Choose a promise smaller than your ambition
A new channel does not need to appear open all day. Identify a period when a trained person can reliably answer and another route can receive unresolved work. State the timezone plainly where customers may be elsewhere. Avoid promising an immediate response solely because the widget is visible. A truthful limited window gives customers a usable expectation and gives the team a realistic opportunity to learn before expanding coverage.
Distinguish a schedule from a guarantee
LiveChat documents a work scheduler for Business and Enterprise, with timing tied to the agent’s device timezone and scope for manual status changes. Verify those details in the current account before relying on them. A configured schedule is not proof that the person is present or their notifications work. Test opening and closing boundaries with fictional conversations, including what happens when a responder is finishing an exchange at the end of a shift.
Prepare the closed-channel message
Explain when the team returns and how to leave a question without suggesting someone is actively typing. Ask only for information needed to reply. If a customer needs urgent help you cannot provide, say so rather than collecting an emergency request into an unattended queue. Keep the message consistent with your public contact page. Someone should own the first review of messages when coverage resumes, or the overnight backlog will remain invisible.
Review coverage before expanding it
After a pilot, compare demand inside and outside the window with the team’s ability to resolve it. A few late messages do not automatically justify an evening shift. Consider an improved help page or asynchronous answer first. If hours change, update the widget, website copy and internal rota together. Keep a record of who checked the new schedule and customer-facing state; calendar settings alone cannot establish that the published service promise is accurate.
Sources used for this page
These records support the facts and comparisons above. Merchant-controlled records are labelled so you can separate product claims from independent evidence.
- LiveChat work scheduler — Merchant documentation · livechat.com · Merchant-controlled · checked 2026-09-19