Our enrollment spike has us covering phones until 8 p.m — on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I want families to feel supported while keeping the team’s boundaries clear. If you’ve handled similar hours in a parent-facing role, what wording or tools (we’re on Zendesk) helped set expectations and still reassure parents they’ll get a timely, thoughtful response?
We set up Zendesk Schedules and an after-hours trigger that auto-replies with a specific ETA — ‘We’re online Tue/Thu until 8 p.m.; if you write after 8, expect a thoughtful reply by 10 a.m… tomorrow’ — so it feels like a voicemail with an ETA, not a black hole. Mirror the same wording in a Help Center banner and a missed-call macro so phone folks hear it too. Do you already have Schedules enabled?