How to set business hours
Business hours allow you to control the times, days, dates, and circumstances under which your chat buttons are shown to visitors.
Business hours can be set for the BoldChat entities Website and Department.
Department-level business hours and exceptions override website-level business hours and exceptions. Departments without unique business hours and/or exceptions use the same settings as associated websites.
You can also set operator hours to establish an individual operator's availability during a given time range. Operator hours are applied independently of business hours. See How to set operator hours.
Set website-level business hours
Business hours can be set for the BoldChat entity called Website.
To activate website-level business hours, you must create a website definition and then associate it with an HTML snippet. The HTML snippet will also have an associated custom chat button definition or visitor monitoring definition. Your business hours are applied to the button or visitor monitoring insofar as they are associated with the same HTML snippet as the website definition.
Your website definition is ready to be associated with an HTML snippet. Unless this association is made, your business hours are not applied.
Set department-level business hours
Department-level business hours allow Enterprise subscribers to control the times, days, dates, and circumstances under which chat with the 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, even when operators are available (unless you choose otherwise, as described below) or a rollover department has been designated.
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.