Time of day call routing

[mikejr]

What is the best practice for time-of-day call routing?

We have one central number with six users spread across multiple time zones with up to 3-hour time differences. The users who start first in the morning will answer the calls, but some users will still be in bed.

We still want calls to go to voicemail after hours and on weekends.

Is it simply a case of ensuring users have their hours set up correctly and having one call queue with the spread of all possible working hours listed or am I missing something more efficient?

There are also multiple places to enter Default Business Hours. Users, Auto receptionists, Company info etc. Is there one place that overrides them all, or do we ensure they're all set up?

Any guidance will be greatly appreciated.

[FORE-Craig · Accepted solution]

Hi Mike,

The Time Zone and Business Hour settings should be set at each level. They will default from the Company level down. So, you will need to choose one Time Zone and Specify the Business Hours accordingly that would encompass when you want to have users answer calls across the board in all times zones from the perspective of that location. The Time Zone set at the Company-level is also used for the logs and the scheduling of phone device updates. I would personally choose the Easternmost location because it would be the earliest starting point in the day.

The individual User-level Time Zone and Business Hours pertain to their personal location and the hours that will be generally available for work.

For example, let's say that you are in the US and have Mary in New York (Eastern Time), John in Chicago (Central Time), and Andrea in Los Angeles (Pacific Time). Each answers phones from  9 am to 5 pm in their respective time zones and have set their Time Zone and Business Hours accordingly.

Auto-Receptionist and Call Queue set to Eastern Time 9 am to 8 pm (aka 5 pm Pacific) - Call Handling = Simultaneous.

When a call comes in:

Mary's Zoom app and/or desk phone will ring starting at 9 am (ET) 

John's Zoom app and/or desk phone will ring starting at 9 am (CT) 

Andrea's Zoom app and/or desk phone will ring starting at 9 am (PT). 

From that time up until 5 pm ET (2 pm PT) all three phones will ring simultaneously.

After 5 pm (ET), Mary's phone will not ring when a call comes in, so only John's and Andrea's phones will ring.

After 5 pm (CT), neither John's nor Mary's phone will not ring when a call comes in, so only Andrea's phones will ring.

After 5 pm (PT), neither Andrea's, John's nor Mary's phone will not ring when a call comes in and the call will go to Voicemail according the settings on the Auto Receptionist or Call Queue. 

Does that help?

[FORE-Craig · Accepted solution]

Hi Mike,

The Time Zone and Business Hour settings should be set at each level. They will default from the Company level down. So, you will need to choose one Time Zone and Specify the Business Hours accordingly that would encompass when you want to have users answer calls across the board in all times zones from the perspective of that location. The Time Zone set at the Company-level is also used for the logs and the scheduling of phone device updates. I would personally choose the Easternmost location because it would be the earliest starting point in the day.

The individual User-level Time Zone and Business Hours pertain to their personal location and the hours that will be generally available for work.

For example, let's say that you are in the US and have Mary in New York (Eastern Time), John in Chicago (Central Time), and Andrea in Los Angeles (Pacific Time). Each answers phones from  9 am to 5 pm in their respective time zones and have set their Time Zone and Business Hours accordingly.

Auto-Receptionist and Call Queue set to Eastern Time 9 am to 8 pm (aka 5 pm Pacific) - Call Handling = Simultaneous.

When a call comes in:

Mary's Zoom app and/or desk phone will ring starting at 9 am (ET) 

John's Zoom app and/or desk phone will ring starting at 9 am (CT) 

Andrea's Zoom app and/or desk phone will ring starting at 9 am (PT). 

From that time up until 5 pm ET (2 pm PT) all three phones will ring simultaneously.

After 5 pm (ET), Mary's phone will not ring when a call comes in, so only John's and Andrea's phones will ring.

After 5 pm (CT), neither John's nor Mary's phone will not ring when a call comes in, so only Andrea's phones will ring.

After 5 pm (PT), neither Andrea's, John's nor Mary's phone will not ring when a call comes in and the call will go to Voicemail according the settings on the Auto Receptionist or Call Queue. 

Does that help?

[mikejr]

Hi Craig, and thanks for the advice. Your solution works well.

One quick question,  though. Why use the Auto-Receptionist and route to a Call Queue when we could assign the number directly to the Call Queue, bypassing the Auto-Receptionist?

Is there a reason why we should have the extra layer in place?

[enielsen]

If the after hours mode doesn't need a different voicemail message, you could just leave call queue with 24x7 business hours and then rely on the agents all being logged off to result in the inbound call going to voicemail w/o ringing any agents. Just need to have the agents logging on/off of the call queue as needed.

[enielsen · Accepted solution]

Actually I should have said, put the business hours (and holidays) on the call queue (if not 24x7), then have agents control when they get their calls via logging on/off the call queue via the 'receive call queue calls' toggle in the zoom app. Then after hours/weekends can overflow to voicemail as desired. This is how we do it on our biggest call queue with 30+ agents spread across the country. Every now and then an agent forgets to log off but they also typically shutdown their computer so it doesn't annoy them. 

The only reason I can think of to put an Auto Receptionist in front of the call queue is if you need extra functions in front of the call queue - for example, I have one for a situation where we put an IVR in front of the call queue.

[FORE-Craig]

Hi Mike,

I apologize for the delay in replying. The benefit of having the published number assigned to the Auto-Receptionist is that you can assign the Call Handling for Business Hours, Closed Hours and Holidays independent of the Call Queue.  It really adds another layer of flexibility.

You may want to set up an Interactive Voice Response (which isn't a possibility at the Call Queue level) for after-hours and/or Holidays that allows caller's to be transferred to an individual's extension or voicemail, an after-hours emergency contact number, dial-by-name, etc.

Additionally, you may at some point decide to create multiple Call Queues to respond to different types of inquiries, or different languages for example. I recommend setting your Greeting Prompts to 'Disable' unless you want a recorded message played before the calls ring to the users in the Call Queue.

I hope that helps clarify things!