It is 12:20 pm on a Tuesday at ProDental. Both people at the front desk are at lunch. A patient calls to ask whether the office still needs the insurance form she was told to bring. Your AI agent answers on the first ring and says what it would say at 10:00 am: "Someone at the front desk can help with that right away. I will let them know you called."
Nobody is at the desk for another 40 minutes.
The agent was not wrong. It was told what to do. Nobody told it when that changes.
Your agent's instructions in AI Studio describe how it should handle a call: what to offer, what to promise, when to hand a caller to a person. They apply at every hour of the week.
A practice does not run that way. That is the trouble with after-hours call handling at a dental office: the caller is the same, and what is true has changed. At 10:00 am, "someone will call you right back" is true. At 7:40 pm, it is not. At lunch, "I can put you through to the front desk" sends a caller to an empty chair. On Thanksgiving, "we can see you tomorrow" is a promise a locked building cannot keep.
Callers hear a confident answer that is out of date. The fix is telling your agent which instructions apply when.
Scheduled Instructions lets you attach extra instructions to a schedule. After hours, at lunch, on a holiday, or in any window you define, your agent follows them on top of its usual ones. Outside the schedule, nothing changes.
You write them in plain language, like the rest of your agent's instructions. They apply to phone calls and text conversations alike. Scheduled Instructions is available now for all Yobi customers. No upgrade required. No additional cost.
You set it up in AI Studio, where your agent's instructions live.
When a call or text comes in, your agent checks the schedule and takes the matching instructions.
A 7:40 pm call at ProDental, where the After Hours instruction reads: "The office is closed until 9:00 am. Do not promise a callback tonight. Offer the first opening tomorrow. If the caller is in pain or has swelling, give them the on-call number, 555-0142."
Caller: "Hi, I chipped a tooth at dinner. It is not really hurting, but I want someone to look at it."
AI agent: "I am sorry to hear that. The office is closed for the evening and reopens at 9:00 am. I can book you for the first opening tomorrow morning. Would 9:20 am work?"
Caller: "Yes, that works."
AI agent: "You are booked for 9:20 am tomorrow. If the pain gets worse tonight, our on-call number is 555-0142."
Tell your agent what is true at night: when the office reopens, whether a callback is coming, what to do about pain or swelling. To send emergency calls straight to the on-call dentist, add a Scheduled Transfer on the same schedule.
Patients call on their lunch break, often when your front desk takes its own. A Lunch Break instruction can tell your agent not to promise an immediate callback, and to book on the spot or take a message instead.
Add a Holiday or Vacation/Closure schedule with the dates, and tell your agent what to say: when the office reopens and where to turn in an emergency. On the AI Integrated plan, those dates are also marked closed for booking, so your agent does not offer appointments on them. Use these two presets only for days the office is fully closed; for a half day, add a Specific Date schedule instead.
Before: One set of instructions, every hour, and callers get promises nobody can keep until morning.
After: Your agent says what is true right now, because you told it what changes and when. If its everyday instructions need work first, start by adding your hours, services and FAQs.
If you are already a Yobi customer, add an After Hours schedule and write what your agent should do tonight. Log in to dashboard
If you are not using Yobi yet, see an AI receptionist give the right answer at any hour. Book a Demo or call Kate at 609-507-2178.
No. It is available now for all Yobi customers. No upgrade required, no additional cost.
Yes. By default the scheduled text is added on top of your regular instructions. If you check Replace base instructions, your agent is told to follow the scheduled instructions instead during that time.
The more specific one applies, and only its instructions are used. A specific date comes first, then a date range, then a combined schedule, then days of the week, then a time range. Two schedules of the same kind, such as two time ranges, should not overlap.
Yes. The same scheduled instructions apply to phone calls and to text conversations.
Yes. A Holiday schedule is a specific date, including the year, so add next year's dates when you plan your calendar.