This video shows how to set up an out of office workflow that can be used every day after your business has closed, or when you are away for an extended period of time, such as over Christmas.
This article will explain how to create an out of office workflow. This example will show you how to set up automated replies that get sent to a contact if they message you in a timeframe outside of your regular hours on both weekdays and weekends.
To create this workflow, follow the below steps:
Navigate to automations on the left hand side menu. This will show you your workflows
Create a new workflow from scratch and rename the workflow. You could name this ‘Out of office’
Click on ‘add new workflow trigger’ and search for ‘customer replied’. Save this as your trigger
Click on the + icon under the trigger to select your first action
Search ‘if’ and select the ‘if / else’ condition. This will then give you the option to add branches
Name this condition. You could name this ‘What day of the week is it?’
Name your branch. This could be something like ‘weekdays’ and your second branch would be ‘weekends’
Select your segment > Date Time > Current day of week
Select operator as ‘is’
In the next box, select ‘weekday’ for all weekdays
Click ‘+ Add Segment’ and select your segment > Date Time > Current hour
Select operator as ‘is before’
In the next box, select your opening time. This could be 8am for example
Click ‘+ Add Condition’ again and select your segment > Date Time > Current hour
Select operator as ‘is after’
In the next box, select your closing time. This could be 5pm for example
Change your condition below from ‘and’ to ‘or’ as you want the conditions you set up to send the action before OR after these times you just set
Click ‘+ Add Branch’ to add a new branch and name this one ‘weekends’
Select your segment > Date Time > Current day of week
Select operator as ‘is’
In the next box, select ‘weekend’ for all weekends
Click ‘+ Add Condition’ and select your segment > Date Time > Current hour
Select operator as ‘is after’
In the next box, select your closing time. This could be 2pm for example
Click ‘Save Action’
You can now add your action under the ‘Weekdays’ and ‘weekends’ branches you just created. To do this click the + icon and add your desired action. This will likely be an SMS or Email
You can then customise the message to say exactly as you desire
Click through to the settings tab
Toggle on ‘Allow re-entry’. This will allow the same contact to go through this workflow multiple times, meaning they would enter into this workflow every time they were to send a message to you outside of your office hours you just set up
You can now toggle on ‘Publish ’and save your workflow.