How to Configure Business Hours in ZazzyAgent
Your business may not want automated replies running exactly the same way 24 hours a day.
During working hours, your team may be available to handle conversations.
Outside those hours, you may want the bot to stop replying automatically and tell customers when your team will return.
ZazzyAgent provides Business Hour Settings for this purpose.
What are Business Hours?
Business Hours define when your business is considered open for a particular bot configuration.
You can configure:
Timezone
Working hours
Off days
Whether bot replies should be disabled outside those hours
The current configuration includes timezone, off-day, start-time, end-time and a Disable Bot Reply option for business-hour control.
Why are Business Hours useful?
Consider a support team that works:
Monday–Saturday
10 AM–7 PM
During those hours:
Customer → Bot → Human team when needed
Outside those hours:
Customer → Automated after-hours response
This helps keep customer expectations clear.
Step 1: Open Configuration
Open the configuration area for the relevant bot.
Find:
Business Hour Settings
Step 2: Set the timezone
Choose the timezone your business operates in.
This is important because:
10 AM in Mumbai
is not:
10 AM in London.
The timezone determines how the configured hours are interpreted.
Step 3: Set your working hours
Enter the business's start and end times.
For example:
Start: 10:00 AM
End: 7:00 PM
Use your actual operating hours.
Step 4: Configure off days
Select days when your business is closed.
For example:
Sunday
The current configuration supports defining off days as part of Business Hour Settings.
Step 5: Decide what happens outside business hours
You can use the Disable Bot Reply setting to stop automatic bot replies outside the configured business hours.
This is useful when your intention is:
We only want the bot responding automatically while the business is open.
What happens when the bot is disabled?
The exact customer experience depends on your other configured automations.
For example, you can provide an after-hours message such as:
We're currently closed. Our team is available Monday to Saturday from 10 AM to 7 PM.
The important distinction is:
Business Hours
controls when the business is considered open.
Disable Bot Reply
controls whether automated bot responses should be disabled outside those hours.
Business Hours are not the same as a Delay
A Delay means:
Wait before continuing.
Business Hours mean:
Is the business currently within its operating period?
These solve completely different problems.
Business Hours and human support
Business Hours become particularly useful when your automation eventually hands a conversation to humans.
Example:
Customer
↓
AI / Bot
↓
Needs human?
↓
Business open?
↙ ↘
Yes No
↓ ↓
Assign After-hours
Team Response
Example: Clinic
Business hours:
Monday–Saturday
9 AM–6 PM
During hours:
Appointment requests → booking team
After hours:
"Our clinic is currently closed. We'll respond when we're open."
Example: Support team
Business hours:
Monday–Friday
10 AM–7 PM
The bot can continue handling routine FAQs while human escalation is available during the support team's working hours.
Outside those hours, you can disable automatic replies or provide an after-hours message according to your workflow.
Business Hours and AI Agents
Business hours can also be relevant to AI Agent routing.
For example:
AI handles normal queries.
Human escalation is available during business hours.
This creates a hybrid support model.
Don't use the wrong timezone
One of the easiest mistakes is choosing the timezone of the person configuring the account rather than the timezone of the business.
If your business is in India and the administrator is travelling elsewhere, make sure the configured timezone still represents your actual operating hours.
Split shifts
Some businesses don't operate continuously.
For example:
10 AM–2 PM
and:
5 PM–9 PM
Where the current configuration does not directly support multiple windows in the way you need, don't assume one start/end pair can represent a split schedule.
Design the after-hours behavior accordingly.
Test Business Hours
After configuring the schedule, test:
During business hours
and:
Outside business hours
Verify what the customer actually receives.
Common problems
Bot replies after closing
Check whether Disable Bot Reply is enabled and whether your timezone is correct.
Bot stops replying during working hours
Check the configured start/end time and off-day settings.
Wrong time is being used
Check the timezone.
Sunday behavior is wrong
Check the configured off day.
Business Hours checklist
[ ] Correct timezone
[ ] Correct start time
[ ] Correct end time
[ ] Correct off days
[ ] Correct outside-hours behavior
[ ] Test during working hours
[ ] Test outside working hours
The important distinction
Business Hours aren't simply a schedule displayed on your website.
They are part of the automation's operating rules.
Use them to make the bot's behavior match the hours in which your business actually operates.