Many automated assistants know opening hours only because somebody pasted them into a prompt. The text may sound correct, but it does not create an operating boundary. The assistant can repeat “Monday to Friday” and still attempt a transfer on Sunday because the schedule is merely prose.
Working hours are more useful as a fact the system can evaluate.
A schedule belongs in configuration
SayTrue stores working hours per agent with a timezone. The configuration describes intervals for each day, so the current state can be open or closed at the moment a conversation needs a handover. That state is separate from the wording of the welcome message and from a knowledge entry that tells customers when the office usually operates.
This distinction matters at season changes, holidays, and businesses whose customers call from another timezone. The team updates the schedule where behavior is controlled and updates customer-facing knowledge where the hours are explained. Each has a different job.
Truth changes at the boundary
During configured open hours, a topic marked for human transfer can follow its approved department route. After close, that same route should not ring an empty office. The agent may still answer a question covered by approved knowledge. If a person is required, it records the request and the contact details the customer provides for the team’s next queue.
The language must match what actually happened. “Your request has been recorded” is a fact. “Someone will call you first thing in the morning” is not a fact unless a person scheduled that callback. The agent should not manufacture the promise simply because it sounds helpful.
An unset schedule preserves existing behavior
Configuration should not silently create a closed state. When working hours are absent, SayTrue treats the result as unconfigured and keeps the behavior that existed before hours were introduced. That avoids surprising an existing agent with a new handover restriction based on missing data.
The right next step is explicit setup, not a guess about the business day.
Review the boundary, not only the table
Test shortly before opening, during the day, and after closing. Use one question that can be answered directly and one that requires a department. Confirm the transcript shows the actual path, and inspect whether an after-hours request contains enough context for the next shift.
A schedule is a small configuration object with a large consequence: it lets the agent distinguish available help from unavailable help without relying on a greeting to make that decision.