Holiday and closures
Holidays, inclement weather, and unforeseen circumstances can significantly affect the level of online support available to end users. Whenever a closure impacts your agents’ availability during regular support hours, a custom closure card helps manage end user expectations. End users will appreciate a heads-up that there may be a delayed response to their Conversations. They’ll also be glad to know when you plan to resume regular support hours.
Create
- Settings
- Holidays and closures
When you create a card, the standard support reply time message in Conversations—viewable by end users—will be replaced with a custom closure reply message that communicates your change in support hours. Creating a card includes:
- Title
- This customizable field names the closure you’re creating, is used for internal purposes, and limited to 25 characters.
- Date
- This date picker displays the month, day, and year for you to select. If the holiday or closure spans more than one day, you’ll need to create a separate card for each day. A card is in effect for the full 24 hours of the date selected.
- Reply time
- This text notifies you the following fields display as a message to the end user before they initiate a new conversation. The closure reply time message overrides the default reply time message.
- Headline
- This customizable field titles the closure reply time message, is limited to 75 characters, and visible to the end user. Examples could include Happy Memorial Day, Happy New Year, We’re Closed Right Now, or another short headline.
- Body
- This customizable field explains the closure in the reply time message, is limited to 225 characters, and visible to the end user.
You’re welcome to use and modify the following Body messages, or create your own:
- We’re closed in observance of [holiday]. We’ll return to regular business hours on [date]. Thank you for choosing [institution name].
- We are closed on [date]. We’ll respond to your message as soon as possible on [date]. This is not a live chat, and we apologize for the inconvenience.
- Our Customer Service Center is closed for the holidays. Send us a message, and we’ll get back to you when we reopen on [date]. Our regular business hours are [business hours].
- Preview
- As you complete the card, a preview function shows you how the closure reply time message will appear to the end user.
The last employees who used Support will be shown here is a statement for your internal use only. Dependent on the number of agents recently sending messages in Support, up to three agent avatars will display above the Headline in the closure reply time message. Each avatar will appear to the end user and include the agent’s profile name and photo. An agent avatar will be removed after seven days of inactivity.
- Save
- This button activates when all the fields are completed.
- Nevermind
- This button discards the card and its changes.
Time frame
When you create a card, the closure is automatically in effect for the full 24 hours of the date you select. Because of how we gather data on interactions between end users and agents, the time frame is not customizable. If a closure spans multiple days, you’ll need to create a card for each day of the closure.
Edit
You can edit a card by selecting its title or date. After making your edits, be sure to Save the card. If you change your mind, disregard the edits by selecting Nevermind or the close button.
Delete
After each holiday or closure, we recommend keeping the card saved … forever. If you delete the card, Support data in Banno Reports will be likely skewed and negatively impacted. However, there are some instances when it’s OK to delete a card:
- If you mistakenly create multiple cards for the same day, you should keep one of the cards and delete duplicates.
- When a scheduled closure is cancelled and regular support hours will be offered, you should delete the card.
By selecting the delete button on the card, the card will be removed and unrecoverable.