---
url: https://docs.oakmega.com/en/recipe/after-hours.md
description: >-
  How to make sure members who ask for a person after hours don't feel ignored:
  two chatbots share the same keyword; one uses a "Weekly Effective Period" so
  it only replies during business hours, and the other replies after hours that
  you'll follow up the next day and applies the "After-hours message" tag. The
  next morning, agents use the tag and the Open status to find last night's
  messages. Also covers which chatbot replies when both match, and how the time
  zone and end time of a time range work.
---

This recipe helps support supervisors split replies to "Talk to staff" into business hours and after hours. During business hours, members are told to hold on and an agent takes over right away. After hours and on weekends, they're told an agent will reply first thing on the next business day, and the conversation gets the "After-hours message" tag, so agents can work through last night's messages in order the next morning without missing any.

## Who this is for

* **Support supervisors**: your agents only work weekdays 10:00–18:00, but members who send "Talk to staff" in the evening are told to hold on, and nobody replies until the next day, so customers feel ignored.
* **Store managers and small brand owners**: you don't have agents on shifts, but you want members to know when someone will reply, even after hours.

When you're done you'll have two "Talk to staff" chatbots split by time of day, an "After-hours message" tag, and a routine for dealing with last night's messages first thing the next business day.

The examples use a fictional skincare brand, Sunleaf. The tag and both chatbots were actually created in the OakMega manual demo workspace; the member's phone screens are a mock-up.

## Features you'll use

| Feature | Its job in this scenario | Minimum plan | Needs activation? |
|---|---|---|---|
| [LINE chatbot](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/guide/chatbot/line-chatbot.md) | "Weekly Effective Period" separates business hours from after hours; replies, applies a tag and transfers to Service Center | All plans | No |
| [Tag Management](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/guide/members/tag-management.md) | "After-hours message" marks conversations that came in overnight | All plans (Free: up to 10 tags) | No |
| [Service Center](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/guide/service-center/handle-conversations.md) | The next day, filter for after-hours messages and reply in order | All plans | Agent seats are activated separately |

## Flow

![After-hours routing flow, in four columns. Member sends "Talk to staff": taps the richmenu or types it, in a LINE one-to-one chat → Business hours (weekdays 10:00–18:00): "Talk to staff (business hours)" is within its time slot, replies "please hold on", auto transfer, an agent takes over right away → After hours and weekends: "Talk to staff (business hours)" is outside its slot and doesn't fire, "Talk to staff (after hours)" replies that staff will follow up next business day, tags "After-hours message", auto transfer → Next business day: filter the Service Center by the "After-hours message" tag or Open status, reply in the order messages came in, remove "After-hours message" once replied](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/recipe/images/after-hours-01-flow.png)

1. A member sends "Talk to staff" on LINE (by tapping the Richmenu or typing it).
2. During business hours (weekdays 10:00–18:00), "Talk to staff (business hours)" is within its effective period. It tells the member to hold on and transfers the conversation to Service Center, where an agent takes over right away.
3. After hours and on weekends, "Talk to staff (business hours)" is outside its period and doesn't trigger. Instead, "Talk to staff (after hours)" replies that an agent will follow up the next business day, applies "After-hours message" and transfers the conversation to Service Center.
4. On the next business day, agents filter Service Center for "After-hours message" or Open conversations, reply in the order the messages came in, and remove "After-hours message" once they've replied.

## How to set it up

| Step | Where | Settings in this scenario |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Create the tag | Member & Tag › Tag Management | "After-hours message" |
| 2. Create the after-hours chatbot first | LINE › Chatbot | "Talk to staff (after hours)": no time limit; "Trigger Keyword (Equals)": Talk to staff; Trigger Add Tag "After-hours message"; Service center transfer |
| 3. Then create the business-hours chatbot | LINE › Chatbot | "Talk to staff (business hours)": Weekly Effective Period Monday to Friday 10:00–18:00; "Trigger Keyword (Equals)": Talk to staff; Service center transfer |
| 4. Pick up the next day | Service Center | Filter by the tag "After-hours message" and the Open status; remove the tag once you've replied |

**The order you create them in matters: after hours first, then business hours.** Both chatbots have the same keyword, and when both match, only the **most recently created** one replies (see "How it works and limits" below for why). The business-hours chatbot is created later, so it replies during business hours. After hours it's outside its period and doesn't count as a match, so the after-hours chatbot replies instead.

