Business hours

When a customer writes at midnight, it is better that they know their message arrived and when to expect a reply than to wait in silence. Business hours are set per channel: you choose your working days, hours and time zone, and a message that reaches the customer automatically when they write outside those hours.

Before you start

• You need to be an Administrator in Hadir Chat.
• The channel must already be added, such as WhatsApp or website chat.

Turn on business hours

1. In the inbox, open Settings, then Inboxes, and select the Settings button next to the channel.
2. Open the Business hours tab (1).
3. Turn on Enable business availability for this inbox (2).
4. In the box that appears below it, write your Unavailable message for visitors (3), for example: "Hello, we work Sunday to Thursday, 9 am to 5 pm. Your message has arrived and we will reply as soon as we are back."

Set the days and hours

5. Under Set your weekly hours, pick your city's zone from Select timezone (4), such as Riyadh. All the hours are counted in it.
6. The table (5) has a row for each day of the week:
   • Tick the box next to the day's name to make it a working day; untick it for a day off, which then shows Unavailable.
   • Choose the opening and closing time from the two lists.
   • If you are open around the clock that day, tick All-Day in its row.
7. Select Update business hours settings (6).

Next to the time zone you can see whether the channel is Open now or Closed now by the schedule you saved, so you can check the hours straight away.

Note: a new channel starts with Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm. Check Friday, Saturday and Sunday so the table matches the days you actually work.

What happens outside working hours

• When a customer writes while the channel is closed, the unavailable message reaches them automatically in the conversation.
• It is sent once a day per conversation, so it does not repeat with every message the customer sends.
• If an agent replied in the conversation within the last 5 minutes, it is not sent, so a conversation that is still going at closing time is not interrupted.
• On website chat, your hours also show in the chat window itself, even when no agent is online.
• The conversation stays in the inbox as usual, so your team sees it and replies when the day starts.

If you leave the message empty, nothing is sent to the customer outside working hours; the hours still show on website chat.

Turn business hours off

Turn off Enable business availability for this inbox and select Update business hours settings. The channel is then treated as always available, and your schedule is kept in case you turn it back on later.