After-hours fallback
The problem
You can't staff agents 24/7, but customers don't only call during office hours. Without a fallback, after-hours visitors get a closed door — and the company loses leads and goodwill.
The pattern
- Define business hours once. Set opening hours and holidays in both products (or sync from Microsoft 365 Shifts).
- Voice: IVR drop-off. When the queue is closed, the IVR plays a closure message and offers options:
- Leave a voicemail (transcribed)
- Receive an SMS with FAQ link
- Schedule a callback for the next business day
- Chat: leave-a-message form. When no agents are online, the chat widget swaps to a contact form. The form lands in the same inbox.
- Unified morning queue. Voicemails (transcribed) and chat messages appear together. Agents triage them in priority order, not channel order.
What you configure
| In | What |
|---|---|
| uWebChat Voice | IVR with business-hours/holidays branching; voicemail box; transcription on |
| uWebChat Chat | Enable "Leave a Message" prompt; configure form fields |
| Both | Use the same Microsoft 365 Shifts calendar as schedule source |
Why this works for cross-sell
- Customers see consistent off-hours behavior whether they call or chat.
- The "unified inbox" pitch only works if you have both products — and once you do, it's sticky.