After-hours auto-reply with Botcake AI — set it up so the AI doesn't trample your team

TL;DR: A customer messages at 10pm, your team left hours ago — silence costs you the sale, but an AI running unchecked costs you control the next morning. Three options here, simple to advanced: (A) Meta Away Message — no Botcake needed, 5 minutes; (B) Botcake AI on night duty — real conversations, real lead capture; (C) Botcake + POS/CRM + outbound alerts — the AI files the lead and pings your team. The part that matters most: turning on "Pause Botcake AI when staff replies" so the AI stops talking over your people.

The problem: customers don't wait for business hours

"Our page doesn't operate after 5pm and we're back at 8am. Is there a way to auto-reply to customers between 5pm and 8am?"

This question comes up almost weekly in support. Not because the feature is missing — but because there are several ways to do it, and each suits a different size of shop.

Two things go wrong when it's set up carelessly:

1. AI runs 24/7 → next morning your agent replies, the AI chimes in too → the customer gets two overlapping messages and the thread turns into a mess
2. Only a default message is enabled → it promises "we'll get back to you" but never asks for a name or phone number → in the morning nobody knows who to call first

Each option below is ordered by effort. Pick the one that fits your operation.

Choosing an option

Option A — Meta Business Suite Away Message (no Botcake)

A free feature of Meta Business Suite, unrelated to Pancake. Use it when you only need to tell customers your hours and don't need the AI to advise anyone yet.

Setup

1. Go to Meta Business Suite (business.facebook.com) → Inbox → Automated responses
2. Pick Away message → Edit
3. Turn on Status and choose Scheduled
4. Enter your hours (e.g. 8:00–17:00) — the message fires outside that window
5. Write the message — template below

After-hours message template:

Thanks for messaging [Shop name]! 🙏

We're closed right now — our hours are 8:00–17:00, Monday to Saturday.

Leave your phone number and we'll call you first thing when we're back!

Option B — Botcake AI on night duty

The most common setup. Botcake AI covers the hours your team doesn't.

Step 1 — Create an AI Agent

Log into Botcake, left sidebar under ADVANCE → Botcake AI.

The CATEGORY column has five entries; you'll use the first three:

Hit + Create new Agent (top right) and give it a recognisable name — Night Shift AI, for instance.

Step 2 — Write the AI's instructions

Open the Agent you just made. The detail screen has four tabs:

Top right holds the model dropdown (GPT-4.1 mini, …). A stronger model answers better but burns credit faster — for after-hours work a light model is usually plenty.

Under the Instruction tab, the Create your instructions box is where the prompt goes.

The three-part structure Botcake uses

Botcake's own sample prompt follows a fixed skeleton, and the AI obeys it far more reliably than free-form writing:

1: Context
   - You are [AI name], a customer care agent for [Shop name]
   - Write warmly and conversationally, use light emoji to sound natural
   - The shop is currently closed. Hours: 8:00–17:00, Monday to Saturday

2: Goal
   - Give enough advice that the customer doesn't have to wait until morning
   - Collect the following so a human can call back tomorrow:
     + Name
     + Phone number
     + Which product or service they're interested in

3. Process
   Note: follow every step below, in order, without exception
   - Step 1: Greet and state that we're closed
     + Greet the customer
     + Say the shop is outside working hours and a human will follow up at 8:00
     + (Do not ask "how can I help?" — proactively ask which product they're after)
   - Step 2: Advise using Knowledge
     + You must pull product details from Knowledge. Never invent them
     + If Knowledge has no answer, say "I'll have a colleague confirm that for you in the morning"
   - Step 3: Capture details
     + Ask for name and phone number so someone can call back
     + Read the details back to confirm
     + Thank them and restate when a human will reach out

Why this skeleton works:

Step 3 — Put product data in Knowledge, not the prompt

This is where shops commonly go wrong: dumping the entire price list into the prompt. Long prompts respond slower, cost more per message, and every price change means editing every Agent.

Knowledge works at two levels:

Documents go into the shared library first, then get selected per Agent. One price list can serve several Agents.

Worth uploading:

• Product / plan price lists
• Product descriptions and specs
• Returns, warranty and shipping policies
• Frequently asked questions

Open the Agent → Knowledge tab → Add files:

Each file shows its size and upload date. Hover for preview and delete icons.

