Business hour rules

Who should read this article: Administrators

How to manage inbound interactions during business hours, outside business hours, and on holidays.

User story

As an administrator, I want to create a single call flow that routes interactions according to my business hours, outside business hours, and holiday schedules.

Flows

The Voiso Flows feature enables you to create both simple and complex inbound interaction routing flows to suit your business needs.

Flows are associated with a channel, such as a phone number or webchat, that your contacts use to connect with your contact center.

To view and manage your interaction flows, in the Voiso navigation bar, select Inbound > Flows. The Flows page contains a searchable table of the flows that you have created. It displays the name of the flow and associated channels.

• To create a new flow, click Add flow.
• To update an existing flow, click its name in the Flows table.

The following screenshot and table describe the main features of the Edit flow page.

When an interaction is received by the first flow (entry point), the day and time are checked against the specified business hours. If there is no match, the interaction is passed to the flow specified in the Outside business hours section.

If there is no match again, the interaction is passed to the flow specified in the Outside business hours section of the second flow, and so on.

Use Case: Creating a flow based on business hours rules

The Voiso Flow and Flow Builder features enable you to build a single flow that handles regular business hours, off hours, and holidays with just two flows.

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Create a flow for your off hours

The first step is to create a flow for the hours and days (nights and weekends) that are not your primary business hours, such as this example:

1. In the Voiso navigation bar, select Inbound > Flows, then click Add flow.
2. In the General section of the Add flow page, give your flow a name (1), and select Voice as the type of flow (2).
3. In the Business hours section, select the days of the week that correspond to your non-business hours and days. For each day, specify your non-business hours. For example:
   1. Monday (4) – 00:00 - 07:59 (midnight to one minute before the start time of 8 a.m.) and 18:00 - 23:59 (the end of the shift, 6 p.m., to one minute before midnight).
   2. Saturday (5) – 00:00 to 23:59 (midnight to one minute before midnight).
4. It is not necessary to specify a phone number in the Assigned numbers section because this will be inherited from your regular business hour flow.
5. Optionally assign one or more users as supervisors for the flow in the Assigned supervisors section.
6. Save the flow.
7. On the Flows page, click the Launch builder icon on the right side of the flow row and create your after-hours flow. For information on using Flow Builder refer to the Flow Builder Overview article.

Create a flow for your main business hours

The second step is to create a flow for your main business hours, such as this example:

1. In the Voiso navigation bar, select Inbound > Flows, then click Add flow.
2. In the General section of the Add flow page, give your flow a name (1), select Voice as the type of flow (2).
3. In the Business hours section, select the days of the week that correspond to your business week, such as Monday (3) through Friday. Do not select your non-business days – for example, Saturday and Sunday.
4. Specify your regular business hours for each business day – for example, 08:00 - 17:59 (8 a.m. to one minute before the end of the business hours, such as 6 p.m.).
5. In the Outside business hours section, select the off-business hours flow that you previously created (4).
6. In the Assigned numbers section (5), click Manage to select one or more inbound phone numbers from the Number assignment panel.
7. Optionally assign one or more users as supervisors for the flow in the Assigned supervisors section (6).
8. Save the flow.
9. On the Flows page, click the Launch builder icon on the right side of the flow row and create your business-hours flow. For information on using Flow Builder refer to the Flow Builder Overview article.

Add conditions to cover holiday closure

Now that your main business hours flow is saved, you can use Flow builder to create alternative flows for special days, such as holidays or other exceptions to your normal business hours that occur outside of your usual days off, such as this example:

1. In the Voiso navigation bar, select Inbound > Flows, then click the name of your regular business hours flow.
2. In the row for your business hours flow, click the Launch Builder icon. The Flow builder opens in a new browser tab.
3. Add a Conditions node (2) and connect the Start node (1) to it.
4. Click the Conditions node to display the Conditions configuration panel.
   1. Click Any rule (3) so that you can specify multiple days for Condition 1. If any of them are met, the condition is met, and the holiday routing is used.
   2. Create a rule (4) for the first holiday, for example, New Year's Eve. Select start_time as the variable, between as the operator, and the dates and times you want the holiday hours to be active as the value.
   3. Click Add rule to create a rule for the next holiday, for example, a national independence day. Alternatively, you could create one condition for each holiday, each with a different action or recording.

5. Decide where you want calls routed if the holiday conditions are met. For example, add a Voicemail node (5) that directs all holiday call traffic to Voicemail. Add a link from the condition or conditions to the holiday routing.
6. Create the rest of your regular business hours call routing, for example, by adding a DTMF node as an IVR. Add a link from the Conditions node to the DTMF node.
7. Save the flow.

For the weekend and off hours flow, use the Flow Builder to create your call flow and repeat the use of the Conditions node to add specific days that are exceptions to the main flow.