The single setting that changed our evenings was not a feature anybody sells you on. It is a grid of opening times in a control panel, and it took about ninety seconds to fill in.
We are an Air Landline affiliate. If you sign up through a link on this page we earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. We pay for our own account at the standard price and we would write the same thing either way.
What working hours actually does
Most people think of opening hours as a note on a website. Something a customer reads and, if you are lucky, respects. It is a request, not a rule.
On Air Landline it is a rule. You set the hours your business number is live, and outside those hours the number does not ring your mobile. It goes to voicemail with whatever greeting you recorded, and the transcription lands in your inbox. Your phone stays quiet.
The important bit is where the decision happens. This is not your handset filtering calls after they arrive. The routing sits at network level, so the call never reaches your phone at all. No missed call notification, no name flashing up at half nine, no deciding whether to answer.
Do Not Disturb on a mobile blocks everything, including your mum. This blocks one number, the business one, on a timetable you set.
How we have ours set
| When | What the number does |
|---|---|
| Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm | Rings the mobile |
| Weekday evenings and early mornings | Branded voicemail, transcription by email |
| Saturday and Sunday | Branded voicemail, different greeting |
| Lunch, as a scheduled break | Voicemail, back on automatically at 1pm |
| Christmas and holidays | Holiday greeting with a return date |
The scheduled break is the part people miss. You can carve out a window inside the working day, for a lunch or a client meeting, and it switches itself back on afterwards. No remembering to undo it. That last part matters more than it sounds, because the reason most people never use Do Not Disturb is that they forget to turn it off and then panic about what they missed.
Opening hours are included on the £9.99 plan. There is a seven day free trial if you want to test it on a real week.
Try it for seven daysAffiliate link. We earn a commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you.The objection, and the honest answer
Every time we mention this, someone says the same thing. What if the call was important?
Fair. Here is the actual answer rather than the reassuring one.
You will miss some calls. A percentage of people who ring at 8pm will not leave a voicemail and will ring a competitor in the morning instead. That is a real cost and pretending otherwise is how you end up disappointed.
What you get back is that every call you do take happens when you are actually able to help. The 8pm call you answer in a supermarket car park with no diary in front of you is not a good call. You take a name, promise to ring back, and half the time the note never makes it anywhere. That call was already lost. It just felt like you were doing something.
The voicemail transcription changes the maths as well. You are not losing the enquiry, you are moving it to a format you can act on properly. It arrives as text, you read it over coffee, you ring back at nine with the file open.
Where it genuinely does not work
- Emergency trades. If people ring you because water is coming through a ceiling, do not switch your phone off at five. Use the multiple diverting instead and point the number at whoever is on call.
- Businesses whose customers are only free in the evening. If you sell to shift workers or parents, 7pm might be your busiest hour. Set your hours around your customers, not around office convention.
- Anyone who cannot resist checking. The number stays quiet but your email still pings with the transcription. If you will read it at 10pm and worry until morning, turn the email notifications off too, or none of this helps.
The bit nobody mentions
Setting opening hours forces you to decide what they are.
Plenty of small businesses have never actually chosen. They are open whenever someone rings, which sounds like good service and is really just an absence of a decision. Filling in that grid made us say out loud that we do not work Sundays. Having it enforced by something other than willpower turned out to be the whole point.
Willpower is a terrible scheduling system. A grid in a control panel is a good one.
£9.99 + VAT a month, no contract, and the number stops ringing when you say it does.
See how it worksAffiliate link. We earn a commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you.Common questions
Can I change my opening hours quickly if something comes up?
Yes. It is done in the control panel and takes effect straight away, so you can extend a day, add a break, or switch to holiday mode from your phone without touching a handset.
What happens to a caller outside my opening hours?
They hear your recorded greeting and can leave a voicemail. The message is transcribed and emailed to you, so you read it rather than dialling in to listen.
Is this different from Do Not Disturb on my mobile?
Yes, in an important way. Do Not Disturb silences your whole phone. This routes one number, your business number, on a schedule, so personal calls still come through normally.
Does it cost extra?
No. Working hours, scheduled breaks and holiday mode are part of the standard £9.99 plus VAT a month plan. The virtual switchboard is the only add-on, at £4.99 plus VAT.
We are a marketing agency in Castleford, West Yorkshire. We write about the tools we actually run the business on, the good and the annoying. Get in touch if you want a hand, or read more over on Insights.
