Can you set up an automatic reply to texts at weekends?

Yes. Muzau's SMS agent doesn't send back a fixed message: it answers the customer's question with what your company knows, at any hour if it is set to answer on its own. In each conversation, its first SMS starts with "Hello, this is the AI assistant of" your company.

Can a customer book an appointment by SMS on a Sunday evening?

Yes. Muzau's SMS agent suggests free slots taken from your appointment hours, asks for their email, books the appointment and sends the invitation by email. If your setting doesn't let it book on its own, it passes the request to the team, who get back to the customer to confirm it.

How long can you wait before replying to a customer's text?

No delay is set, but a text calls for a faster reply than an email. The safest is a short reply the same evening, saying when the rest will come, then the rest during the team's hours. A Muzau SMS agent can make that first reply, on its own or after your go-ahead.

What should you reply to a customer who texts on a Sunday evening?

One sentence that answers their question if the answer is simple, then one sentence saying when the team will take over, such as "The team will reply on Monday morning". Don't set a price or lead time in it that nobody has checked.

After-hours SMS

Should you reply to customers' SMS in the evening and at weekends?

Yes, you should reply to customers' SMS in the evening and at weekends, but not necessarily yourself. Muzau's SMS agent replies to texts received on your company's 09 number, at any hour if it is set to answer on its own, with what the company knows. It can book an appointment within your hours and hands over to the team for what it doesn't know. If you keep approval, each reply waits for your go-ahead.

Why an evening text doesn't wait until Monday

A customer texts when they have a moment: in the evening, once the day is done, or on Saturday morning. SMS is a short, direct channel, the one used for messages between friends. Whoever sends one expects a quick answer. With no news until Monday, they ask the same question elsewhere, or forget they ever asked it.

Often, these texts land on a team member's phone, and they choose between answering at the dinner table and letting it slide. The right answer separates two steps: a short reply right away, the rest handled by the team during the hours they work. It is also a reason to have a dedicated number for your company's SMS.

How the agent goes about it

Input: An SMS received on the company's 09 number, at any hour
It does: Replies with a short SMS, suggests a slot, hands over the rest
It delivers: A reply the same evening if it answers on its own, a booked appointment, or a conversation ready to pick up

The SMS agent replies at any hour if it is set to answer on its own

Each reply from the SMS agent follows your setting for what goes out without you, the same as for email replies. Set to answer on its own, it replies in the evening, at night and at weekends, without waiting for your opening hours. The reply hours you give an agent for its emails do not apply to SMS. If you keep approval, the reply waits for your go-ahead in a "To approve" card and does not go out before then: a Saturday night text can then wait until Monday.

In the evening, the SMS agent replies with what the company knows

The agent replies with the public part of what Muzau's Brain knows about your company, as it does during the day: see the AI that replies to your customers' texts. The agent's first SMS in each conversation starts with "Hello, this is the AI assistant of" your company: the customer on Saturday night knows who they are talking to.

An appointment requested by text in the evening, booked within your hours

If the customer wants to meet, the agent suggests free slots from your calendar, Google Calendar or Outlook, taken from the appointment hours set on the agent's sheet: if you only see people on weekdays, a Sunday evening text gets a weekday slot. The rest of the exchange, the email requested for the invitation and the confirmation, is on the page booking an appointment by SMS.

What the SMS agent doesn't know goes to the team

When the agent can't answer and is set to hand over, it writes to the customer "We'll reply to you here by SMS." and a card alerts the team. On Monday, the team picks up the conversation from the card, where the agent has prepared a short reply for them to review; what they send goes out from the agent's number. If it can't reply at all, for example when paused or after the company's 100 SMS for the day, nothing is sent to the customer and a card says who is waiting and why.

Evening and weekend SMS: the rules to set

With or without an agent, a few rules keep a text received outside office hours from going wrong.

Decide what deserves a reply the same evening. An opening time, an availability, an appointment request, a simple question about your offer. A complaint or a negotiation waits for a person.
Reply in one SMS. One or two sentences are enough. The detail follows by email, or is said at the meeting.
Don't commit to anything nobody can honor. A price, a lead time or a goodwill gesture given on a Sunday evening binds the company on Monday.
Say when the rest will come. "The team will reply on Monday morning" beats silence, as long as someone does it on Monday morning.
Say that an AI is replying, if it is one. One sentence in the first message is enough: the customer knows who they are talking to, and what to expect from the reply.
Don't ask for the email for nothing. The number is enough to reply; the email is for sending an invitation or a document.
On Monday, start with the weekend conversations, in the order they arrived, before the new emails.

For emails, an agent can keep a reply ready overnight until your opening hours: see whether you should reply to a prospect at 2 a.m..

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What it does not do

It doesn't push back its SMS replies to your opening hours: reply hours apply to emails, and an agent set to answer on its own replies by SMS at any hour.
It only serves the customer knowledge marked public: a phone number doesn't prove who is writing, so anything reserved for customers or internal use stays out of its replies.
It doesn't move or cancel an appointment, and books only one per conversation.

Autonomous does not mean unchecked. You set the level of autonomy of every agent, its limits cannot be crossed, everything it does is recorded in a plain-language log, and one gesture stops it all.

Frequently asked questions

Can you set up an automatic reply to texts at weekends?: Yes. Muzau's SMS agent doesn't send back a fixed message: it answers the customer's question with what your company knows, at any hour if it is set to answer on its own. In each conversation, its first SMS starts with "Hello, this is the AI assistant of" your company.
Can a customer book an appointment by SMS on a Sunday evening?: Yes. Muzau's SMS agent suggests free slots taken from your appointment hours, asks for their email, books the appointment and sends the invitation by email. If your setting doesn't let it book on its own, it passes the request to the team, who get back to the customer to confirm it.
How long can you wait before replying to a customer's text?: No delay is set, but a text calls for a faster reply than an email. The safest is a short reply the same evening, saying when the rest will come, then the rest during the team's hours. A Muzau SMS agent can make that first reply, on its own or after your go-ahead.
What should you reply to a customer who texts on a Sunday evening?: One sentence that answers their question if the answer is simple, then one sentence saying when the team will take over, such as "The team will reply on Monday morning". Don't set a price or lead time in it that nobody has checked.

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