We promise families a 24‑hour weekday reply, but as the parent relations rep I’m struggling to keep that without pushing the team past our 8:00–4:30 hours — how are you setting boundaries that still reassure parents? If you’ve used a shared inbox (e.g., Front) or after‑hours auto‑replies that don’t feel cold, I’d love to hear what wording works.
At my last school we used Front with a triage tag and an after‑hours auto‑reply: “We reply within one business day (Mon–Fri, 8:00–4:30); if this is urgent (safety/transport), call the main line.” We paired it with a tiny emergency on‑call so the inbox isn’t a 24/7 firehose — more thermostat than floodlight. If transport or billing are the bulk, route those to canned snippets and auto‑assign to keep the 24‑hour promise without stretching 8:00–4:30.