[Legacy] Out of Hours Reply Explained

This article covers how to setup the Out of Hours reply triggered by pre-defined Opening Hours and/or agent availability. You can create an Out of Hours reply for any replies under your intents, as well as any of the system replies and template replies.

Note - This is a legacy solution, and has been replaced with the more dynamic and flexible solution of Operating Hours, which supports multiple business hours that can be created for a more flexible, personalized approach.

You'll learn about: 

• Creating out of hours replies for an intent 
• Creating out of hours replies for System Replies
• Creating out of hours replies for Template Replies
• Enabling "Use OOH Replies When Agents Are Offline"

 

❗ In any of the cases, for Out of Hours reply to work, you must enable and define Opening Hours first. Learn how to do it here.

In addition, OOH reply is not accessible until you have enabled Use this answer outside of opening hours. Enabling "Use OOH Replies When Agents Are Offline".

Creating out of hours replies for an intent

To create Out of Hours reply for an intent:

1. Login to Ultimate's Dashboard and select your bot. If you have more than one bot, make sure to select the bot you want to enable this in first
2. Go to Content > Intents
3. Hover over the intent you want to create an Out of Hours reply of
4. Click the pencil icon 
5. Click Go to Detail Page
6. Hover over the reply you want to create an Out of Hours reply of
7. Click the pencil icon of that reply
8. Click Out of Hours Reply
   
9. Enable Use this answer outside of opening hours
   • Ignore the Activation Options field
10. Click Save
11. You can now create an Out of Hours reply in either simple text form or dialogue, by toggling on Dialogue Mode
    • You can access the dialogue builder by clicking on the dialogue block that appears

Creating out of hours replies for System Replies

To create out of hours replies for a system reply:

1. Go to your bot
2. Under Content click System Replies
3. Hover over the system reply you want to create an out of hours reply for
4. Click the pencil icon of that system reply
5. Click Go to Detail Page
6. Click Out of Hours Reply
7. Enable Use this answer outside of opening hours
   • Ignore the Activation Options field
8. Click Save
9. You can now create a simple out of hours reply or a new dialogue, by toggling on Dialogue Mode
   • You can access the dialogue builder by clicking on the dialogue node that appears

Creating out of hours replies for Template Replies

To create out of hours replies for a system reply:

1. Go to your bot
2. Under Content click Template Replies
3. Hover over the system reply you want to create an Out of Hours reply of
4. Click the pencil icon of that Template reply
5. Click Go to Detail Page
6. Click Out of Hours Reply
7. Enable Use this answer outside of opening hours
   • Ignore the Activation Options field
8. Click Save
9. You can now create a simple out of hours reply or a new dialogue, by toggling on Dialogue Mode
   • You can access the dialogue builder by clicking on the dialogue node that appears

Enabling "Use OOH Replies When Agents Are Offline"

OOH replies are used when bots are on 24/7 but agent support is not. Enable it if you would like the Out of Hours reply to be used when your agents are offline or not available during office hours.

To enable Out of Hours replies when agents are offline or not available:

1. Go to your bot
2. Click on Settings
3. Under Bot Settings click on Opening Hours
4. Enable Use OOH Replies When Agents Are Offline
5. Click Save