The businesses that are most exposed to out-of-hours enquiry loss are often the ones that do not know the number. Finding it takes about 20 minutes and changes how you think about your response capability.
Step 1: Export or review your last 50 enquiries
Pull these from whichever channel generates the most volume: your website contact form submissions, email enquiries, or CRM records. You need the timestamp for each one: the exact time and day it arrived.
Step 2: Define "outside business hours" for your business
The standard definition is before 9am and after 5pm Monday to Friday, plus all day Saturday and Sunday. If your actual working hours are different, use your real hours.
Step 3: Categorise each enquiry
Go through the 50 and mark each one: inside hours or outside hours. If the timestamp is ambiguous (e.g. you work until 6pm), use your own judgment. You are building a picture, not a legal document.
Step 4: Calculate the percentage
Divide the number of out-of-hours enquiries by 50. Multiply by 100. That is your out-of-hours rate.
Step 5: Cross-reference with your response times
For the out-of-hours enquiries, note when each one received a first response. The gap between arrival and response for evening/weekend enquiries is where you will find the number that matters.
What to do with it
If your out-of-hours rate is above 40%, a significant portion of your enquiry volume is experiencing multi-hour delays by default. The question is how many jobs that is costing you.
If the rate is above 60%, an out-of-hours response capability is the single highest-priority systems change available to the business.
If your out-of-hours enquiries are sitting unanswered until morning, book a free discovery call with EveryCatch and we will build a response system that handles every enquiry within 60 seconds, regardless of when it arrives.