The payoff: change a price in one library file and every Agent using it updates — no reopening Agents to edit prompts.

Step 4 — Let the AI run outside working hours

This is the most counter-intuitive part of the whole setup, so read carefully.

Botcake has no separate schedule for the AI. It has one set of working hours for the whole page, and you then choose which features are allowed to keep running once those hours end.

Go to Settings → Operating hours:

Two sections:

1. Working hours — declare when your team is ACTUALLY around

• Operating time: the window only applies when this is on
• Time setting: defaults to 08:00 – 23:00 daily. Choose Custom to match your real hours (e.g. 08:00 – 17:00)

2. Actions outside working hours — what keeps running after close

Four toggles. Whatever you switch on continues operating outside hours:

Two ways to get the AI running after hours

Approach B is the right one for after-hours coverage — the schedule still governs Welcome/Default/Keywords while the AI takes the night shift.

When the AI and a default message both qualify

The switch at the top right of the Botcake AI screen — Prioritize default message ↔ Prioritize AI — decides which one fires when both match:

Choose Prioritize AI — you want a conversation that captures a phone number, not a canned line.

Two things that are easy to confuse: Skip BotcakeAI answers "may the AI run outside hours?", while the priority switch answers "when both the AI and a default message could fire, which wins?".

Step 5 — Pause the AI when staff reply (THE IMPORTANT ONE)

This is the most commonly skipped step, and it causes the most common failure: next morning an agent answers the customer, and the AI keeps talking anyway.

It's a page-level setting, not a per-Agent one.

Go to Settings → Pancake conversation and scroll to When staff replies on Pancake:

How long should the pause be?

If your main goal is night coverage, pick 8–12 hours. If it's never letting the AI step on a human, keep 24 hours.

Pausing the AI on a single conversation

Beyond the automatic rule above, you can pause by hand per conversation. In the Pancake chat view, click the Botcake icon in the conversation toolbar:

The popover shows Bot and AI separately, each with its own pause button. Use it when:

• A customer is upset and needs a human immediately
• The AI is answering wrongly and you want to cut it off mid-thread
• A VIP conversation you want kept entirely human

The arrow icon beside Botcake jumps straight into Botcake if you need to adjust something deeper.

Testing before you go live — three stages:

Stage 1 — Test the content inside Botcake. Open the Agent and use the Preview pane on the right, then Click here to test your AI. Run through the questions customers actually ask and watch whether the AI sticks to Knowledge and asks for a phone number. This stage can't verify the schedule or the pause rule.

Stage 2 — Test on the live page, visible only to you. Before opening it to customers, go to Settings → General → Customize Bot → Receive replies and select AI replies to admins only.

In this mode the AI only answers page admins — real customers messaging in get nothing from it. Message the page from an admin account after hours to verify the schedule and the content without exposing anyone to a half-finished prompt.

The three options here:

Stage 3 — Open it up. Switch back to Bot replies to everyone. Message the page from a non-admin account after hours → confirm the AI replies → next morning have an agent reply in that thread → the AI must not add anything. Only this stage proves Skip BotcakeAI and Pause Botcake AI are actually working.

Option C — Botcake with POS/CRM plus outbound alerts

Botcake integrates directly with Pancake POS and CRM — no Make.com needed for that part. Make.com only enters the picture when you want to reach services outside the Pancake ecosystem: Slack, email, Google Sheets.

Enabling POS / CRM in the Agent

Open the Agent → Tools tab. The BUILT-IN section offers two integrations; enable whichever matches what you want the AI to do:

For after-hours work, Pancake CRM is usually the better fit. Someone messaging at 10pm is typically still researching rather than buying — filing a lead for a morning callback beats having the AI place an order overnight. Only shops with simple products and unambiguous pricing should enable POS as well.

Once enabled, add a constraint to the prompt in the Process section — otherwise the AI will file records while details are still missing:

- Step 4: Only create an order/lead once you have ALL of the following
   + Name
   + Phone number
   + Product of interest
   + Delivery address (if creating an order)
  Before creating anything, read the details back for confirmation.
  If the customer hasn't confirmed, do not create it.

