Implementing AI for After-Hours Support (GoHighLevel)
Today I wanted to talk about how you can use AI to keep your phone lines working for you after hours.
There is a huge need for this for our home service and property management clients.
I know there is a rush to "ai-ify" everything so I felt that this was a timely article. To be clear this is not a method for replacing humans. It's more about making sure you never miss out on a potential job, a tenant question, and freeing up humans to handle higher level tasks in the business.
So I wanted to walk you through how to set this up. I am going to use GoHighLevel just because that is what I know most of us are all using... This isn't some complicated system. It's pretty straightforward once you know what you are doing.
Our marketing GoHighLevel virtual assistant has set this up for people. So if you have any questions, I can intro you to him if you need more details. Parts of the nitty gritty of the setup go over my head.
Here's What We're Building
Before we dive into the technical stuff, let me explain what this actually looks like for your customers.
They will call your business number. Your virtual assistant CSR team gets the first shot at answering. I recommend to give them about 4 rings, maybe 20-30 seconds.
If nobody picks up, instead of going to voicemail, the customer will get options:
"Press 1 to talk to our AI assistant" or "Press 2 to request a callback."
That's it. Simple, but it works.
Setting Up the IVR System
You need to understand what an IVR is. IVR stands for Interactive Voice Response.
You know when you call a big company and it says "Press 1 for sales, Press 2 for support"? That's IVR.
Here's how we can set it up in GoHighLevel:
Step 1: Start IVR Trigger: This kicks in automatically when someone calls your business number. You'll need a phone system subscription for this to work.
Step 2: Connect to Your CSR First: Right away, we connect the call to your customer service team. You can add up to 10 different numbers here. Your office, your cell, whatever. The key is setting the timeout to about 20-30 seconds. That's your 4 rings.
Step 3: Check What Happened: After that timeout, we check if the call got answered, was busy, or got no response.
Step 4: Give Options: If nobody answered, you can play a message: "Our lines are busy right now. Press 1 to speak with our AI assistant or Press 2 to request a callback."
Step 5: Route Them: Based on what they press, we either send them to the AI or collect their callback info.
Here's something I always add into any IVR system… missed call text-back. If someone calls and doesn't get through, they automatically get a text asking how we can help. A lot of people actually prefer this.
Training Your AI
Now, the AI isn't just going to magically know about your business. You have to teach it. There are a few methods:
Web Crawler Method: Give it your website URL and it'll automatically pull your services, pricing, hours, location, etc... all that stuff. When someone asks "What are your hours?" it already knows because it read your website.
Custom Q&A: Think about the top 10 questions you always get asked. Write those out with clear answers. The more specific you get, the better this thing works.
Set Goals: Tell the AI what you want it to do. For home service clients that's usually getting quotes scheduled or appointments booked. So my point is that it is not just there for answering questions... It understand that you are trying to get an appointment booked.
Connect Your Calendar: This one is awesome. You can connect your calendar so it can book appointments directly. No more back and forth phone tag or scheduling conflicts.
Making It Sound Professional & Not upsetting Customers.
Here's where people mess this up. They try to make the AI sound human and dupe customers into working with an AI. Don't do that.
Be upfront about it. Tell people right away they're talking to an AI. Something like "Hi, you're speaking with our AI assistant." And always ALWAYS give them an easy way to get to a human. They should be able to say "customer service" or "operator" and get transferred immediately.
GoHighLevel has different AI voices. Test them out and pick one that sounds professional for your business. And most importantly, just keep it simple. The AI is not going to handle anything complex. It is there to take over basic questions and appointment booking.
Complex stuff still needs humans.
My Honest Feedback
The reality is that this stuff isn't perfect yet. I've seen issues with:
AI missing names or email addresses
Spelling mistakes with addresses (which is bad when you're trying to schedule service calls)
Getting confused with similar terms
Problems with accents
Some people who just won't talk to AI no matter what
But even with these problems it's still better than missing the call completely.
And I need to be exceptionally clear that this isn't about firing your customer service person. It's about covering when they're not available. So think of things like:
When they're on another call
During lunch
After 5 PM
Weekends
Holidays
Your human team does the relationship building and closes the big deals. The AI is just there to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
What I Tell My Clients
The future isn't all AI or all human. (Next 5-10 years) I feel strongly about this. It's both working together.
Right now, AI works best as backup, not as your main customer service.
Is it perfect? Absolutely not.
Will it get better? Absolutely…
But even today, it's way better than letting calls go to voicemail and hoping that people leave messages.
I recommend setting it up, test it for a few weeks, and see what happens. There is no reason not to do it. The setup is straight forward. You'll probably catch a few jobs or maintenance tickets you would have missed otherwise. And that pays for the whole system pretty quick.
The main thing is making sure your customers can always reach someone, even when you're not there. That's how you grow your business by being available when your competitors aren't. So just set it up and just give it a try.