Quiet hours and messaging
Quiet hours are a club-level sending floor for specific production automated SMS. They are not a platform-wide do-not-contact period. They do not delay email, phone calls, or a response to a person who contacts the club.
Quiet hours are only one delivery rule. Current consent, frequency limits, active conversations, campaign status, valid contact details, and provider processing can still allow, delay, skip, or fail a message.
Read the club setting
In Admin → Clubs, open a club and find SMS Quiet Hours on Overview.
- Start Time begins the quiet period.
- End Time ends the quiet period and reopens automated SMS delivery.
- The default is 9:00 PM to 9:00 AM, which permits covered SMS from 9:00 AM through 9:00 PM.
- FitStack evaluates the times in the club’s configured time zone. A member’s time zone is not used.
- If the club time zone is blank, FitStack currently uses Eastern Time. Set the correct club time zone instead of relying on that fallback.
Setting the start and end to the same time creates no quiet period; it does not block SMS for the full day.
What is held
| Message surface | SMS | Voice | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing Broadcast | Held outside the recipient club’s allowed window. A complete Broadcast delivery window can narrow those hours further. | Not held by SMS quiet hours. | Not a Broadcast channel. |
| Marketing Journey | Held outside the member club’s allowed window. Journeys do not use the Broadcast delivery-hours setting. | Not held by SMS quiet hours. | Not a Journey message channel. |
| Lead pipeline | SMS and SMS Agent steps wait for the Lead club’s window. | Email and Email Agent steps are not held by SMS quiet hours. | Call steps are not held by SMS quiet hours. |
| Feedback survey | Production survey SMS is scheduled inside the survey club’s window and checked again before sending. | Not a current survey channel. | Not a current survey channel. |
| Ticket resolution confirmation | Not held by quiet hours. The current confirmation SMS checks consent, then sends when the ticket-resolution flow starts. | Not a current confirmation channel. | Not a current confirmation channel. |
| Person-initiated conversation | A configured AI, keyword, or fallback response can be sent immediately. | Email routing and replies are not held by SMS quiet hours. | Incoming and outgoing calls are not held by SMS quiet hours. |
The club setting therefore covers the production automated SMS paths for Broadcasts, Journeys, lead pipelines, and feedback surveys. It does not cover every SMS sent by FitStack.
What happens when a covered SMS reaches quiet hours
FitStack normally follows this sequence:
- The send is deferred until the next club-local opening time.
- At that time, FitStack checks the recipient and delivery rules again. An opt-out or other change during the wait is honored.
- If the window is still closed after that one retry, FitStack does not keep postponing the same message indefinitely.
The final result depends on the source:
| Source | If the second check is still closed |
|---|---|
| Broadcast | The recipient is skipped by policy. |
| Journey | The message node is skipped and the Journey continues. |
| Lead pipeline | The SMS step is skipped and the workflow continues. |
| Feedback survey | The survey send is canceled. |
For a Broadcast, Held for quiet hours is a cumulative count of initial holds. It does not decrease after delivery. Use the Broadcast status—not that counter alone—to decide whether delivery work remains. See Results and troubleshooting.
Replies during quiet hours
When a person texts FitStack during quiet hours, the inbound message is processed immediately. If the route and agent are configured, the AI can reply immediately. A configured marketing keyword or a fallback acknowledgment can also reply immediately.
Reply handling follows conversational consent rules:
- an explicit SMS revocation suppresses an application-generated reply;
- a missing consent record does not by itself block a response to a person who texted first; and
- STOP, START, and HELP use the carrier’s compliance handling and are not postponed by club quiet hours.
Inbound email and voice interactions are also outside the SMS quiet-hours setting. Their replies follow the configured email or voice route without waiting for the SMS window.
During a live voice call, a caller can ask the agent to text a supported link. That requested text is treated as part of the conversation and can be sent immediately unless the phone has an explicit SMS revocation.
Active conversations and later marketing
An immediate reply does not mean FitStack will add an unrelated marketing message to the same conversation. An active same-channel agent conversation causes a Broadcast or Journey message to be skipped, not deferred.
Lead-pipeline messages and feedback conversations are exempt from that conflict rule because they are the active workflow or a dedicated survey conversation.
How club scope is chosen
Every production send that uses the quiet-hours policy evaluates one club:
- Broadcasts and Journeys use the member’s club.
- Lead pipelines use the Lead’s club.
- Feedback surveys use the survey or check-in club.
A multi-club Broadcast therefore evaluates recipients independently. One club can send while another club’s recipients wait for their own local window.
Current exceptions and test behavior
The current ticket-resolution confirmation SMS is not held by quiet hours. Plan that support flow separately; changing the club setting does not schedule its confirmation text.
Demo and test actions can intentionally bypass production timing so an operator can complete a scenario promptly. Do not use the arrival time of a demo feedback survey or demo re-engagement text as proof that the production quiet window is configured correctly.
Operator checklist
- Confirm the club’s time zone before changing the quiet period.
- Read Start Time as “stop covered SMS” and End Time as “resume covered SMS.”
- For a Broadcast, set both delivery-hour boundaries or leave both blank.
- Do not expect the setting to delay email, calls, ticket confirmations, or person-initiated replies.
- Check consent, active conversations, workflow status, and delivery results when a message does not arrive after the window opens.