Set Telegram Business Hours Customers Can Rely On
A business profile on Telegram can show your opening hours, your location on a map, and whether you are open at the moment someone looks, adjusted to their own time zone. It can also send an automatic reply when you are away. Each of these tells a customer something about you before they ask, which is exactly why each one is a promise.
Customers read these details literally. "Open now" means someone will be there. A pin on a map means they can come. An empty chat after a message means nobody is coming back. A wrong "open now" is worse than no hours at all, because the customer acted on it. This step is about choosing promises your business can keep on its worst week, not its best one, and about the third promise people forget they are making: how quickly they reply.
What you will be able to do after this step
- check_circle Separate the hours you are open from the hours you answer messages.
- check_circle Set a response-time promise you can keep, and say it where customers see it.
- check_circle Keep the profile true through holidays, sick days and busy weeks.
handshake Three promises your profile makes
Opening hours, location and the away message are Telegram Business features, included with a Telegram Premium subscription. Whether you use them or not, customers still form the same three expectations; the features only decide whether you state them or leave people to guess.
| Promise | What the customer assumes | How it gets broken |
|---|---|---|
| Opening hours | If the profile says open, the door is open and someone is there | A holiday, a late start or a closed day that nobody changed in the settings |
| Location | The pin is where they should go, and the entrance is there | A pin on the middle of a building, the street behind it, or an old address after a move |
| Response time | A message during open hours gets an answer soon | A shop that is open but has nobody watching the chat, so the reply comes the next day |
The third row is the one that surprises owners. Telegram does not ask you to state a response time, but customers infer one anyway, from the words "open now" and from how you answered them last time. If you do not say it, they set it for you, usually at "within a few minutes".
A promise you will break, and one you can keep
Both profiles belong to a two-person repair shop that answers messages between jobs.
gpp_bad Sounds good, fails by Tuesday
Hours: 9 to 7, every day. Nobody updates them for the public holiday.
"We reply instantly!" in the bio, while both people have their hands inside a laptop.
No away message. A customer writing at 22:00 hears nothing until morning and assumes they were ignored.
verified_user Modest, and true every week
Hours: 10 to 6, closed Sundays. Holidays are changed the week before.
"We answer within two hours while we are open" in the bio, which is slower than possible and faster than feared.
An away message after hours that says when a person will read it.
Customers do not mind a slow answer they were told to expect. They mind a fast answer they were promised and did not get.
timer Choosing your response time
Pick the slowest time you can honestly meet on a busy day, not the fastest you manage on a quiet one. Then write it in words customers will see: your bio, the greeting message new customers get, and the away message.
- Say it in hours, not in adjectives. "Quickly" means minutes to one person and a day to another. "Within two hours while we are open" means one thing.
- Tie it to your hours. A response time only makes sense inside the time you are working. Outside it, the away message takes over.
- Beat it quietly. If you usually reply in twenty minutes, still promise two hours. Being faster than promised feels like good service; being slower than promised feels like a broken promise, even at the same speed.
If you work alone, it is fine to promise "the same working day". What matters is that it is true, and that the away message catches everything outside it.
Keeping the promises true when the week is not normal
Hours set once and never touched go wrong at the first unusual week. Pick the one coming up next.
Set the hours slightly narrower than you work
If you open the door at nine but are rarely ready before half past, set half past nine. Being open when the profile says closed costs nothing; being closed when it says open costs a trip and a customer.
Check the map pin once from a phone, the way a customer would, and put anything the map cannot say in the description: "entrance on the side street", "ring the bell for the first floor".
In an ordinary week, the profile should be a little more cautious than reality.
Change it the week before, not the morning of
Public holidays and your own time off are known in advance, which makes them the easiest promises to keep and the most embarrassing to break. Put the dates in your own calendar with a reminder to edit the hours and switch the away message to a holiday version.
A holiday away message should say when you are back, as a date: "Closed until Monday 14th. We will answer every message then." A message without an end date reads as a business that may not come back.
Every holiday away message needs a return date.
Two minutes from your phone before the first customer arrives
Illness, a family emergency, a delivery that did not come: some closures cannot be planned. The profile still says "open", and someone may already be on their way.
The fix is small and has to happen early. Change today's hours to closed, turn on an away message that says you are closed today, and, if you have a channel for customers, post one line there. Pinning a short "closed today" notice does the rest.
An unplanned closure is forgiven. An unannounced one is remembered.
Stretch the response time, not the silence
A seasonal rush, a big order, a week when one person is away: the door is open but the replies slow down. The honest move is to change the promise before customers notice, not to hope they will not.
Update the bio and the greeting to the slower time, such as "This week we answer within a day", and say why if it helps. Customers accept a longer wait they were warned about far more easily than a short one that silently doubles.
When you get slower, say so first.
touch_app Try it now — fifteen minutes
- Write down the hours you can guarantee Not the hours you usually manage. Use those for the profile, a little narrower if in doubt.
- Decide your response time in hours The slowest time you can meet on a busy day. Put it in your bio and in the greeting message.
- Set an away message for outside your hours One or two sentences: that this is automatic, when a person will read it, and a way to reach you if it is urgent.
- Put the next holiday in your calendar With a reminder a few days before to change the hours and the away message.
- Check the pin from a customer's phone Open your profile from another account or a friend's phone, tap the map, and see where it takes you.
Where the location and hours settings are, how "open now" adjusts to the viewer's time zone, and why anyone working from home should leave the map pin off.
help Questions
Do I need Telegram Business to show my hours?
The opening hours and map on a profile, and automatic away messages, are Telegram Business features that come with a Premium subscription. Without them, you can still write your hours and response time in your bio or your channel's description; you just update them by hand.
Should I show hours if I answer messages at any time?
Yes, but make them the hours you promise to answer, not every hour you might. Answering at 23:00 once is a kindness; showing it as part of your hours makes it an obligation, and the first time you do not answer at 23:00 it becomes a broken promise.
What should an away message say?
That it is automatic, when a person will read the message, and what to do if it cannot wait. The away messages tip goes through the wording, and why "we are unavailable right now" on its own does more harm than good.
My customers are in several time zones. Which hours do I use?
Your own, in your own time zone. The profile shows each visitor whether you are open at the moment they look, converted to their time. What you promise is when you are working; the conversion is Telegram's job.
Promises you can keep
Opening hours, location and reply time as promises, and how to keep them true through holidays, sick days and busy weeks. Tap to open it at full resolution.
