Save time with saved replies and working hours

Two small settings that take ten minutes and save you from typing the same paragraph several hundred times.

Saved replies

A saved reply is a block of text you insert with a short keyword. Everyone on your account shares the same list.

Setting them up

Owners and admins add and change saved replies. Everyone on the team can use them.

1. In Chatbox, click the bookmark icon (Saved replies) at the top of the conversation list, next to the clock.
2. Click New reply, and fill in:
   • Title — what it is, for your own list.
   • Shortcut — the keyword you will type. Letters, numbers, hyphens and underscores; keep it short: hours, delivery, refund.
   • Reply text — the message itself. The preview underneath shows it the way it will look in the chat.
3. Click Save reply.

To change one, pick it from the list and click Edit. Delete asks you to confirm first, because it removes the reply for the whole team.

Using them

In any conversation, type / followed by the shortcut. Matching replies appear above the message box as you type:

• ↑ and ↓ move between them.
• Enter or Tab puts the highlighted one in the message box.
• Esc closes the list, for when you meant to type a /.

The reply lands in the message box, not in the chat. Change what you need, then press Enter again to send it.

Would rather browse? Click the bookmark icon beside the message box to see every saved reply in full, search them, and click Insert reply.

Editing before sending is the point — the saved reply gets you 90% of the way, and you add the customer's name or their specific detail.

Worth saving

The five or six things you answer every single day:

• Opening hours and location
• Delivery times and charges
• Return and refund policy
• Payment methods
• "Let me check and come back to you" — the holding reply
• Your address, with directions

Working hours

Tells the inbox when you are open, so an out-of-hours message gets an immediate honest answer instead of silence.

1. In Chatbox, click the clock icon (Working hours) at the top of the conversation list.
2. Set your timezone — do this first, everything else depends on it.
3. Either tick Always open (24/7), or set the times you open and close.
4. Write an away message — what someone gets outside those hours.
5. Turn on Send this automatically outside hours if you want it delivered. Leave it off and the hours only show your team an "outside hours" marker in the inbox.

Leaving the message blank is fine once the switch is on. We send a default that names your hours — "we're open Monday to Saturday, 9 am to 7 pm" — built from the schedule you just set, so it stays right if you change your hours later. The box shows you that exact wording as its placeholder.

Writing a good away message

Say when you will actually reply, and give them something to do meanwhile:

Thanks for messaging! We're closed right now and will reply when we open at 10am. For anything urgent, call us on 044 1234 5678.

Avoid "we will get back to you shortly" at 11pm. It is not true, and being caught in a small lie is a poor first impression.

What it costs

The away reply is charged per reply, at the rate on the pricing page. Replies you type yourself inside the 24-hour window stay free, as they always have — this is charged because the platform sends it for you while nobody is at the keyboard, the same way an AI assistant reply is.

You are only charged once per customer per closing, not once per message. Somebody who sends you five messages at 10pm gets one away reply and is billed once. If they message again the following evening, after you have opened and closed in between, they get it again.

If something goes wrong

• / does nothing. No saved replies exist yet, or nothing matches what you typed after it — matching looks at the start of the shortcut and anywhere in the title. It also does nothing while you are writing a private note.
• The customer got /something instead of the reply. Nothing matched, so there was no list to pick from, and Enter sent the text as typed. Check the shortcut's spelling in Saved replies.
• There is no message box to type into. The conversation's 24-hour window has closed. A saved reply is ordinary text, so it needs the window open; send an approved template to reopen the conversation.
• No away message goes out at all. The switch is off, or you have not set your hours — with no hours there is nothing to be outside of. Both are in Working hours. It will also stop if your balance runs out, since the reply is charged.
• The away message goes out during working hours. The timezone is wrong. It is the first field for a reason.
• Someone got it twice in one evening. They shouldn't — it is sent once per customer per closing. If it happens, tell us, because that is a fault rather than a setting.
• A colleague cannot see your saved replies. They are shared across the account. Ask them to reload.
• There is no bookmark icon at the top of Chatbox. Only owners and admins get it, because only they can change the list. Everyone else uses saved replies from the message box.

Next

Greet people automatically.