Can auto-responses target a specific business hours schedule?
In this article
In this article group
- Can auto-responders exclude threads by label?
- Do workflow automated replies count toward the first response time SLA?
- Why does the first response time SLA start on a thread I created?
- How to apply different SLAs to customers on the same tier
- When does the SLA timer pause?
- Why can't I assign the Support Rota role?
- Why does a machine user snooze cancel the first response time timer?
No. Auto-responses support an Inside or outside business hours condition, but it checks business hours in general and cannot reference a specific named schedule. If your workspace has multiple schedules (for example, EMEA Hours and US Hours), an auto-response has no way to distinguish between them.
Use a workflow instead
Workflows support a Business hours condition that lets you check whether the current time is inside or outside a specific named schedule. Set up a workflow with:
Trigger: Thread created
Condition: Business hours → Current time is Inside business hours for [your schedule name]
Action: Send message to customer
This replicates an auto-response with full schedule awareness. You can create one workflow per schedule and send different messages depending on which team's hours are active. Workflows also support additional actions beyond just sending a message — assigning the thread, setting priority, applying a label — all in the same rule.