Business hours and after-hours behaviour

Your assistant can answer around the clock. Business hours let you decide what happens when you are closed: the assistant keeps answering, or callers hear a short greeting and leave a voicemail. This article explains both options and the other settings that tell the assistant when you are open.

Two places that describe your hours

Ringhum keeps two related settings. It helps to know what each one does.

Both use your workspace time zone. Check it under Settings → Workspace → Workspace timezone.

Important: Keep the two in step. If your opening hours on the Company page say you close at 6 pm, set the assistant's business hours to close at 6 pm too.

Set your opening hours

1. Go to Company and open the Hours & booking tab.
2. Under Opening hours, set the times for each day. Use + Add hours for a second range, for example around a lunch break. Mark a day Closed if you do not open.
3. Copy Monday to Tue–Fri saves typing when weekdays are the same.
4. Under Holidays & closures, click + Add a closure for each day you are closed. The assistant tells callers you are closed and does not book these days.
5. Click Save hours & rules.

These hours are part of the company information the assistant receives when Use the company profile is on. The assistant also knows today's date and the current time where your business is, so it can tell a caller whether you are open right now.

Turn on business hours for an assistant

1. Open Assistants, click the assistant and go to the Behaviour tab.
2. In the Business hours card, switch on Use business hours. With it off, the assistant behaves the same around the clock.
3. Set Opens and Closes.
4. Under Days, select the days you are open. Monday to Friday are selected by default.
5. Choose what happens under Outside business hours.
6. Click Save changes.

The assistant uses one opening and one closing time for all selected days. A day that is not selected counts as closed all day.

Outside business hours: two options

The assistant still answers (with the after-hours message)

Calls are answered by the assistant as usual. It can still answer questions, take messages and book appointments for when you are open, using your opening hours from the Company page.

Play a greeting and record a voicemail

The assistant does not answer. The caller hears your Voicemail greeting and can leave a message after the tone. If you leave the greeting empty, callers hear: "Thanks for calling [your company]. We're closed right now. Please leave your name, number and a short message after the tone and we'll call you back."

A voicemail can be up to 3 minutes long. It may be shorter when your workspace is low on minutes and credit. Each voicemail lands in the Inbox with the recording and a transcription, so your team can listen and call back. Team members who have New voicemails switched on under Settings → Notifications are notified.

The after-hours message

When you use business hours, you can write an After-hours message, up to 500 characters, for example: "Thanks for calling. We're closed right now, but I can take a message or book you in for tomorrow."

The message is used by your website widget. When voice calls in the widget are closed, visitors see this message under a Currently closed button. If you leave it empty, they see "We are closed right now. Please try again during business hours."

Note: On phone calls, the assistant takes its opening times from Company → Hours & booking. To shape what it says about being closed on calls, add a line to your instructions, for example: "When we are closed, say so, then offer to take a message or book a time for when we are open."

The website widget after hours

Voice calls in the widget follow the assistant's business hours:

Voice calls in the widget are also closed whenever the assistant's status is not Active. The widget chat is not affected by business hours. See Website widget.

Common questions

The assistant says we are closed when we are open. Check the workspace time zone under Settings → Workspace, then the opening hours and closures under Company → Hours & booking, and the assistant's own business hours on the Behaviour tab.

Can I close for lunch? On the Company page, yes: add a second range with + Add hours. The assistant's own business hours have one opening and one closing time per day.