What callers expect when you're closed
When you close for the holidays, your annual shutdown or a long weekend, the people who call you expect three things: to find out when you reopen, to get an appointment for when you're back, and to be pointed in the right direction if there's an emergency. Voicemail that only says “we're closed” answers only the first, and only half of it. A caller who wanted an appointment for after the holidays has to call back later; one with an emergency calls someone else, and may never come back.
Good closure answering is prepared before you leave, runs by itself while you're away, and leaves you with an organised return. With an AI voice agent, the first decision is simple: close the agent for the period, or let it answer as usual.
Two ways to handle the phone during the holidays
Exceptional closures: a dedicated feature
For holidays, a public holiday, a long weekend or a stocktake, Sayelo has a feature designed for exactly that: exceptional closures. It closes your agent for a period, without touching your usual opening hours, which resume by themselves at the end. You have nothing to undo when you get back.
- The period. “Whole days”, with a “First day” and a “Last day (inclusive)”, or “Specific hours”, with a “Start” and an “End”, for an afternoon stocktake or an exceptional midday closure.
- The reason. The “Reason (optional)” field is a memo for you, summer holidays or stocktake. Callers don't hear it.
- What happens to calls. Three choices: “Play a message”, your message, for example “We reopen on the morning of the 27th”; “Hang up”; or “Transfer” to a person, such as the one covering for you.
- The time. The closure follows your business's time zone, French overseas territories included.
During an exceptional closure, the agent books no appointments. That's deliberate: nobody is there to honour an appointment booked on those days, and the caller knows where they stand straight away.
It is set on screen, in “What it does” → “Opening hours”, on the “Exceptional closures” card. Or with one sentence: write to your agent “We're closed from 24 to 26 December”, in the app or on WhatsApp. It adds the closure itself, and the change appears in your conversation thread, with “View” to open the relevant screen and “Undo” if you need to go back.
Letting the agent answer as usual
The other option is not to set up a closure, and to let the agent answer normally. It then tells callers you're away, offers an appointment as soon as you're back, takes down specific requests and transfers emergencies according to your rules. This option requires three settings: your days off blocked in your calendar, the date you reopen written into its instructions, and up-to-date transfer rules. It suits long closures, when three weeks without appointment booking would be costly once you're back.
| Exceptional closure | Agent answering as usual | |
|---|---|---|
| What needs setting up | A period and a choice, or one sentence to the agent | The calendar, instructions and transfers |
| What the caller hears | Your message, or nothing with “Hang up” | A conversation, with answers to their questions |
| Appointments for when you're back | None during the closure | Yes, with a confirmation SMS |
| Emergencies | All calls transferred to one person, or advice in the message | Transfer according to your rules, or redirection |
| Specific request | The caller will call back when you reopen | A complete summary by email |
| For which kind of closure | Public holiday, long weekend, stocktake, short absence | Long holidays, annual shutdown |
You can also combine them: let the agent answer during three weeks in summer, and set up an exceptional closure for a public holiday such as 15 August, when even the person covering for you is away.
Before closing: the checklist
Announce the dates everywhere
- Your website and your Google Business Profile, with the special opening hours for the period.
- Your shop window or practice door.
- Your email signature and your outstanding quotes.
- Customers with a job, a course of treatment or an order in progress: tell them directly, before they find out on the phone.
Prepare the calendar
If the agent keeps answering, block out the closure days in your calendar, so that no appointments are offered on them, and open up the slots for when you're back. With an exceptional closure, the agent offers no appointments during the period; prepare the slots for your return all the same. Either way, leave some slack in the first few days: the backlog of requests and callbacks will all arrive at once.
Organise emergency cover
This is the part most often neglected, and the one that matters most. Decide who covers emergencies while you're away: a partner, a fellow professional, a locum, your network's on-call service or your profession's out-of-hours service. Let that person know, agree the dates and note down their number. Then define what is genuinely urgent during the closure, often fewer things than usual. The guide to urgent calls for tradespeople helps you write these rules.
If you choose “Transfer” during an exceptional closure, all calls go to that person: check that they're happy to receive them. With Sayelo, the transfer is direct, with no announcement: if they don't answer, the caller reaches their voicemail. Ask them to leave an up-to-date greeting on it.
