Business Hours & Availability
Overview
Business hours let you control when your team is available for live conversations. Outside your configured hours, the Talk to a human option is automatically hidden from customers — while the AI bot continues answering questions around the clock.
This is useful when you have a small support team and want to avoid customers waiting for a response when no one is around.
How It Works
When business hours are enabled:
- During business hours — Customers can chat with the AI bot and request a human agent as usual
- Outside business hours — The AI bot still responds, but the option to talk to a human is hidden. If the AI suggests a handoff, your offline message is shown instead
- Human handoff disabled — If human handoff is turned off in your Live Chat settings, business hours have no effect on that channel since the handoff option is already hidden
When business hours are disabled (the default), your team appears as always available.
Setting Up Business Hours
- Go to Settings → Workspace Settings
- Scroll to the Business Hours section
- Toggle Enable Business Hours on
- For each day of the week, check the box to mark it as a working day and set the start and end times
- Set your Offline Message — this is shown to customers when the AI suggests talking to a human but your team is unavailable
- Click Save
Timezone
Business hours use your workspace timezone, which you can set in the same settings page under General. Make sure this is set correctly — all start and end times are interpreted in this timezone.
For example, if your workspace timezone is set to Europe/London and you configure Monday hours as 09:00–17:00, the system will check against London time to determine availability.
Tip: Individual team members can set their own timezone in their profile settings. This only affects how dates and times are displayed to them — it does not affect business hours.
Offline Message
The offline message appears in the chat widget when the AI suggests handing off to a human but your team is outside business hours. Use it to set expectations:
- "We're away right now. Leave us a message and we'll get back to you."
- "Our team is available Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm. We'll respond when we're back."
If no offline message is set, the handoff option is simply hidden without any additional message.
Interaction with Live Chat Settings
Business hours work together with the Human Handoff setting in your Live Chat configuration (Settings → Channels → Live Chat):
| Human Handoff | Business Hours | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Enabled | Disabled (default) | Customers can always request a human |
| Enabled | Enabled, during hours | Customers can request a human |
| Enabled | Enabled, outside hours | Handoff hidden, offline message shown |
| Disabled | Any | Handoff always hidden (business hours have no effect) |
Shared Across Channels
Business hours are a workspace-level setting — they apply across all channels, not just the chat widget. As new channels are added, they will respect the same schedule.
FAQ
Does the AI bot stop working outside business hours? No. The AI bot is always available regardless of business hours. Only the human handoff option is affected.
What happens to conversations already in progress? If a customer is already chatting with a human agent, the conversation continues normally. Business hours only affect new handoff requests.
Can I set different hours for different days? Yes. Each day of the week has its own toggle and time range. For example, you might set weekdays to 9am–6pm and Saturdays to 10am–2pm, with Sundays closed.
Can I set overnight hours (e.g., 10pm–6am)? Overnight schedules that cross midnight are not currently supported. Each day's end time must be after its start time.
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