Split business hours.

[BDorminy]

This doesn't seem possible currently, but I would like to be able to create "breaks" in the business hours in Zoom. For example, I would like to be able to set my hours from 8am to 12pm, and 1pm to 5pm, each day so my phone doesn't ring while I'm on lunch. Granted, I can set to DND but I have a more unique example where that's not the best option.

We are a university and faculty have different class times where they don't want to receive calls on their computers while in class. Sure they can set DND while in class, but if they don't remember to set it, they will get a call in the middle of class. It seems like it would be useful to be able to set multiple business hours for each day.

Does anyone else have a suggestion?

[FORE-Craig · Accepted solution]

Hello,

You are correct in thinking that it is not possible currently to schedule breaks in the Business Hours. It has been discussed several times here. I believe that several community members have submitted a Feature Request for it to be added. You are the first to say that it would be useful at a user-level, which I completely understand why. I would suggest that you also submit a Feature Request, so as to incorporate the user-level functionality when it is implemented. You can do so here at https://www.zoom.us/feed 

I did come up with a workaround for the company Auto-Receptionist level by setting up cascading Call Queues. If your organization's calls are going directly to specific extensions or direct-inward dial numbers though this wouldn't help. 

I hope this helps!

[BDorminy]

Thanks for the reply and the link. We are relatively new to Zoom phone and still trying to answer questions from our users. This request came from a user and it seemed like it should be something relatively easy to do, and I would think useful to a good number of people.

[FORE-Craig]

You're welcome! 

I agree that it would be very useful for a lot of organizations, both large and small.

[john_knope]

Any chance you could share details regarding cascading call queues?

I need the ability to have calls sent to our office M-F 7a-7p, then sent to an outside number from 7p-8p, and back to the office again from 8p-7a.

I'm sure there are others operating with different shifts handling phones, but finding a method to handle this has me perplexed so far.

[Eliot]

hi john_knope,

fore-craig may have a better understanding than me.

I think cascading call queues are call queues that use “Overflow” and or “Closed Hours Overflow” to route to another call queue, which then could route to another call queue, etc.

In your example, you could have your auto receptionist route all calls to your Day Queue. 

a.  Day Queue business hours m-f 7a-7pm.  If the call did not come in during the business hours m-f 7a – 7pm time, the call would be treated as a call received during closed hours.  On the Day Queue, you would set the “Closed Hours Overflow” to route calls to the Outside Number Queue.

b.  Outside Number Queue would be set for business hours m-f 7pm - 8pm.  Calls coming in during Outside Number Call Queue business hours would be routed to the outside number using the overflow option. 

After Outside Number Queue business hours, calls would be routed using “Closed Hours Overflow” to route calls to Evening Queue.

c.  Evening Queue business hours would be set m-f 8pm -7am.  Closed Hours Overflow could be set to Voice Mail.

i think this cascade of call queues from Day Queue, to Outside Number Queue to Evening Queue would handle the 24 hours during normal m – f workweek.

https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0065370

Did my response answer your question? If so, please don't forget to mark the reply as an accepted solution.

thanks,  eliot

[Khushbu]

BUSINESS

[JHS_Durham]

Was this issue ever fixed? 

We just moved all our services over from Ring Central. In their system, we could setup "Custom Rules" for a person, IVR, or a call queue. The custom rule allowed us to setup lunch hours so that calls coming in from 12-1 could automatically be directed to voicemail. 

Custom rules also allowed us to set dates. We could, for example, setup a custom rule to re-direct a call for any person or call queue, to another person/queue/IVR between specific dates. For example, if a person was on leave for a known period of time, we could say from April 1st to April 15th, re-direct calls to another extension. On the 16th, the rule would automatically turn off and calls would flow through to the original destination again. 

[RGB75]

Zoom Team,

I must confess to be a little surprised this feature has not already been implemented.  I have completed the first phase of migrations and am now hesitant to move forwards as this would involved migrating 100's of IVR's from legacy solutions. The 'Cascading Queuing' solution results in too many additional Queues / Auto-Receptionists when dealing with multiple languages creating an administration and dependency management nightmare.  Adding the ability to create 'Split' hours would to me, as an ex-developer seem very straightforward and hugely beneficial for any administrators building Zoom Phone solutions.  In addition as Zoom Phone stands today, in my opinion, it really does not support large numbers of IVR's due to missing features / tools relating to the creation and managing of key Zoom artefacts.  EG. Split business hours (EG. 10:00 to 12:00 & 14:00 to 18:00) etc, Business Hours to be managed as reusable assets (EG. Single point of change for multiple Queues, Auto-Receptionists, etc) Multiple Languages in Auto-Receptionists, lack of Bulk Artefact Creation, Artefact Dependency Visualisation & Management.