How to answer website questions after hours. The complete guide.

The problem: questions don't stop at closing time

Most websites get visitors at night and on weekends, when nobody is at the desk. Those visitors usually have small, specific questions: Are you open Saturday? Do you take my insurance? How much is a basic visit? Do you serve my area? If the only options are a phone number that goes to voicemail or a contact form that promises a reply "within one business day," a lot of people simply move on to the next search result.

You have four realistic ways to cover those hours: an FAQ page, a contact form, live chat staffed by people, or an AI chat box. They aren't mutually exclusive. The rest of this guide assumes you want visitors to get a real answer in the moment, which in practice means an AI chat box backed by a good FAQ and a clean handoff to you.

Step 1: Write down what people actually ask

The quality of after-hours answers depends almost entirely on the information behind them. Before you touch any software, make a list. Good sources are your sent email folder, the questions your front desk hears every day, your voicemail, and the reviews people leave. Most businesses find the same groups of questions:

• Hours, including holidays, late nights and whether you take walk-ins.
• Prices, or at least starting prices and what changes them.
• Services and what you don't do, which saves everyone time.
• Location and service area, parking, and how to find you.
• Booking: the link to book, or how to request a time.
• Policies: cancellations, deposits, returns, warranties, payment methods.

Write each answer the way you would say it to a customer. Be specific. "Call for pricing" is not an answer; "Basic cleaning starts at $X; deep cleaning is quoted after an exam" is.

Step 2: Decide what the chat box may and may not say

The biggest worry about AI chat is that it makes things up. That risk is real with general-purpose chatbots that draw on the whole internet. ChatBouncer is built the other way round: it answers only from the information you save, and when the answer isn't there it tells the customer the business will confirm instead of guessing.

Decide in advance which topics should always go to you. Typical examples are anything about emergencies, exact quotes for custom work, legal or medical advice, and anything involving a specific booking. Leave those out of your saved info, or add an FAQ that says plainly that the owner will confirm. The chat box will then hand those over rather than improvising.

Step 3: Set it up

1. Create your account. Sign up at chatbouncer.com/signup. Building and previewing your chat box is free and doesn't need a card.
2. Give it your website address. ChatBouncer reads your public pages and pulls in your hours, prices, services and FAQs. No website? Enter your business name and fill the info in yourself.
3. Check every tab in Business info & preview. Business info, Hours, Menu / services, FAQ, Booking & payments and Personality. Fix anything that's wrong. The Knowledge score on your dashboard lists what's still missing.
4. Test it in Preview chat. Ask the questions your customers really ask, including awkward ones. Preview chats don't count toward your messages.
5. Start the 14-day free trial. Pick a plan on the Billing page. A card is required, but you aren't charged until the trial ends. Compare plans on the pricing page.
6. Install it and press Go live. Add your website domains on the Widget & embed tab, copy the one-line code and paste it just above </body>, or use the free WordPress plugin. Guides for every platform are on the install page.

Most people finish the same day. The slowest part is usually checking the information, not installing the code.

Step 4: How it hands off to a human

Every ChatBouncer plan uses the same handoff. When the chat box can't answer from your saved info, or the customer asks for a person, it says the business will confirm and asks for the customer's contact details. You get an email with the question and those details, and the conversation lands in your Handoff inbox.

You can answer two ways: type a reply in the dashboard and click Send reply, or simply reply to the notification email. The customer sees your reply in the chat window.

If you want to take over a live chat yourself, just reply. The visitor sees "A person from your business has joined the chat," and the AI pauses in that conversation for 30 minutes. Click Resume AI when you're done, or it picks up again on its own after 30 minutes. On Pro and Business you can also send new-lead and handoff alerts to Slack, or to Zapier and other tools through an outgoing webhook.

Step 5: Improve it every week

After hours is where you learn what your website is missing. Every question the chat box can't answer shows up on the Unanswered tab. Type the answer once, click Add this answer to my bot, and it becomes an FAQ the chat box uses from then on. Spend ten minutes a week on that tab for the first month and the number of handoffs usually drops as your information fills in.

Also read a few full conversations in Chat history. You'll see how people phrase things, which helps you write FAQs in your customers' words. If you change your hours or prices on your website, open Import from website, scan again and save, or edit the tab directly.

What it can't do

• It doesn't answer phone calls or voicemail. It works in the chat box on your website.
• It won't know anything you haven't saved. Missing hours or prices mean more handoffs.
• It doesn't book, move or cancel appointments. It shares your booking link or passes the request to you.
• It can't give a binding quote for custom work. It says the owner will confirm.
• The night-time handoff still needs a person in the morning. It captures the lead; you still have to reply.
• On a free trial it stops at your plan's monthly message limit and asks visitors for contact details instead.

What it costs

Starter is $29 a month (USD) for one website and 1,500 customer messages a month. Pro is $59 for up to 3 websites and 5,000 messages shared, and adds PDF and Word documents, Slack and Zapier connections. Business is $119 for up to 10 websites and 15,000 messages shared, with white label. Every plan includes 24/7 answers, the owner-will-confirm handoff, human takeover and spam filtering, and starts with a 14-day free trial.

Want to see it on your own site first? Type your website address into the free preview on the homepage. It builds a temporary chat box from your public pages, no signup needed. When you're ready, start the 14-day free trial; plans are $29, $59 and $119 a month (USD) on the pricing page.