Anna Sheronova
In short
Gym enquiries after hours can be covered by you or a rota, an away message, an answering service, an AI agent, or a quick reply when you open; choose by how many arrive, on which channel, and whether they need a person.
- What each costs: Each option costs evenings, a monthly fee, or leads who got an answer elsewhere first.
- What none should do: None should leave people unsure when you’ll reply.
- How to choose: Count a week of out-of-hours messages and calls first.
It is 22:47 and you are on the sofa with the gym’s phone. Tom Bakker has asked on WhatsApp whether he can freeze his membership in December. Lisa Jansen called the gym at 21:30 about trying a class, and the call rang out at the empty desk. At 06:10 tomorrow, Noor de Wit will open the chat on your website to ask what time you open on Sunday.
About one enquiry in three arrives outside office hours, in the evening, overnight or at the weekend, going by the counts software companies publish for businesses of all kinds, few of them gyms. If someone is on your desk into the evening or at weekends, a smaller share of yours probably arrives while you are closed.
Option 1: You or your team answer, from home or on a rota
Covers: Everything, from someone who knows your gym, Tom’s freeze included. Some owners forward the gym’s number to their own mobile after closing; on a rota, the gym’s phone goes home with whoever is on that night.
Costs you: Your evenings, and an expectation you set without meaning to: reply at 21:00 a few times, and clients start to treat 21:00 as normal. A rota costs pay, and it is work to agree with your staff.
Can’t do: Carry on when that person is ill or away. It holds while the numbers are small and someone is willing.
Option 2: An away message, or a form that takes their details
Covers: WhatsApp, through the free WhatsApp Business app’s away message, which you write once and set to go outside the hours you choose. If most of your evening messages arrive on WhatsApp, see what the free app does on its own, and what needs the Business Platform.
Instagram, Messenger and email have their own away message or auto-reply, and a form on your website takes a name and number at any hour. On the phone, a recorded message can give your opening hours and take a voicemail.
Costs you: Nothing extra in money. Like waiting for the morning, it can still lose you the people who wanted an answer tonight.
Can’t do: Answer the question. Put a link to your timetable or online trial booking in the message, so someone who already knows what they want can book a trial themselves. The app sends the away message from your phone, so it only goes out while that phone is online.
Option 3: An answering service for calls
Covers: Calls. Lisa’s call at 21:30 reaches a person, and in the morning you have her name, her number and what she wanted.
Costs you: A monthly plan or a fee per call or minute. It answers only what you have briefed it on, so keeping that brief current takes time too.
Can’t do: Most services answer calls only, so WhatsApp and your website chat still wait for the morning. A service rarely books a trial into your booking system, so Lisa waits for your call back anyway.
Option 4: An AI that answers on WhatsApp, website chat or the phone
Covers: WhatsApp, website chat and calls, at any hour. Noor gets your Sunday opening time at 06:10 from an AI agent that introduces itself as your gym’s assistant.
Regymo’s AI agent for gyms answers your gym’s WhatsApp and website chat at any hour from your own information, books a trial depending on which tools are connected to it, and tells people when your team will reply to the rest.
On the phone, it says it is an AI, and it can send Lisa a booking link on WhatsApp during the call and take her question as a callback task. You forward your gym’s own number to it, for every call or only unanswered ones.
Costs you: A monthly price, and an evening to give it your gym’s information and test it: send it a half-typed late-night message before members do.
Can’t do: The conversations that need a person, such as Tom’s freeze; it hands those to your team for the morning. Decide up front which questions to leave for your team.
Option 5: Leave it for the morning, and make the morning fast
Covers: Everything, from a person, the next day. With an away message or a recorded message that says when you open, nobody has to wonder whether you saw their message.
Costs you: The people who wrote to several gyms that evening and went with the first one that answered.
Can’t do: Answer tonight. On the WhatsApp Business Platform, a Saturday evening message answered on Monday is past the 24-hour window, so your reply has to be an approved template.
Reply first thing when you open, starting with leads and anyone who asked for a person, and decide who takes each one. Once the first reply is out, what to send a lead who hasn’t booked is the next job.
How to choose: four questions about your out-of-hours enquiries
Go back through one week of chats and calls and mark each one with its time, its channel and whether it needed a person. Calls that rang out are in your phone’s call log.
| Answers at 22:00 | Can book a trial | Costs you | |
|---|---|---|---|
| You or a rota | Yes, a person | Yes | Your evenings, or pay for a rota |
| Away message, voicemail or form | Says when you’ll reply, or takes details | Only through a booking link in the message | Nothing extra in moneyleads who wanted an answer tonight |
| Answering service | Mostly calls, a person takes a message | Rarely | A monthly plan or a fee per call |
| An AI agent | WhatsApp, website chat and calls, from your information | Depending on which tools are connected to it | A monthly price and an evening to set it up |
| The morning | No | Yes, once you open | Leads who got an answer elsewhere first |
Then answer four questions about your week:
- How many arrive after hours? A few a week can wait for the morning. A few every evening already cost you something, in evenings or in leads.
- On which channel? Calls point to a voicemail, an answering service or an AI on the phone. WhatsApp and website chat point to an away message or an AI agent. Only a person or an AI covers both with an answer.
- Do they have an answer, or need a person? Often they are questions with an answer: opening hours, prices, a trial. A freeze or a cancellation needs your team, whatever answers at night.
- What are your evenings worth to you? If answering at 22:00 yourself costs you nothing you mind, it is the fullest cover for no extra money. If it does, weigh your evenings against the fees above.
Questions people also ask
Is it OK to answer gym messages from my own phone at night?
Yes, if you set fixed hours, keep to them every week and say them in your away message. If you can, answer from the gym’s own phone rather than your personal one, so the chats stay with the gym when someone else takes a night.
What should a gym’s away message say?
When you will reply, and where to book or see prices in the meantime, in one or two lines. For example: “Thanks for your message. We’re closed now and reply from 9:00; prices and trial times are on our website.” If someone at your gym is on call for anything urgent, add how to reach them.
Should I forward my gym’s phone to my mobile after hours?
Only if you want the calls in your evening. Forwarding to an AI receptionist or an answering service keeps them out of it, and you read what came in the next morning.
Do staff have to answer messages after their shift?
It depends on what you agree with them and pay for, and on your country’s rules on being unreachable after work, so check those before you put anyone on an evening rota.