### 1. Create the "After-hours message" tag

Under **Member & Tag › Tag Management**, add "After-hours message" and put it in a folder for support tags (the demo uses "Support routing"). See [Create and manage tags](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/guide/members/tag-management.md).

### 2. Create the after-hours chatbot first

Under **LINE › Chatbot**, add a keyword chatbot named "Talk to staff (after hours)":

1. Leave **Weekly Effective Period** off, so it can trigger at any time.
2. In **Trigger Keyword (Equals)**, enter "Talk to staff" and press Enter.
3. Under **Tag Settings**, set **Trigger Add Tag** to "After-hours message".
4. Under **Follow-up Actions**, turn on **Service center transfer**.
5. On the **Edit Message** tab, add a text message: "We've got your message! We're outside business hours right now, and an agent will reply to you first thing on the next business day (weekdays from 10:00). If you can, please leave your order number or the product you're asking about, so we can sort it out for you straight away tomorrow."
6. Click **Save**.

![After-hours chatbot settings: Weekly Effective Period is off, Trigger Keyword (Equals) is Talk to staff, Trigger Add Tag is set to After-hours message, and Service center transfer under Follow-up Actions is on](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/recipe/images/after-hours-03-after-hours.png)

Asking members to leave their order number and question in the message means that the next day an agent can open the conversation and deal with it straight away, without another round of questions.

### 3. Then create the business-hours chatbot

In the same folder, add "Talk to staff (business hours)":

1. Turn on **Weekly Effective Period**. Under **Time Range Setting**, expand **Monday**, click **Add Time Range**, and set Time Range 1 to 10:00 to 18:00.
2. Click the copy icon to the right of Monday, tick Tuesday to Friday in **Copy Time Range**, and click **Confirm**. Leave Saturday and Sunday as **No Trigger Time Range**.
3. In **Trigger Keyword (Equals)**, enter "Talk to staff" and press Enter.
4. Under **Follow-up Actions**, turn on **Service center transfer**.
5. On the **Edit Message** tab, add a text message: "Got it! We're connecting you to a Sunleaf agent. Please hold on, and we'll reply as soon as we can."
6. Click **Save**.

![Business-hours chatbot settings: Weekly Effective Period is on, Time Range Setting shows 10:00 - 18:00 for Monday to Friday and No Trigger Time Range for Saturday and Sunday; Limit Tag Trigger for Chatbot and Exclude Tag Trigger for Chatbot are both off; Trigger Keyword (Equals) is Talk to staff](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/recipe/images/after-hours-02-business-hours.png)

To split a day into two ranges (for example, no replies during a 12:00–13:00 lunch break), click **Add Time Range** on the same day to add Time Range 2, then copy it to the other days. Time ranges follow the **Chatbot Time Zone**; the demo uses "Taiwan / Hong Kong / China (UTC+8)".

Once saved, both chatbots in the folder have the keyword "Talk to staff", and the business-hours chatbot is listed first (it was created later):

![Chatbot list in the FAQ folder: Talk to staff (business hours) is first and Talk to staff (after hours) second; both are on, the Trigger Event is Text Message and the Trigger Keywords are Talk to staff](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/recipe/images/after-hours-04-list.png)

For every setting, see [Set up a LINE chatbot](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/guide/chatbot/line-chatbot.md).

### 4. Deal with last night's messages first thing the next day

When your shift starts, go to **Service Center** first:

1. Use the advanced filter next to search and choose **Strength Tag** "After-hours message", or set **Conversation Status** at the top to "Open", to find conversations that came in overnight and over the weekend.
2. Start replying with the member who wrote first. Most will already have left an order number, so you can get straight to it.
3. Once you've replied, remove "After-hours message" under **Tag Info** in Member Data, and mark the conversation **Resolved** when it's done.

For Service Center filters and statuses, see [Handle conversations in Service Center](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/guide/service-center/handle-conversations.md).

