Hours & availability

Two hours controls (different jobs)

Workflows exposes hours controls that affect how routing behaves:

• Bot hours gate: outside configured hours, the bot can send an off-hours message and skip workflow execution
• Post-handoff hours messaging: sends an hours message after an Inbox handoff, once the conversation is visible in the Shared Inbox

Choosing the right control

• Bot hours gate is for controlling whether automation should run (and what happens when it shouldn’t).
• Post-handoff hours messaging is for setting expectations after the conversation is operationally in human queues.

Recommended patterns

• If you rely heavily on automation, use a bot hours gate to avoid low-quality experiences when no human escalation is available.
• If you route quickly to humans, keep automation minimal and use post-handoff hours messaging so expectations are set consistently in Shared Inbox.

Next:

• Operational rollout checklist