Use an automated After-Hours Reply to inform contacts that your office or support line is closed for the day. Automated After-Hours Replies are a great way to keep customers informed, share current operating hours, and improve the overall customer experience.
Let’s look at how to set up an After-Hours Automation on the Textline platform.
In the Automations window, click New Automation.
Select Build From Scratch.
Name your Automation and choose your Department.
Departments are the phone number you want your Automation to operate under.
Select the Message Received Automation type and confirm your Automation is set up for the right Department.
Set any Conditions you want met.
Conditions are rules that cause the Automation to fire or prevent it from firing. For this out-of-office example, you can choose Current time is not within and select your business hours.
This tells Textline when to send your out-of-office message to contacts.
Add an Action and choose the Send a message option. Then, type your text message.
You can personalize your message with variables. Learn more about those here.
You can also choose which boxes to check below the message, depending on which options work best for your business. Learn more about these three features on our Send a message help page.
Preview the Automation by reviewing Conditions and proofreading your message.
You can also check the box next to Save as a new template to save your Automation as a template for future use.
Finally, click Create Automation, and your After-Hours Reply is ready to go!
Need some After-Hours Reply ideas? Here are a few templates for you to customize and send to customers.
<div class="automation-step-wrapper"><span class="recipe-content-step-wrapper-2">1</span><div class="automation-step-bubble">Hi, thanks for contacting [Business]! Our hours are [Time] to [Time] Monday-Friday. We’ll get back to you in [Time Frame].</div></div>
<div class="automation-step-wrapper"><span class="recipe-content-step-wrapper-2">2</span><div class="automation-step-bubble">Hi, [Business] here! We’re closed for the day but will be open tomorrow at [Time]. You can expect a response within [Time Frame].</div></div>
<div class="automation-step-wrapper"><span class="recipe-content-step-wrapper-2">3</span><div class="automation-step-bubble">Thanks for contacting [Business]! Our text support desk is managed from [Time] to [Time], M-F. Our team will reply as soon as we can during those hours.</div></div>
<div class="automation-step-wrapper"><span class="recipe-content-step-wrapper-2">4</span><div class="automation-step-bubble">Hi [Name]! Thank you for reaching out to [Business]. We are available Monday-Friday, [Time] - [Time]. We’ll get back to you as soon as we are back in the office.</div></div>
<div class="automation-step-wrapper"><span class="recipe-content-step-wrapper-2">5</span><div class="automation-step-bubble">Thanks for your message! The [Business] office is currently closed, but we will get back to you during our regular hours: M-F, [Time] to [Time].</div></div>
Ready to send automated After-Hours Replies seamlessly and efficiently? Try Textline free for 14 days.