## How it works and limits

| Situation | Result | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Both chatbots have the same keyword and both match | Only one replies: a matching chatbot with a **Limit Tag** wins; otherwise the **most recently created** one replies | Create them in the order above: after hours first, then business hours |
| You created the business-hours chatbot first and the after-hours one later | The after-hours chatbot has no time limit and is newer, so **it replies during business hours too**, telling members you'll get back to them tomorrow | Delete the business-hours chatbot and create it again, or use the "give both a time range" approach below |
| You don't want to depend on creation order | — | Turn on **Weekly Effective Period** for the after-hours chatbot too: Monday to Friday 00:00–09:59 and 18:01–23:59, Saturday and Sunday 00:00–23:59. With no overlap, it doesn't matter which one you created first |
| The end time is exactly 18:00 | The whole minute of the end time (up to 18:00:59) counts as within the range | Start the after-hours chatbot's range at 18:01 |
| Public holidays and typhoon days off | Weekly Effective Period only looks at the day of the week and doesn't know about holidays | Before the holiday, turn off the business-hours chatbot's **Chatbot Status**, and turn it back on when you're back |
| You already have a chatbot that hands members to a person with the same keyword (for example "Transfer to a live agent" from [Your first week with Service Center](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/recipe/service-center-first-week.md)) | It was created earlier, so it won't reply when the two new chatbots match | To keep things tidy, turn the old one off or delete it |
| The conversation is already in service and the member sends "Talk to staff" again | The keyword chatbot still replies and applies the tag; the conversation stays with its current organization and agent | Nothing |
| After hours, the member sends an ordinary question instead of "Talk to staff" | Neither chatbot triggers | Use the "Default Reply" from [self-service FAQ](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/recipe/self-service-faq.md) to point members to "Talk to staff" |

**Automatically closing resolved conversations** only applies to conversations marked Resolved, so conversations that came in overnight and are still Open won't be closed before your shift starts. For the auto-close rules, see [Automatically close resolved conversations](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/guide/service-center/auto-close.md).

## What members see

The member sends the same "Talk to staff" both times. On Tuesday afternoon they're told to hold on, and Lin from customer service takes over. On Saturday evening they get the after-hours explanation, leave their order number, and wait for the next business day. The screens are a mock-up (Chinese demo).

![Mock-up (Chinese demo): ① on Tuesday at 2:05 PM the member sends Talk to staff, the chatbot replies that it's connecting them to a Sunleaf agent and asks them to hold on, and at 2:07 PM Lin from customer service replies asking what they'd like to ask about; ② on Saturday at 9:40 PM the member sends Talk to staff, the chatbot replies that it's outside business hours and an agent will reply first thing on the next business day (weekdays from 10:00), asking them to leave their order number or the product first, and the member then writes that the serum from order SR20261003 hasn't arrived yet](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/recipe/images/after-hours-05-member-2phones.png)

## How to check it's working

| What you want to know | Where to look |
|---|---|
| How many people ask for a person after hours | The **Total Trigger Count** of the "Talk to staff (after hours)" chatbot; the **Total Number of Tagged People** for "After-hours message" |
| Which of last night's messages are still unanswered | In **Service Center**, use the advanced filter on **Strength Tag** "After-hours message" |
| Whether last night's messages have all been answered | Filter the Service Center by "After-hours message" and Open to see how many are left. The [Service Center Data Center](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/guide/service-center/analytics.md) only shows current conversation counts by status, not response times |

If the after-hours trigger count stays high, consider extending your support hours, or turn the questions people ask most into a [self-service FAQ](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/recipe/self-service-faq.md).

## Variations

* **Let AI reply first after hours**: turn on **Transfer to Agent → Enable AI Agent** for the organization, so AI answers after hours and a person picks up anything it can't answer the next day; see [Let an AI agent handle an organization's conversations](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/guide/service-center/ai-agent.md).
* **Route by each store's opening hours**: when your stores keep different hours, combine **Limit Tag** with store tags and create a business-hours and after-hours pair for each store.
* **Lunch break**: give the business-hours chatbot two ranges a day (10:00–12:00 and 13:00–18:00). During lunch the after-hours chatbot replies instead, so word its message in a way that isn't tied to the next day, such as "an agent will reply as soon as they're back".

## Next steps

* [Set up a LINE chatbot](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/guide/chatbot/line-chatbot.md)
* [Your first week with Service Center: activation, assignment, auto-close and notifications](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/recipe/service-center-first-week.md)
* [Self-service FAQ: route questions with a Richmenu and chatbots, and hand off to a person only when needed](https://docs.oakmega.com/en/recipe/self-service-faq.md)