# Staff on Chhath Leave? Keep Answering Calls

> When staff go home for Chhath and Diwali, customer calls still come in. How a business with a short team can answer every call and catch up on return.

Source: https://business.mysmartassistant.ai/blog/festival-leave-calls · Published 2026-10-30 · Language: English · Publisher: MySA Business (https://business.mysmartassistant.ai)

![While the team is away for Chhath, a customer calls the business, the AI answers from the business's details, gives the date the team is back and saves a call-back for that morning](/blog/festival-leave-calls-flow.svg)

When staff go on festival leave, the shop or office stays open but the people who answer customer calls are away. Every year in November that happens to businesses across Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Surat, Pune, Ludhiana and other cities whose staff come from Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh and travel home for Diwali and Chhath. With MySA Business, an AI voice assistant can answer the business number while the team is short, say when the person the caller needs is back, and keep every request for their return. The leave is the team's; the calls do not have to wait for it.

## When the team is away this year

Diwali is on Sunday, 8 November 2026, and Chhath Puja follows from Friday, 13 November (Nahay Khay) to the morning arghya on Monday, 16 November. Many people take the whole stretch, and the return journey adds days. For a business that stays open, that means a week or two with a smaller team.

This is different from closing for the festival. If your shop shuts for a few days, a closing notice does the job, as in our [Diwali holiday notice](/blog/diwali-holiday-notice-for-customers). This article is for the business that is open, with fewer hands.

## Which calls go unanswered

With half the team away, the calls that suffer are the routine ones nobody is assigned to:

- **Order and delivery questions:** "mera order kab aayega?", "dispatch hua?"
- **Price and availability:** "ye item stock mein hai?", "rate kya hai?"
- **Calls for a particular person:** "Rajesh ji se baat karni hai", who is in Darbhanga until the 20th.
- **Service and repair requests** that need someone to visit after the team is back.

Each one is short, but a missed call to a shop is often a customer who rings the next shop.

## Before the team leaves

Set this up in the week before Diwali, while everyone is still there:

1. **Write who is away and when they are back into your Business Details.** For example: "Dispatch team on leave 6–18 November; orders placed in this period are dispatched from 19 November. Accounts available on calls throughout." Approved Business Details cannot be edited, so build a new version and approve it; see [Business Details](/docs/business-details).
2. **Switch inbound on for your number** in **Phone system → Inbound**. It needs a number you bought, your Live workspace and wallet balance. See [Inbound calls](/docs/inbound-calls).
3. **Add a sentence to the AI instructions** for these weeks: "Many of our staff are on festival leave until 18 November. Answer from our details, give the return date when a caller needs someone who is away, and offer a call back." The instructions take up to 5,000 characters and can be saved without interrupting the number.
4. **Turn on Call customers back when they ask** if you want MySA to place the call-backs the AI promises. They are charged as normal outgoing calls.
5. **Name the people who are staying** under [Call transfer](/docs/call-transfer), for example "Manager on duty", with a one-line "when to transfer here" such as "urgent orders or complaints". The AI rings them, briefs them and connects the caller. Transfer works in Live, and transfer minutes are billed separately.

## While they are away

> **Example**
>
> **Caller:** Mera order ka status kya hai? Pichhle hafte diya tha.
>
> **AI:** Hamari dispatch team Chhath ki chhutti par hai aur 17 November se wapas aayegi. Kya main us din aapko call karwa doon?
>
> **Caller:** Haan, 17 ko subah.

After the call, **Call Logs** has the recording and an AI summary, and the request is in **Follow-ups** with the time the caller asked for. The AI did not look up the order. Unless you have connected your own system as a [Custom API](/docs/custom-apis), it does not know order status, and it should say so instead of guessing.

Outbound work can carry on too. Calls you would normally make by hand, such as payment or appointment reminders to a list, can run as a campaign in the same weeks; see [Campaigns](/features/campaigns). Calls are never placed inside your [DND hours](/docs/dnd).

If customers also message you, write the same return dates into **Today's update** for your WhatsApp number when it uses **Smart reply (AI)**; see the [WhatsApp docs](/docs/whatsapp).

## The day the team is back

Open **Calling → Follow-ups**. Everything that waited is there:

- With **Auto-callback** on, follow-ups dial at the time the caller asked, so "17 ko subah" is rung on the 17th. Otherwise press **Call now** on each row.
- Rows marked **Call from a person** are callers who asked for someone on your team. MySA does not dial these with the AI; your colleague rings them and presses **Mark called back**.
- Rows marked **Action required** are questions the AI could not answer. Type the answer once and the AI calls the customer back with it.

See [Follow-ups](/features/follow-ups), and for the wider picture of a small team and a busy phone, [Handle more calls with a small team](/blog/handle-more-calls-small-team).

## What works today, and what it does not do

| Works today | Does not do |
| --- | --- |
| AI answers your business number from your approved details | Know who is on leave unless you write it in |
| Call-backs saved for the date and time the caller asked | Look up an order or stock without your own API |
| Urgent callers handed to a named colleague who stayed | Ring a staff member's personal phone you did not add |
| Recordings and summaries of every call in Call Logs | Send SMS or email |
| Campaigns that keep routine outbound calls going | Switch the leave wording off by date; you replace it in the next version |

These are scenarios, not customer stories.

## Getting started

1. [Create a workspace](/signup) and verify your mobile number to get ₹100 of Test credit in the separate **Test** environment.
2. Build and approve Business Details with your timings and who is away until when.
3. Press **Try now**: the AI rings your own phone. Ask it "Rajesh ji kab aayenge?"
4. Go **Live**, top up the prepaid wallet, and switch inbound on for your business number.

Calls of 10 seconds or less are free; longer calls are billed per started minute. The rate for your workspace is shown in the console. [Talk to sales](/contact) for volume pricing.

## Frequently asked questions

### When is Chhath Puja in 2026?

From Friday, 13 November (Nahay Khay) to the morning arghya on Monday, 16 November. Check a local panchang, as dates can differ by a day between sources.

### Can the AI answer my business phone while staff are on leave?

Yes, if inbound is switched on for a number you bought, in your Live workspace. It answers from your approved Business Details.

### Will callers who need a particular person be remembered?

Yes. A request for a call back is saved in Follow-ups with the time the caller asked for, and one for a person on your team is marked Call from a person.

### Can urgent calls still reach someone?

Yes, with Call transfer. Add the colleague who is staying as a named number with a line on when to transfer, and the AI connects urgent callers to them.

### What changes when the team returns?

Replace the leave line in your next Business Details version, remove it from the AI instructions, and work through Follow-ups.