Write what will be said
Four elements: the closure sentence, the exact date you reopen, the alternative in an emergency, and what happens to requests. With an exceptional closure, the message played has to say it all in a few seconds, since the caller won't be able to ask any questions:
“Dr Martin's practice is closed for the holidays and reopens on the morning of Monday [reopening date]. For a dental emergency, contact the out-of-hours dental service for your area; if there are any warning signs, call the emergency services. Thank you, and speak soon.”
If the agent keeps answering, its greeting can open the conversation:
“Hello, Dr Martin's practice, I'm the practice's AI assistant. The practice is closed for the holidays and reopens on [reopening date]. I can offer you an appointment as soon as we reopen, take down your request, or point you in the right direction if it's urgent. What can I do for you?”
If some lines keep a voicemail, our example voicemail greetings include a version for closures.
Test before you leave
To hear the closure message before you go, add a short closure in “Specific hours”, call your number from another phone, then remove it. If the agent keeps answering, play out three situations: a question about reopening, an appointment request, an emergency. Check that each one ends up where you planned.
During the holidays: voicemail or answering that takes action
Traditional voicemail, an exceptional closure and an agent that keeps answering don't offer callers the same thing. Voicemail only plays a message, often forgotten once you're back. An exceptional closure plays yours or transfers the call, over a specific period, then stops by itself. The agent that answers, on the other hand, takes action: it gives information, books the appointment for when you reopen and leaves you a record of every request. The comparison between an AI voice agent and voicemail details these differences beyond the holiday period.
What the agent doesn't do while you're away matters just as much: it promises no visit that nobody will be able to carry out, gives no price you haven't set for it, and takes no payment over the phone. A request that falls outside your rules becomes a message, with the name, number and reason for calling.
What you receive while you're away
If the agent keeps answering, every call produces an email summary, with the transcript. Nothing obliges you to read them before you get back: file them in a folder in your inbox and open it on the day you reopen. If you have switched on WhatsApp alerts or the daily report, you can turn them off for the holidays in “Account” → “Notifications”. Emergencies, however, don't go through your inbox: they go to the person covering for you, if you have set their number as the transfer number for the duration of the closure. When you get back, you put yours back.
Public holidays and long weekends
This is the ideal case for an exceptional closure. For a single public holiday, a whole-day closure with a message giving the reopening date is enough. For a long weekend, decide in advance whether you'll open, then add the closure, update your Google Business Profile and let your customers know at the same time. A long weekend announced in the shop window but not on the phone, or the other way round, makes for unhappy callers. If you'd rather the agent answered on those days as it does on a Sunday, emergencies must follow your weekend rules: the guide to evening and weekend calls explains what to check the day before.
Afterwards: an organised return
On the day you're back, there's nothing to switch back on: the exceptional closure ends by itself, and your usual opening hours resume. Then sort things out before calling back.
- Emergencies: ask the colleague or locum what they dealt with, so you don't call back a customer whose problem has already been fixed.
- Appointments already booked: if the agent kept answering, there's nothing to do; they're in the calendar, confirmed by SMS, and the reminder the day before goes out automatically.
- Requests to call back: quotes, questions, complaints. Start with those that have a deadline, then new customers, then the rest. Once outbound calls are activated (only in France for now), “Call back”, on a call's record, lets you call back from your computer or your phone, with your agent's number.
- Questions left unanswered: your agent puts them to you; answer once, in one sentence, and it will know the answer next time.
Expect the first few days to be busier than usual, and keep some free time in the calendar to absorb them.
Two examples, two trades
A dental practice closes for two weeks in summer. It lets the agent answer: the agent announces the closure and the reopening date, books check-up and scale-and-polish appointments for after the holidays, directs anyone in pain to the out-of-hours dental service whose details you have given it, and to the emergency services if there are any warning signs. Our dentists page details these rules.
A plumber takes a week off in winter. He writes to his agent “We're closed from 9 to 13 February”, and chooses “Play a message”: the date he's back, the advice to turn off the water supply in the event of a leak, and the details of the partner plumber covering the area. The plumbers page shows a typical call for the rest of the year.
In both cases, the agent doesn't do the work for you: it keeps the door open, or closes it properly, while you're away. The plans and what they include are on the pricing page.
