Separate an answer from a commitment.
Your agent can explain a published delivery policy or describe your service process while the team is offline. It should not promise an exception, approve a refund or commit to a project deadline that requires a person. Decide which questions can be answered from knowledge and which require review.
Set the expectation in the messenger.
Configure office hours, the correct time zone and an expected reply time. Walk through the experience as a visitor outside those hours. A request for a person should have a clear next step, such as leaving an email address, rather than an open-ended promise that someone is about to arrive.
Give the morning team the context.
Keep the visitor’s question and the agent’s answer together. When your team returns, they should be able to identify what remains unresolved and respond directly. A handoff loses its value when it only produces a contact record without the original reason for getting in touch.
Review the unanswered questions.
After-hours conversations reveal gaps in your published information. Group repeated questions, ask the relevant owner for an approved answer, and test that answer in the playground. Improve the source before trying to make the agent sound more confident.