your working hours only change what it does with one, not whether it picks up.

3am is triaged, not queued

The classification runs on the night call exactly as it does at noon. Gas, smoke, sewage indoors and a downed line skip every queue and reach you; a dripping tap is booked into a slot you actually have; a robocall is dropped. What arrives on your phone at 3am is only ever the thing that should have.

It books at the hour nobody is there to book

It reads your working hours and the remaining capacity in each window and writes into the same Google, Outlook, Apple or CalDAV calendar you already keep. A Sunday-night caller gets a Monday-morning slot and a confirmation text before hanging up, not a promise that somebody will call them back.

The rota is a list of numbers, not a shift

Set who to try and in what order. Each leg rings about fifteen seconds and must be accepted by pressing 1, so nobody's voicemail can intercept the call by answering first. Whoever picks up hears a one-line brief before they are connected.

Public holidays are not an exception

There is no holiday schedule to maintain and no surcharge on the days everyone else closes. Christmas Eve is an hour like any other, and it is one of the hours a competitor's answering service is running a skeleton desk.

You read the night, you do not relive it

Every call recorded, transcribed, classified and searchable with what it captured and what it booked. Overnight becomes thirty seconds of reading rather than nine voicemails played at 7am while you drive.

In the words they are usually put in. Where the objection is right, it says so.

“I already forward the phone at night.”

To a service that takes a message, or to your own mobile. The first gives you a lead to chase in the morning; the second gives you a phone that rings at 2am for a job that could have waited until Thursday. Neither books anything. The forwarding is not the problem. What is on the other end of it is.

“Nobody calls a plumber at 4am.”

Almost nobody, and that is the point: the few who do are the highest-value calls you will take that week, because they have a real emergency and they are ringing down a list. Twenty-four-seven is not about call volume at 4am. It is about not being the number that went to voicemail.

“I'd be paying for hours where the phone never rings.”

Vandial’s paid platform plans start at $150 a month for 1,000 AI conversations. Pro is $350 for 2,000; Enterprise is quoted for your operation. Additional AI conversations are $0.40 each. Channel-provider charges, voice usage, phone numbers and implementation are separate. Compare the current allowances and channels on the pricing page.

What it will never do

You are handing your phone to something that talks to your customers when you cannot. These are the lines it does not cross, and the words it uses instead.

It never invents a price

It states the call-out fee and the rates you configured, and nothing else. Where it does not know, it says so and brings it to you rather than guessing — a number said on the phone is a number you are held to at the door.

What it actually says

“I'm not going to guess at the repair before someone's seen it — you'd only be annoyed if I got it wrong.”

It never promises an hour it cannot keep

Work in the field is booked in windows, because a specific time is a promise the traffic breaks. It offers the window that actually has capacity left, and it will not invent one to end the call politely.

What it actually says

“I can do Tuesday morning, between eight and twelve — I won't give you an exact hour and have you waiting in all day.”

It never sends anyone to voicemail

If the transfer ladder runs out and nobody accepts, it takes the details, commits to a specific callback window and flags it. A beep is the one outcome worse than not answering at all.

What it actually says

“I can't reach anyone this minute, so let me take the details and someone will call you back before nine tomorrow.”

Google, Outlook, Apple, Exchange, CalDAV — whichever calendar you already keep. Then your payments, your CRM, and whatever you automate with.

…and a lot more besides

• Warm transfersWarm transfersAnnounced — who is calling and why, before you take the line.
• Spam never billedSpam never billedRobocalls are spotted, zero-rated, and never become a customer.
• A number per sourceA number per sourceVan, yard sign, Google listing — see which line brings the work.
• Team & on-callTeam & on-callTries you, then a second number, then whoever is on call.
• Run it by textRun it by textReply to a text to move a job, block a morning, clear a day.
• Clear a day, everyone toldClear a day, everyone toldCall off a wet Tuesday; every customer is told and re-offered.
• Never invents an answerNever invents an answerNo price or slot it was not given. It takes a message instead.
• Any trade, no codeAny trade, no codeGoal, questions and guardrails are settings, not a rebuild.

When it answers

The hour, not the trade. Every one of these is a time your phone rings and nobody picks it up.

Answered for your trade, in your words

The questions, urgency rules and escalations are configuration. 31 trades have their own page.