How can a small business answer customers after hours?
Let a chat bot answer the questions it knows while you are closed, and save the others for the morning with a clear note to the customer. People who write at night get an answer instead of silence.
See the website chat bot
Short answer
A small business can answer after hours by running a chat bot on its website or chat channel. It replies right away to common questions and bookings, and anything it cannot answer is passed to staff as a ticket for the next working day.
Step by step
- Look at when messages arrive. Count how many come in while you are closed.
- List the questions asked at those times. Opening hours, availability and bookings are usually among them.
- Give the bot the answers and let it take bookings, so the customer can finish without waiting.
- For everything else, save the request as a ticket and tell the customer when a person will reply.
- Each morning, answer the saved requests first.
How to do it in AISNSIO
The AI-SNS.IO website chat bot answers visitor questions at any hour, takes bookings and guides people through frequent questions. When a person is needed, the conversation is handed to your staff through live chat or a helpdesk ticket.
If your customers write on a chat app instead, the channel bots work the same way. The WhatsApp chat bot, for example, replies right away even when your shop is closed.
What customers ask after closing time
- Are you open tomorrow, and until when?
- Can I book, change or cancel?
- Where is my order?
- Do you have this in stock, in this size?
- How do I get to you?
What to tell a customer who has to wait
- That their message has been received.
- That a person will answer, and on which day.
- What they can still do now: book, leave contact details, read the answer on your site.
- Do not promise an exact time you cannot keep.
Words on this page
After hours
The time when your business is closed and no staff are answering.
Helpdesk ticket
A record of one customer request in a support tool.
Handoff
Passing a conversation from the bot to a person on your team.
FAQ
Can the bot take a booking while we are closed?
Yes. The website chat bot takes bookings and answers frequent questions at any hour.
What happens to questions it cannot answer at night?
They are passed to your staff. The handoff goes to live chat or a helpdesk ticket.
Does this also work on chat apps?
Yes. The WhatsApp chat bot, for example, replies right away even when your shop is closed.
Related pages
Published by: Freeborn Inc. (株式会社フリーボーン) · Suita, Osaka, Japan · contact@ai-sns.io
Updated: