Route Inbound Calls based on Department Hours

This topic gives a configuration example to describe how to configure inbound route to control inbound calls for the departments that maintain different hours from the company's global business hours.

Scenarios

The employees in the branch office's support department have different business hours from the head office. The department hours is listed as below:

  • Working days: Monday to Friday
  • Business hours: 21:00 - 23:00 and 00:00 - 05:00

When customers call in the trunk sip_routein_DP, you want to route the calls based on the time as follows:

  • During business hours, route inbound calls to the support team's queue.
  • During a holiday, route inbound calls to another IVR for holiday, and play a prompt "office_holiday".
  • For other time periods, route inbound calls to a voicemail.

Prerequisites

  • The trunk for inbound calling has been set up and is ready for use.
  • The desired destination of the inbound route should be configured on the system.

    In this scenario, a queue and an IVR for holiday should be preconfigured.

    For more information about the configurations of queue and IVR, see Create a Queue and Set up an IVR.

  • If you want to play a prompt to customers when they make calls to the trunk during holidays, a prompt should be preconfigured.

    In this scenario, a prompt "office_holiday" is preconfigured.

    For more information, see Create a Holiday.

  • If you want to set up multiple inbound routes for different time schedules, each inbound route should be associated with a different trunk or a trunk with different DID numbers. In this way, the inbound calls can be always directed to your desired destination.

    How to configure inbound route based on DID numbers, see Route Inbound Calls based on DID Numbers.

Procedure

  1. Log in to PBX web portal, go to Call Control > Inbound Route, click Add.
  2. In the Name field, enter a name to help you identify it.
  3. In the Trunk section, select the desired trunks from Available box to Selected box.

    In this scenario, select the trunk sip_routein_DP.

  4. In the Default Destination section, complete the following operations:

    1. Select the checkbox of Time Condition.
    2. In the drop-down list of Time-based Routing Mode, select Based on Custom Business Hours.
    3. Configure custom business hours.
      1. Click Add Custom Business Hours.
      2. In the Custom Business Hours section, click Add to add business hours.

        In this scenario, add two business hours, 21:00 - 23:00 and 00:00 - 05:00.

      3. In the Date Settings section, select working days.

        In this scenario, select Days of Week and select days from Monday to Friday.

      4. Click Confirm.
    4. Configure the following destinations based on the time.
      • Business Hours Destination: Select the destination for inbound calls during business hours.

        In this scenario, select Queue, and select the Queue "Support Team".

      • Outside Business Hours Destination: Outside Business Hours is the time periods that are not defined as Business Hours or Holidays.

        In this scenario, select Extension Voicemail, and select an extension.

      • Holidays Destination: Select the destination for inbound calls during holidays.

        In this scenario, select IVR, and select the IVR for holidays.

    5. Select the checkbox of Play Holiday Prompt During Holidays.

      In this scenario, the system will play the prompt "office_holiday" before routing inbound calls to the holiday destination.

  5. Click Save and Apply.

Result

  • When customers make calls to the phone number of the selected trunk sip_routein_DP, the calls will be routed to different destinations based on time.
  • Feature code *801 is generated for the inbound route. The authorized user can dial *801 to override time condition of the inbound route. For more information, see Override Time Condition for Inbound Calls.