How to set up work hours for a group in Atom?
This article explains how to set up work hours for groups in Atom, what effects that configuration has on conversation assignment, and how it impacts sending out-of-hours messages.
❓Frequently Asked Question or Initial Context
Can a different work schedule be set for each support group in Atom?
Yes, it is possible. This allows you to define when a group is available to receive conversations and what happens if a customer writes outside of those hours.
Scheduling is essential to ensure orderly attention and automate out-of-hours responses.
🤓 Explanation
From theGroupsmodule in Atom, each group can have acustomized attention schedule. This setting determines:
At what times conversations are automatically assigned to agents.
Whether anout-of-hours messagewill be sent to the customer.
What happens if a customer writes outside the configured hours.
Depending on the options enabled, Atom may:
Automatically assign the conversation to an agent in the group.
Leave the conversation active with the bot.
Send an automatic reply informing the business hours.
⚙️ Troubleshooting: Step by step
To set up a work schedule by group:
Go toSettings>User Management>Groups.
Select the desired group and click on theEditicon.
Enable theCustom scheduleoption.
Select thetime zonecorresponding to the country or region of the group.
Click onAdd scheduleand indicate:Days ofattention.Start and endtimes.
Days ofattention.
Start and endtimes.
Configure the following additional options:Assign out of hours: enables or disables the assignment of conversations outside of work hours.Out-of-hours message: allows you to send aquick replyto the customer who writes outside the configured hours.Quick reply: select a previously created one with the "Out of hours" category.
Assign out of hours: enables or disables the assignment of conversations outside of work hours.
Out-of-hours message: allows you to send aquick replyto the customer who writes outside the configured hours.
Quick reply: select a previously created one with the "Out of hours" category.
Example of quick reply:
"Dear customer, we are currently out of service. Our business hours are Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 17:00. As soon as we are available, one of our agents will contact you."
Click onSaveto confirm the configuration.
✅ Possible solutions
📌 If conversations are not assigned correctly outside of hours:
Check if theAssign out of hoursoption is enabled.If enabled, the conversation will be assigned to an available agent and the quick reply will be sent.If disabled, the conversation will remain with the bot until an administrator assigns it manually.
If enabled, the conversation will be assigned to an available agent and the quick reply will be sent.
If disabled, the conversation will remain with the bot until an administrator assigns it manually.
📌 If you want to prevent customers from waiting outside of business hours:
Activate theOut-of-hours messagetoption to inform customers about the attention time slot and reduce expectations of immediate response.
📌 If there are agents connected outside of hours:
If the conversation enters outside of hours but there are agents in an assignable state, the conversation will be assigned.
If a conversation enters within hours but there areno assignable agents, it will be randomly assigned to any agent in the group.
📌 In automated tasks:
Automated tasksdo not consider the group's schedule. For example:If a task is scheduled to run 20 minutes after the customer writes, it will be sent even if the business hours have already ended.
If a task is scheduled to run 20 minutes after the customer writes, it will be sent even if the business hours have already ended.
📝 Additional notes
⏱️ Considerations regarding first response time:
The first response time is measuredfrom when the conversation is assigned to the agent.
If a customer writes outside of business hours and the conversation is assigned later (at the start of the day), the time counter starts from that assignment, not from the initial message.
🕒 How the schedule setting affects reports:
The"Work schedule"filter is defined in the group configuration.
It is used to determine if a conversation was assigned within or outside of operating hours.
This is useful for service level agreement or response time compliance reports.