Department-level business hours allow you to control the times, days, dates, and circumstances under which chat with a department is available.
Department-level business hours and exceptions override website-level business hours and exceptions respectively. Departments without unique business hours and/or exceptions use the same settings as associated websites.
A department cannot receive new chats outside of business hours; neither when agents are available nor when a rollover department has been selected. You may change this default behavior as described below.
What are exceptions to business hours?
An exception is valid for one day only. By defining an exception, you override normal business hours. In other words, an exception defines the time when your agents are available to chat on a specific day.
Think of a business hours exception as an exception in your daily routine: You may provide support from 9 AM to 5 PM, but on an exceptional day, like Black Friday, you may want to provide chat support for longer hours. In this case, you can define an exception for that single day by defining your availability, say, from 9 AM to 9 PM.
Similarly, if you have a meeting on November 20, from 2 PM to 3.30 PM and you are not available to support your customers, you have to change your standard business hours by setting two exceptions for the day:
- One exception for November 20 from 9 AM to 2 PM
- Another one for November 20 from 3.30 PM to 5 PM
This way, you can let Digital DX- and your customers - know that this is an exceptional day when you are available from 9 AM to 2 PM and from 3.30 PM to 5 PM only.