Pause AI for vacation or sick days

Going on vacation. Down with the flu. Just need a day off from new leads. Whatever the reason, pausing your AI receptionist takes about two seconds.

How to pause

1. Open your Plumbify dashboard.
2. Top-right of the screen, find the AI status indicator (green dot when active).
3. Click it. A small dropdown appears with a Pause AI toggle.
4. Flip it on. The dot turns grey within 10 seconds.

That's it. The AI stops answering new calls immediately.

What callers hear when paused

Instead of the AI greeting, callers hear a short message:

"You've reached [Business Name]. We're not available right now — please leave your name, number, and a brief description of the issue after the tone, and we'll call you back as soon as possible."

Then standard voicemail. The voicemail is transcribed and lands on your dashboard the same way an AI lead would (just without the structured intake).

Customize the paused message

If you want to say something specific — "on vacation until Tuesday," "in the field, will call back end of day" — go to Settings → AI Receptionist → Paused message and write your own.

The custom message replaces the default voicemail greeting only while pause is active. Once you unpause, the AI takes over again.

Unpausing

Same place — click the AI status dot, flip the toggle off. The AI is back within 10 seconds.

What about emergencies during a pause?

The voicemail still captures the call. You'll see it on your dashboard within a couple of minutes of the caller hanging up, with the transcribed message. If it's marked urgent based on the words used, you'll get an SMS alert even while paused.

If you want to keep the AI handling emergencies while pausing routine intake, that's a separate setting — toggle "Keep AI active for emergencies only" from the pause dropdown. The AI then only takes calls where the caller's first words contain urgency keywords (flooding, no water, burst, leak).

Can my customers tell I'm using AI vs voicemail?

Yes. The AI sounds clearly different from a basic voicemail. If you pause regularly, customers may notice the inconsistency. We recommend only pausing for genuine off-time — extended pauses can dilute the "always-on receptionist" experience that makes Plumbify valuable to them.