Switch to bot when no agents available or outside office hours

[stinhambo]

I'm playing with the qualification bot that comes with Marketing Starter and there are a couple of things missing that I think should be offered before it's useful -

Switching between Messages and Bot depending on business hours/away status or time delay.

If I'm available, I'd like to speak to people, if I'm not (outside hours, I'm set to away or I haven't answered in 30 seconds), I'd like a bot to take over. Otherwise I'd miss out on an interesting lead because I wasn't available.

Giving the option to speak to someone and not forcing them to answer questions.
What if they're browsing, curious or just want to just ask a question? I'd like to offer this option to site visitors. Otherwise people could bounce and I would lose them.

[stinhambo]

Hey Everyone, we just rolled out something that should allow you to set specific office hours at the inbox level for your team, ensuring your chatbots won’t be forwarding live chats to agents who have gone home for the day:

1. Display chatbots based on team availability (always on, only on during business hours, or based on the availability status of team members)
2. Use if/then branches to route visitors based on team availability

Go here for more details on how to use these new capabilities

https://www.hubspot.com/product-updates/control-your-chatbot-availability-with-new-custom-settings

[#3]

it would be great to have control over the bot operation schedule (i.e. bots function only on weekdays 5PM to 9AM the following day and on weekends)

[#4]

This already exists.

Bots wors as part of the conversations inbox / live chat app.

If you want to set the availability you can do it from your conversations inbox.

Here are the three screens that you need to use:

[#5]

Let me know if you need any further help, ill be happy to guide you through it.

Onur

[#6]

Hi Onur,

Thanks for the reply but I think I was unclear. I am not interested in setting availability for the chat module- I want it to work 24/7 but off business hours I would like the bot to take over. Your solution limits all conversation to business hours regardless if it's a bot or live person. Am I missing something?

Thanks,

G

[#7]

Agreed.  It would be great to have automatic bots that respond one way during office hours and switch over to another boy during non-business hours.  Have it on a schedule.  Most small companies don't have 24hr live chat available. 

[#8]

Thanks Onur but your example only controls the chat function in it's entirety. I'd like the bot to step in immediately outside business hours or if my calendar says I'm busy.

[#9]

Currently, there is no setting that allows you to schedule your chat bot based on the availability of your human reps. Ideally, there would be a single option to choose that would set your chat bot as available any time that a human isn't readily available. 

I know that you can set your bot to hand off conversations to a rep, but I would rather have the initial interaction be with a human first, and if not available, immediately with a bot. 

[#10]

I spent way too long trying to unravel this one. It seems like having your bot automatically take over whenever a human is not available to chat would be a highly sought-after function. I don't need a bot to pass off conversations to me, I just want a bot to field questions and requests when a human can't. Alas, changing the chat availability (a la Onur), changes it for everything, not just the bot (or just the human chatters).

I could see how it would be difficult to have the bot take over instead of the automated away message–you're combining two chats into one–but to set the availabilty based on when your team isn't there seems really simple. Separate chat availability settings for the bot. That's all. 

This would be huge if it worked that way... Fingers crossed. Happy to find this idea. 

[#11]

I was also looking for this!

Switching between Messages and Bot depending on business hours/away status or time delay.

Do I have to manually always switch the bot on when I leave the office and then switch off when I come to work???

[#12]

Jayson, that is what I am doing, and unfortunately I don't always remember, even with a huge post it on my computer. And the App doesn't give access to inbox settings. . . the app is just worthless. Sorry, my opinion! Hopefully the offer this feature soon! Either scheduled bots OR the ability to access inbox setting from the app.