How Do I Handle Customer Service After Hours for My Online Store?
Let AeroChat answer and finish the routine requests at night, and leave a clear summary for your team in the morning. Outside your business hours, AeroChat checks order status in your store, answers sizing, stock and delivery questions, sends a payment link when a customer wants to buy in chat, and opens a return request. It does this on WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, web chat, email and marketplace chat. Anything that needs a person waits in the inbox with the details already collected.
Why after-hours messages pile up
Online shoppers browse in the evening, after work and late at night. That is often when they message the store. Owners describe opening their phone in the morning to a stack of unanswered chats: is this in stock, which size, where is my order, can I still change my address. Some of those buyers have already bought somewhere else. The rest get an answer hours later and the conversation starts again.
The usual fixes and their limits
- An away message. It tells the customer you are closed. It does not answer the question, so the work is still there in the morning.
- Answering from your phone at night. It keeps customers happy and costs you your evenings. It also stops working the first time you are asleep or away.
- Night-shift staff or an outsourced team. It covers the hours at the cost of a salary or a monthly fee, plus training on every policy.
- An FAQ bot. It answers policy questions. It cannot check an order or take a payment, which are the jobs that matter most at night.
How to handle it with AeroChat
Set your business hours in AeroChat. Outside them, AeroChat does the whole job where your rules allow it. It looks up the order after the customer confirms who they are, checks stock, answers from your size chart and policies, and sends a payment link for a chat order. Payment is detected automatically, so the order is confirmed in the same conversation. When something needs a person, AeroChat tells the customer when your team is back and leaves the summary in the inbox.
Customer: Hi, is the black hoodie in M still available? I want it before Friday. (example, 11:40pm)
AeroChat: Hi! Yes, the black hoodie in M is in stock. Orders paid tonight ship tomorrow morning, and standard delivery takes two to three working days (example), so it should reach you before Friday. Would you like a payment link?
Customer: Yes please.
AeroChat: Here is your link for 1 x Black hoodie, size M, US$45 (example). I’ll confirm here as soon as the payment comes through.
AeroChat: Payment received. Your order is confirmed and you’ll get the tracking link once it ships.
Behind the reply: stock checked in the store, payment detected through the payment gateway, order created. Nobody on your team was awake.
Copy this into AeroChat
Outside our business hours, keep helping customers instead of only saying we are closed.
- Order status: ask for the order number and the email or phone it was placed with, check the order in our store, and give the status and tracking link.
- Stock, sizes and delivery: answer from our product details, size chart and delivery policy. Never promise a delivery date the policy does not support.
- Buying in chat on WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger or web chat: confirm the item, size and price, then send a payment link. When the payment is detected, confirm the order.
- Returns: check our 30-day return window (example), ask for the reason and a photo if it is damaged, and open a return request for our team.
For anything else, tell the customer our team is back at 9am (example), collect the details, and leave a short summary in the inbox. Reply in the customer’s language.
Change the hours, return window and delivery times to match your store before you paste it.
Channel versions
What to connect
- Your store. Shopify, WooCommerce and Wix are built in, so AeroChat can look up orders and stock.
- A payment provider. Airwallex is built in. Stripe, HitPay and others connect through their API.
- Your channels and business hours. Add every channel you sell on and set your hours in the dashboard.
Questions
Will AeroChat pretend to be a person at night?
You decide how it introduces itself in your instructions. Many stores say it is the store’s assistant and that the team is back in the morning.
What happens to conversations it cannot finish?
They stay open in the inbox with the customer’s details and a short summary, so your team starts the morning with the context. See live chat handover.
Can it take orders at night?
On WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and web chat, yes. It sends a payment link and confirms the order when the payment is detected. On marketplaces, orders stay in the marketplace.
Does this help with first response time?
Customers get a reply in the chat when they write, instead of the next morning. Read more about first response time.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
Answer tonight’s messages tonight
Set your business hours, paste the recipe and message your own store after closing time.
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On Shopify? Install AeroChat from the Shopify App Store.