> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.custral.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Office Hours and Email Follow-Up

> Tell visitors when your team replies, and email them the replies they missed.

## Overview

Once a visitor asks for a person, the chat widget says how fast your team usually replies,
or when it is back if you are outside office hours. If a visitor leaves before a teammate
answers, the widget can email them the reply, and they can answer by email.

All of this is in **Settings → Chat Widget → Settings → Office hours and replies**. The
preview beside it shows the widget's header in each state.

## Office hours

| Choice | What it means |
| - | - |
| **Always** | The widget never says your team is away. This is where every widget starts. |
| **Workspace hours** | Your workspace's working hours, Monday to Friday: the same hours inbox auto-replies follow. |
| **Custom hours** | Days, times and a time zone just for the widget. Hours can run past midnight, like 22:00 to 06:00. |

Outside office hours the widget's header reads **Away · back Monday at 9 AM**, in the
visitor's own time zone. When a visitor asks for a person, your AI agent tells them when
the team is back instead of promising someone will join now.

## Reply time

**Usually replies** sets what the widget promises while your team is in: in a few minutes,
within an hour, within a few hours (the default), or within a day. It shows once a visitor
asks for a person. While your AI agent is answering, the header says it replies instantly.

## Email replies visitors haven't seen

This is on unless you turn it off.

* A visitor waiting for a person, with no email on file, is asked in the chat where to
  reply.
* If a teammate's reply is not seen within 3 minutes (the visitor left, or has the chat
  closed), it is emailed to them. Several replies in a row make one email.
* Your AI agent's answers are never emailed: the visitor was there to read them.
* The email carries only your team's words, and a link back to the page the visitor
  chatted from.

**Send from** chooses the address the email comes from:

| Send from | Can visitors answer by email? |
| - | - |
| One of your connected inboxes | Yes. Their answer comes back into the same chat, not a new email. |
| Custral's own address | No. The email links back to the chat instead. |

In the conversation, a reply that was emailed shows **Emailed**, and an answer a visitor
sent by email shows **By email**.

A visitor who unsubscribes from these emails stops receiving all of your workspace's
emails at that address.


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