Answer differently outside business hours

Business Hours Check looks at whether your workspace is currently open and sends the conversation down one of two routes. Use it near the start of a bot so a customer who messages at midnight gets a different reply from one who messages at midday.

Before you start

Set your opening hours in Settings → Business hours, including any special hours or closures. The step reads those hours. It doesn't carry its own schedule, so changing your hours changes every bot that uses this step.

The same hours stop customers placing orders while you're closed. A bot's Create Order step then tells the customer when you open and ends the conversation, so you don't need this step just to stop orders at night.

Set it up

1. Add Business Hours Check to the canvas and select it.
2. Optionally write a During-hours message, sent before the open route continues.
3. Optionally write an After-hours message, sent before the closed route continues.

The after-hours message can tell the customer when you reopen. Insert {{next_opening_in}} and it is replaced with the time until you open again.

Connect the routes

The step has two routes, and both must be connected before you can publish:

• During Hours — the workspace is open. Usually continues into the normal bot.
• After Hours — the workspace is closed. Usually takes a message, a promise to follow up, or a way to leave details.

Sending both routes to the same next step defeats the point of the check. If the reply is genuinely the same either way, you do not need this step.

Common problems

A step marked Incomplete cannot be used in a published bot. Select the incomplete step and the settings panel shows what must be fixed.

Here, the usual causes are:

• One of the two routes is not connected
• No opening hours are set for the workspace, so the check has nothing to read

Test it

Use Flow preview to walk both paths. Flow preview does not send any messages and does not contact any customer.

Activate it

Publish the bot when both routes are connected, then connect it to the intended Inbox. Test the open and closed routes in a connected test conversation before offering it to customers. Publishing alone does not choose who answers an Inbox.

Related

• Build a bot on the canvas
• Send a message and offer choices in a bot