The full flow with Make.com

Bring in Make.com when you need to notify staff through an outside channel (Slack, email, SMS):

Customer messages after hours
    → Botcake AI advises and captures details
    → [Direct] Creates an order in Pancake POS or a lead in CRM
    → Pancake webhook pushes the conversation event out
    → Make.com notifies the responsible agent via Slack / email

Use Pancake's webhook, not a Botcake one

The outbound part runs on Pancake's webhook — configured in Pancake, not inside Botcake. Botcake AI handles the conversation; Pancake handles emitting the event.

The short version (full details in the Pancake Webhook & API guide):

1. Ask Pancake Support to enable webhooks — it can't be switched on from the interface, and only admin users can use it
2. In Pancake's Webhook/API section, paste the Webhook URL Make.com gives you
3. Your receiving endpoint must use HTTPS and return 200 within a few seconds — if processing takes longer, acknowledge with 200 immediately and do the heavy work in the background

The payload Pancake sends already carries what a notification needs:

The notification scenario in Make.com

[Webhook] Receive event from Pancake
    → [Filter] Only messages outside working hours
    → [Slack / Email] Notify the responsible agent
        with customer name, message, and a link to the thread

Common problems and fixes

The AI doesn't reply even though it's enabled

The AI doesn't stop when staff reply

The AI gets product details wrong

Setup checklist

Tick everything before going live:

• Picked the option that matches your scale (A / B / C)
• For Option A: the away message asks for a phone number
• For Option B or C:
  • Information filled in (shop name, hours, hotline)
  • Knowledge source holds the current price list and policies
  • Agent → Knowledge tab has the right documents selected
  • Tested in the Preview pane before going live
  • Tested on the page with AI replies to admins only, then switched back to Bot replies to everyone
  • Prompt constrains the AI to "only answer from Knowledge"
  • Working hours set via Custom to your real hours (not the 08:00–23:00 default)
  • Skip BotcakeAI enabled under Actions outside working hours
  • Skip Welcome messages / Skip Default messages left off (avoid three messages for one question)
  • Settings → General → Timezone is GMT+7 (Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta)
  • Top-of-page switch set to Prioritize AI (if the AI should replace default messages)
  • Settings → Pancake conversation: Pause Botcake AI on, duration chosen
  • If you also run flow bots: Pause Bot enabled too
  • Meta Away Message and Botcake AI not both running
• Tested: message after hours → the AI replies
• Tested: staff reply in the thread → the AI stays quiet

FAQ

Q: Which option doesn't require buying Botcake? A: Option A uses Meta Business Suite's Away Message — free, no Botcake, no extra Pancake plan. But it's one canned message with no conversation.

Q: Can the AI run during business hours too? A: It can, though usually it shouldn't. During the day your team needs control of the thread, and parallel AI replies mean two voices answering one customer. A clear schedule works better.

Q: The AI captured a phone number overnight — how does the team handle it in the morning? A: Filter conversations by unread in Pancake and prioritise threads with a number and clear intent. With Option C, staff get a notification before the shift even starts.

Q: Can I kill the AI in an emergency? A: Two levels. One conversation: click the Botcake icon in that thread and pause AI. Whole page: go to Settings → Operating hours and turn off Skip BotcakeAI, or disable the Agent entirely under Botcake AI → Agent list.

Q: Does Botcake AI cost extra? A: Botcake includes a free tier of 500,000 messages — check consumption in the bottom-left USAGE → Free message. Small and mid-sized shops running the AI overnight rarely hit that ceiling.

The model chosen in the Agent's top-right dropdown (GPT-4.1 mini, …) determines how fast credit burns. A light model handles after-hours work fine — greeting, quoting from a price list, capturing a number. Track usage under Botcake AI → Statistics.

Wrapping up

There's no single correct configuration — picking the right option matters more than building the most elaborate one:

• New shop, no Botcake yet: Option A, done in 5 minutes
• Moderate volume, want real conversations: Option B — and the step that matters most is pausing the AI when staff reply
• Need triage and post-conversation automation: Option C with POS/CRM and outbound alerts

Whichever you choose, the minimum bar is that customers know you're closed and know how to leave their details. Don't let someone message at midnight and find silence in the morning — not because you ignored them, but because they never knew the message landed.

Further reading

• Introducing the Pancake ecosystem — where Botcake fits
• Pancake Webhook & API guide
• Pancake MCP — 10 ready-made prompts, no code needed