Business hours

Your AI answers 24/7. You do not. Business hours make sure that difference is handled honestly.

Without them, a customer who asks for a person at 23:00 on Saturday is told someone will pick it up — and then waits until Monday feeling ignored. With them, the AI says when you are actually back.

Turning it on

Business hours live on the Branding & Tone page. They are off by default.

1. Switch on Enable business hours
2. Set your Timezone — get this right, or every message will be off by an hour or more
3. Set your opening hours per day
4. Add Holidays & closures for the dates you are shut
5. Optionally write a Closed message

The closed message

If you leave it empty, the AI explains in its own words that you are closed and when you are back. Writing your own is better, because you can set the expectation you can actually meet:

• "We're closed right now. We read everything the next working day and usually reply before noon."
• "We're closed until Monday 9:00. If it's about an existing order, leave your order number and we'll pick it up first thing."

Promise what you will do, not what sounds good. A customer who is told "within 24 hours" and gets it in 20 is happy; the same reply after 30 hours is a complaint.

What does not change

Business hours do not switch the AI off. Product questions, order lookups and knowledge base answers keep working all night — that is most of the value. The setting only affects what happens when a conversation needs a human.

Holidays

Add closures ahead of time rather than on the day. Christmas week, national holidays, your summer shutdown. It takes two minutes in December and saves a week of disappointed customers.

Multiple stores

Business hours are set per website, so a shop in another market can have its own hours, timezone and holidays. See Plans, limits and stores.