The out of business hours flow template helps you automate replies to incoming messages received outside your team’s working hours. It ensures that customers who reach out during off-hours still receive timely responses, while messages are routed to the right person when your team is back online.

Example use case

Scenario: Your business hours are 9 AM–6 PM, Monday to Friday. When a message is received at 10 PM:

• New customers: Automatically handled by AgentFlow, then assigned to a team using round-robin once your team is back online
• Existing customers: Receive an off-hours message confirming you’ll reply in the morning.

This setup helps maintain responsiveness while keeping your team’s workload organized.

Set up “Out of business hours” template

1. Within Flow Builder, click on Create new flow

2. In the flow template step, select Out of business hour under the Reply category

3. In the flow canvas, the system will automatically generate a basic flow that includes an “Incoming message received” trigger node and a Send message action node.

Set your business-hour condition

1. Click on the Incoming message received trigger node to open up its node form, which will appear on the right side of the screen

2. The node form contains the following fields for you to set up the trigger:

• Setup tab
  • Channel: Select the desired messaging channel(s) that will trigger the flow when a message is received from it. You can select as many channels as needed for this workflow.
• Filter tab
  • Enrollment conditions: SleekFlow automatically applies the conditions required for this flow to run only during off-hours. You will see the following pre-configured settings:
    • Is on weekday: with Monday to Friday selected
    • Is outside time range: 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM

You can adjust the weekday selection or time range at any time to match your team's schedule.

Add branches for new and existing contacts

After defining when the flow should run, you can handle different types of contacts using branching.

Branch 1: New contacts → AgentFlow → Human handoff (Round-robin)

Use this branch when you want to handle first-time inquiries that arrive during off-hours in a structured and scalable way.

When a new customer messages your business outside working hours:

Step 1: Insert a Condition branching node

A branching structure will appear with Path 1 and an Else branch.

Step 2: Configure Path 1 for new contacts

Configure this branch to capture only new contacts. A common setup is: If Label contains any of “New customer”.

Step 3: Add an “AgentFlow” node

Once new contacts are filtered into this branch, add an AgentFlow node to handle the initial conversation automatically by gathering basic information and answering simple questions.

• This ensures the customer receives an immediate, helpful response
• AgentFlow can capture intent (e.g., booking, pricing, store info) and collect key details before your team comes online.

Step 4: Add an “Assign to” node for human handoff

1. Once AgentFlow finishes its part, add an Assign to node so the conversation can be handed off to a human agent when your team is back online.

2. The node form contains the following fields for you to set up the action:

• Setup tab
  • Assign to: To enable round-robin assignment within team, please select “Team - By queue”
    
  • Team: Appears when “Team” is selected. Choose the team whose round-robin rule you want to use for new lead assignment. 
    

Branch 2: Existing contacts → Send message

1. Because Path 1 is configured for new contacts only, customers who have interacted with your business before will fall under the Else branch. Under this branch, add a Send message node.

2. The node form contains the following fields for you to configure your action:

• Channel type: Select the messaging channel type to send your message from (e.g. WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram) 
• Send via: Select the specific messaging channel to send your message from (e.g. WhatsApp channel HK)

This approach keeps the customer informed while ensuring that returning customers continue their conversation with the same agent or team when business hours resume.