Automated response outside of working hours

[qwaterman]

Hi All,

I've created an automatic response email for anyone who fills in the enquiry form on our website, but I want it to only send when our showroom is closed. Is it possible to set up a workflow where this email only sends to people who fill in the form between 6pm - 9am the next morning for example? And it doesn't send to those who fill it out throughout the daytime as we will be contacting these straight away?

Any advice greatly appreciated 🙂

[Phil_Vallender · Accepted solution]

Hi @qwaterman 

I actually can't think of a way to do that in HubSpot currently. 

I'm afraid that your best bet might be to create one auto-responder that contains the necessary information and makes sense both in and out of hours. 

Let us know if you figure out another approach.

[KDreesen]

Hi!

Three years later ... is there any possible workaround now to send automated responses at tickets coming in outside the office hours? I assume this is a feature many Hubspot clients would benefit from.

Best,

Kerstin

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @KDreesen and @qwaterman 

Yes, this is possible. I shared a solution here:

https://community.hubspot.com/t5/Tickets-Conversations/Out-of-office-after-hours-auto-reply/m-p/7321...

In short, you need two workflows. One that runs within working hours, one that runs outside of working hours. They take 'take turns' in handling incoming tickets and sending or not sending a confirmation that the ticket was received.

Best regards!

[KDreesen]

Hi Karsten,

I just detected that under "Settings" I can define the times the workflow will be executed. In my case I would select the non-office hours. The workflow would be: For every ticket with ticket status "new" send the email template ABC.

With this in mind why do I need a second workflow? As during our office times we do not need an auto-response as we have a very good response time. But outside our office hours some clients are impatient 🙂

Best,

Kerstin

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @KDreesen,

In that case you do not need a second workflow, correct.

---

@KDreesen wrote:

I just detected that under "Settings" I can define the times the workflow will be executed. In my case I would select the non-office hours. The workflow would be: For every ticket with ticket status "new" send the email template ABC.

---

That's exactly what I describe in the thread I linked in my previous reply.

(You just need to make sure that there aren't any tickets that the workflow would pick up during non-working hours. For example, if a ticket has not been worked throughout the day and is still in the New status at the end of the day, the workflow might send the after-working-hours-reply, depending on your enrollment criteria. I explained this in the thread linked.)

Best regards

[KDreesen]

Hi Karsten,

unfortunately the workflow does not work properly. Although tickets are not in the column "new" anymore (but have been before), those contacts get the out of office email outside our business hours. Any idea? This is the workflow:

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @KDreesen,

This workflow doesn't seem to include the checkbox I proposed in my earlier reply, have you looked into that?

Best regards

[KDreesen]

Thank you. This is way too complicated for all of us to always keep in mind to click a checkbox. All the tickets have a time stamp and Hubspot can easily check itself whether the ticket came in within or outside the business hours 😞 

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @KDreesen,

I didn't propose to check the box manually:

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In that case, you could simply create a checkbox property for the ticket object, 'Ticket created during working hours'. Workflow 1 would check thix box, workflow 2 would exclude tickets that have this box checked.

---

Have you tried this?

Best regards

[KDreesen]

I now have these two workflows. Both have our office hours in the settings. Is this necessary for workflow 2? The property "New in office hours" is a checkbox in group "ticket information".

Workflow 1:

Workflow 2:

[KDreesen]

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I will try this. Thank you!

[KDreesen]

Any idea how to solve this problem for this case?

- Office hours end at 5:30pm

- New email received at 5:20pm but not answered anymore before 5:30pm

Is there a trigger I can add? Not sure if ticket has to be older than an hour (Delay for a set amount of time) would work. 

Best,

Kerstin

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @KDreesen,

One option would be to limit enrollment of the outside-of-working-hours-workflow to tickets in the ticket status New.

Another workflow during working hours could move tickets to Waiting on us once they come in. The outside-of-working-hours-workflow would then not pick them up anymore.

Best regards

[KDreesen]

We sometimes are in calls or meetings shortly before 5:30pm and don't check the board anymore before leaving the office.

When I create a workflow like I mentioned (for tickets with tickets status "new" and the settings for specific times starting at 5:30pm), what happens to tickets that coming in at 5:10pm for example? Will the workflow include them once it is 5:30pm (as they still have the "new" status) or will the workflow exclude them as they came in before 5:30pm (although they still have the "new" status)?

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @KDreesen,

That's what I explained in my previous reply:

Workflow 1 (during working hours) moves tickets to "Waiting on us" immediately

Workflow 2 (outside of working hours) sends a "Ticket received" reply for ticket with the status "New"

That way, tickets created during working hours will not be enrolled in workflow 2, as they're not in the "New" ticket status anymore.

Best regards

[KDreesen]

Tickets have to be in the "new" column as long as we have not answered them, we cannot automatically move them to "waiting on us". This is not working for us.

[karstenkoehler]

Hi @KDreesen,

In that case, you could simply create a checkbox property for the ticket object, 'Ticket created during working hours'. Workflow 1 would check thix box, workflow 2 would exclude tickets that have this box checked.

Best regards!

[LOliveira0]

Karsten,

Could you share how you would create the workflow to populate this checkbox?

Thanks,
Lucas

[richard88]

Another potential thought here would be:

• Workflow A: Runs from 8am-5pm Mon-Fri and has a normal support response
  Workflow B: Out of office responder run after hours

• If contact A completes Workflow A, they will be suppressed from Workflow B

[kvlschaefer]

Thanks for sharing this workaround, @richard88! 

[Phil_Vallender · Accepted solution]

Hi @qwaterman 

I actually can't think of a way to do that in HubSpot currently. 

I'm afraid that your best bet might be to create one auto-responder that contains the necessary information and makes sense both in and out of hours. 

Let us know if you figure out another approach.