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Inbound Calls - Building a Call Flow
Setting Business Hours (Business Hours Applet) - Call Flows
Setting Business Hours (Business Hours Applet) - Call Flows

The Business Hours Applet lets you set different rules for how calls should be handled during or outside business hours

Tudor Deak avatar
Written by Tudor Deak
Updated over a week ago

Depending on whether your business is open or closed you may want to route your incoming calls differently. The Business Hours Applet helps you automate your Call Flows depending on these pre-set hours.

Specify your regular business hours for each day, as well as the days of the week you're open. Then customize your Call Flows depending on whether incoming calls occur during or after hours.

How to Set Business Hours

Head to the Call Flow you want to edit and drag the Business Hours Applet into the flow. From there you can select:

  • Opening times for each day you're open

  • Closing times for each day you're open

  • Which days you're closed

Note that you are considered closed outside of the hours you are marked open. For example, if your business day runs from 9 AM - 5 PM, after 5 PM you will be considered closed. Once it reaches midnight, the system looks to the next day's settings.


Additional Important Information

When you drag the Business Hours Applet into a flow, you will see a note that says <Your server's current time>. If this time is incorrect, you need to go into the Admin Panel under Account Settings to adjust it.

πŸ”₯ Hot Tip: If you operate across regions or your server lives in a different location, make sure you do the math to adjust the business hours to reflect the correct time zone.


Once Hours are Set

Once hours are set, determine what happens if your business is Open or Closed. At the bottom of the Business Hours Applet, there are two options:

  • Open Applet

  • Closed Applet

In these spaces, drag over an applet option from the menu depending on what you want to happen during/outside business hours.

For example, if during business hours you'd like the system to ring a specific User or Team, you would pull over the Dial Applet to the Open applet spot. Or if you want the call to go to voicemail when it's after hours, you would drag the Voicemail Applet to the Closed applet spot. For those businesses that use an external answering service after hours, drag the Dial Applet into the Closed applet spot, and forward the call appropriately.

It's totally up to you! You can use any applet that makes sense for your business.


Two Common Ways to Use the Business Hours Applet

There are two common ways to use Business Hours:

  1. Starting a Flow with the Business Hours Applet

  2. Using an IVR Menu first

If you start a flow with Business Hours, it will immediately check the time of day before moving forward. This is useful when you have set business hours for the entire system.

If you start with an IVR, you can set Business Hours for any/all of the menu options. If you use this option, you can set different business hours for each of the menu options.

This can be helpful for different time zones, or for different departments that have different hours. It's a flexible tool to meet your needs.

πŸ’‘ Business Applet for SMS Flow β‡’

πŸ’‘ Setting SMS Text flows β‡’

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