# Answer the first enquiry. Even after hours.

A new customer should know their message arrived and who will pick it up.

Useful for: Retail, travel, clinics and service teams

## Trigger

First Message from Contact · WhatsApp · select the connected account and inbox.

## Before you build

- Choose the teammate who handles new enquiries and your local timezone.

- Set your real opening hours. The example below assumes daily opening, 9am–6pm.

## Builder steps

### 1. Check the time

Add Condition (If/Else): Time of day, in window 18:00–09:00, using your local timezone.

### 2. After hours → acknowledge

On Yes, add Send Message: “Thanks for getting in touch. We’re closed right now and will pick this up when we reopen at 9am.” Then add Wait: duration 1 minute, with business-hours resumption enabled and your opening window configured.

### 3. After hours → hand over

After the wait, add Human Handoff: “Reply to the new enquiry”, owner = your enquiry teammate, priority Normal, due in 1 hour. Include “Read the incoming message before replying.”

### 4. During opening hours → acknowledge and hand over

On No, send “Thanks for getting in touch. Our team will take a look and reply shortly.” Then create the same Human Handoff, due in 1 hour.

### 5. Finish with a person

The teammate answers the enquiry and completes the handoff from the work queue.

## Enrollment and finish

- Enrollment: Only once. This welcomes a contact’s first inbound message, not every enquiry.

- Do not set quiet hours that would skip the after-hours trigger.

- Use the business-hours wait to resume work; due times themselves are elapsed hours.

## Test it

- Simulate once inside and once outside opening hours. Confirm only the correct branch runs.

- In a live test with your own WhatsApp contact, check the acknowledgement and the handoff owner and due time.

## Publish

Select your own accounts, records and owners. Save the draft, simulate each path, run a live test with your own test contact, and review the results. Complete any required approval, publish the reviewed version, then turn it on. These are manual build instructions, not an import file.