We run emergency calls around the clock. What does your after-hours support actually look like?

For managed clients, an after hours emergency gets a technician. Calls route through our phone system to on call staff, and monitoring alerts reach us regardless of the hour, so a dead internet circuit or a failed backup at 2 AM is seen at 2 AM rather than at 8 the next morning.

What counts as an emergency is worth defining before you need it. Dispatch down, phones down, internet down, server down, or a suspected security incident are emergencies. A tech who needs a password reset at 11 PM is usually not, though we would rather you call and let us make that judgment than guess.

Push every provider you are evaluating on this specific question. Ask whether the after hours number reaches their own employees or a third party answering service, and ask what happens next after the call is taken. There is a large difference between a technician logging in and a message sitting in a queue until morning.