What happens to the question that comes in after you close

A question that comes in after you close goes to whoever answers first. An AI chatbot on your site answers from the services, hours, and policies you approved, takes a name and number, and sends the transcript so the morning starts with a lead.

That message is still sitting there in the morning. Sometimes the job, the lease, or the consult is already gone, taken by whoever replied first.

The question is usually a simple one

Most after-hours messages are the same few questions your staff already answers during the day.

An HVAC customer wants to know if someone can come out. A plumber wants to know if you take emergency calls, and whether you cover their town. A property manager's prospect wants availability, the pet policy, and the steps to apply. Someone looking for a lawyer wants to know if you handle their kind of case, and how to reach a person.

A useful reply does three things. It answers from information you have already approved: services, hours, service area, prices, and policies. It asks for a name, a phone number, and what they need. It sends that to your phone or email while they are still on your site.

When the question sits outside that material, or the customer asks for a person, the conversation comes to you with the full transcript. In the morning they can pick up where the chat left off.

A slow reply hands the job to whoever answered.

What to set up before you lock the door

A chat button on the site you already have can take the question, give the approved answer, and hand you the lead. The work is deciding what it is allowed to say.

• Write down the questions you get every week, including the ones that arrive after you lock up.
• Write the approved answer for each one: service area, hours, emergencies, prices, and policies.
• Choose where a new lead goes: a phone number, an email, or both.
• Mark the questions that always go to a person, and send the whole conversation with them.
• Once a month, read what people actually asked and update anything in the business that changed.

An AI chatbot on your site does this work. It answers from the content you approve, takes the name and number, and hands you the conversation when a person should take over.

Daniel runs Eridax LLC, an independent software company that builds software for clients and publishes its own apps and games.