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With the After Hours Bot feature, you can create a completely separate Voice AI agent to handle inbound calls outside of your business hours. This allows you to provide different experiences for callers depending on when they call.

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How It Works

You can publish up to two Voice AI agents per workspace:
  • Business Hours Bot: Handles calls during your published workspace business hours
  • After Hours Bot: Handles calls outside of your business hours
When a call comes in, Hatch automatically routes it to the appropriate bot based on the current time and your workspace’s business hours settings.

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Setting Up an After Hours Bot

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Step 1: Create a New Voice AI Agent

  1. Navigate to the Hatch Assistant playground
  2. Create a new Voice AI agent (or duplicate an existing one)
  3. Configure the agent with instructions appropriate for after-hours scenarios

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Step 2: Enable After Hours Mode

  1. In your bot’s configuration, locate the After Hours Agent toggle in the Set Trigger panel
  2. Enable the toggle to mark this agent as an after-hours bot
  3. Click the settings gear icon to configure business hours
After Hours Agent toggle in the Set Trigger panel
You cannot change the after-hours setting on a published agent. If you need to change it, you must unpublish the agent first.

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Step 3: Configure Business Hours

Your after-hours bot uses your workspace’s business hours to determine when to activate. Click the settings gear icon next to the After Hours Agent toggle to open the business hours configuration:
Customize Business Hours modal showing daily schedule settings
  1. Toggle each day to Open or closed
  2. Set the start and end times for each day
  3. Use the + button to add multiple time ranges per day (e.g., for lunch breaks)
  4. Click Save to apply your changes
Modifying the business hours here modifies them for the entire workspace. This can impact other features such as SMS campaign automations.
The after-hours bot will handle all calls that come in outside of these configured hours.

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Publishing Requirements

There are specific requirements for publishing after-hours bots:
You must publish a Business Hours bot before you can publish an After Hours bot. This ensures that calls during business hours are always handled appropriately.
ScenarioAllowed?
Publish only a Business Hours botYes
Publish only an After Hours botNo
Publish both Business Hours and After Hours botsYes
When you publish an after-hours bot, the system verifies that a business hours bot is already published for that workspace. If not, you’ll see an error message asking you to publish a business hours bot first.

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Unpublishing Behavior

When you unpublish your Business Hours bot, your After Hours bot will automatically be unpublished as well. This cascade behavior ensures that your workspace always has proper coverage during business hours.
If you unpublish your business hours bot, be aware that your after hours bot will also be unpublished. You’ll need to republish both if you want to restore after-hours coverage.

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Call Routing Logic

Here’s how Hatch determines which bot handles an incoming call:
  1. During business hours: The Business Hours bot handles the call
  2. Outside business hours: The After Hours bot handles the call (if published)
  3. Outside business hours with no After Hours bot: The Business Hours bot handles the call as a fallback
  4. No business hours configured: The Business Hours bot always handles calls
This fallback behavior ensures that calls are never dropped, even if you haven’t set up an after-hours bot.

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Best Practices

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When to Use an After Hours Bot

Consider creating a separate after-hours bot when you want to:
  • Provide different booking options (e.g., next-day appointments only)
  • Set different expectations for response times
  • Offer emergency-only services after hours
  • Use a different tone or persona for evening/weekend callers
  • Route calls differently (e.g., only transfer emergencies)

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Configuring Your After Hours Bot

When setting up your after-hours bot, consider these tips:
  1. Set clear expectations: Let callers know they’re reaching you after hours and when they can expect a callback
  2. Handle emergencies: Configure transfer rules for urgent situations that need immediate attention
  3. Simplify options: After-hours callers may prefer faster, simpler interactions
  4. Adjust scheduling: If your bot books appointments, consider limiting available slots to business hours

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Frequently Asked Questions

No, you can only have one after-hours bot per workspace. However, you can configure your business hours to have different hours for different days of the week, and the after-hours bot will activate accordingly.
You cannot publish only an after-hours bot. A business hours bot must be published first. If you want all calls to go to the same bot regardless of time, simply use a business hours bot without enabling an after-hours bot.
Yes! You can test your after-hours bot in the playground just like any other bot. The playground allows you to simulate conversations regardless of the current time.
The contact card and call records will show which bot handled the conversation. You can also see this information in your reporting dashboard.
If no business hours are configured, the system defaults to using your business hours bot for all calls. The after-hours bot will never activate until you configure business hours.