Setting up automated greeting and away messages helps you communicate more effectively with your customers, no matter when they reach out. These messages save time by reducing the need to respond to every inquiry manually. They also improve the customer experience and build trust by ensuring customers always feel acknowledged.

Important Note: You cannot use Greeting and Away Messages while the Hallo AI Bot is active. If you want to use Greeting and Away Messages, first disable the Hallo AI Bot.

Both features do the same thing:

- Greeting & Away Messages → Send customizable welcome or away replies based on your business hours.‍

- Hallo AI Bot → Sends automated responses to customers as soon as they reach out during your business hours.

To do this:

1. Go to AI & Automation.

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2. Click on Welcome & Away Messages.

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3. Set the Business working hours: Define when Zoko should send greeting messages vs. away messages:

- Enable or disable working days: Use the toggle switch to mark which days your business is operational.

‍Example: Turn off Saturday and Sunday if your business is closed on weekends

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- Set your working hours: Click the clock icon to specify your daily start and end times.

‍Example: Open from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

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4. Configure Greeting Messages: Greeting messages are sent automatically to customers during business hours:

- Enable the Greeting Message option.

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- Type your welcome message in the text box.

Example: Thank you for contacting us! How may I help you today?

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Customize frequency:

- Type the number of days or hours.

- Choose Days or Hours from the dropdown. In our case, we set it to 2 days.

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5. Configure Away Messages: Away messages let customers know you’re closed and when they can expect a reply.

- Enable the Away Message option.

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- Type your away message in the text box.

Example: Thank you for contacting us! We’re currently closed and will respond when we reopen on Monday. For urgent queries, please email us at support@zoko.io.

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Customize frequency:

- Type the number of days or hours.

- Choose Days or Hours from the dropdown. In our case, we set it to 2 hours so the away message is sent once every 2 hours.

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Important note: When you enable the toggle, you’ll see two options:

• Regular Message → Sends plain text you enter in the box.
• Private Note → Triggers FlowHippo to send advanced messages (templates, media, buttons).

In our case, we’ve set both to Regular Message.

Once you have finished setting up your automated greeting and away messages, test them to ensure they’re working correctly

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Keywords: Away message, Welcome message, Automated message, Business hours.

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