Have different greetings for Business Hours and After Hours

NOTE: As of Spring 2020, some internal and user-facing SAS systems have been updated to better suit the needs of our customers. Because of these updates, your online portal view may look different than the pictures shown below. If your portal looks different, please refer to this article for updated instructions.

The SAS call center software allows you to personalize your caller's experience by creating different greetings based on the hours you're open. You can have our agents answer calls one way if your office is open, and another way if your office is closed.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to adjust your opening greeting so it changes dynamically based on your business hours. To make everything a bit simpler, we'll be showing you how to add this to your current script using your existing paths, so we'll need to rebuild some of your script paths to accommodate your new greeting. We'll be doing this task in a few changes:

Remove your existing paths: To change your opening greeting, you'll need to remove all of your paths. Don't worry, we are not deleting them, just removing them for now.
Rebuild your greeting: When our agents answer the phone, they'll start by clicking Next on their screen to take them down the right path with respect to your business hours. You'll build that function.
Populate your after hours path: With the greeting rebuilt, you'll need to reattach the paths you removed earlier and place them in your after hours path.
Populate your business hours path: You'll finish up by building your business hours path. You'll add a different greeting and apply the same steps you removed.

When doing this tutorial, keep in mind that the business hours used to power the function you'll create below are based on the profile assigned to the call path.

Remove Your Existing Paths

Before you can build separate greetings into the script, we'll need to remove all elements in your script except for the greeting:

1. After you've logged into the call script builder, click on the first step below the Script Name. This will show your current greeting. You'll see the first step highlighted on the left side of the script builder and the actual greeting will open up on the right. In our example, it starts with 'Hello, and thank you for calling.'

2. In the bottom left corner of the Greeting box, click on the red View Options link. A pop-up will open listing the paths in your script from this juncture. We'll need to delete these path names, but before you do that, you'll need to write down the numbers, names, and first step of these paths as we'll need to rebuild them later.

In our example, they are: 1, Calls for Annie Morris, FirstNameSpecificPerson, etc. Click on Delete to the far right of each of these paths. A message will be displayed asking if you are sure. Click Delete again.

3. You've removed the paths from the Options menu, but haven't actually deleted them yet. Click the X in the upper right hand corner to chose this dialog box. This will return you to the main scripting screen. You'll notice that the script builder will still show your two paths. This is because we haven't applied our change yet.

Click the grey Save button in the bottom left corner of the Greeting box to repopulate the script so that your changes are complete. At this point, the script builder will only show a Greeting step and your screen should look like the one below.

Rebuild Your Greeting

With our paths removed, we'll need to rebuild our greeting with a function to check if your office is open or closed:

1. With the options removed from the prior steps, you'll be left with a script that just has a greeting and no paths.

2. We want to reuse your current greeting, so copy the data from the Text field on the right into another document first. With that information copied, change the Step Label, Field Name, and Text to the following:

Step Label: BusinessVsAfterHours
Field Name: BusinessVsAfterHours
Text: Delete everything in this box and replace with (R)CSR: Select BH_AH from the drop down menu, then click (G)Next(E) for greeting.(E)

3. Now, click on the red View Options link in the bottom left corner. This will bring up the Options menu. In the pop-up, click the Add New link on the left. A blank line will appear highlighted in yellow. Type BH_AH into the second box, leave the Assign To and Next Step fields blank, then click the grey Add button on the right.

4. Now you'll need to apply those changes. Click the X in the upper right corner of the pop-up to return to the main scripting screen. Then click the grey Save button in the bottom left corner and your path will repopulate showing BH_AH on the left.

5. Expand the + icon next to BH_AH, and you will see a red dot followed by the words New Step. Click on this. Then from the drop down menu on the right, select Business Hours.

6. Enter the Step Label as BusinessHours, with no spaces. Then click Save. Your path will repopulate and will automatically show new After Hours and Business Hours steps under the Business Hours step you just created.

You've just set the framework in place for the answering service agent to answer your calls differently based on your business hours. Now let's go ahead and add some greetings, and rebuild those paths you deleted.

Populate Your After Hours Path

With our opening greeting now split, we'll need to add greetings and insert those paths you had earlier.

1. Expand the + icons, and you will see a red dot followed by the words New Step under the paths labeled After Hours and Business Hours. To start, let's tackle your after hours path. Click on New Step under After Hours. Then from the Step drop down menu on the right, select Logic Option.

2. Click Continue and you will see the blank Logic Option step. Fill in the following information:

Step Label: GreetingAH
Field Name: GreetingAH
Text: Enter your desired After Hours greeting. After you've entered your new greeting, from the old greeting you copied, insert the section beginning with (L)(L)(N)Business Name if it exists.

Click Save, and your path will repopulate showing the same greeting step under both After Hours and Business Hours. This will be modified later.

3. For now, click on the GreetingAH step under After Hours. Then click the red View Options link and the Options pop-up will open. This is where you will add your original paths into the After Hours script.

4. From the pop-up, click Add New. Enter the first path’s number and name. In our example, the number was 1 and the name was Calling for Annie Morris. Then under the Next Step column, select the step that was associated with this option. In our case, the step was FirstNameSpecificPerson. Once you've done that, click Add on the right.

5. Now you'll need to add your other path name that you made a note of earlier. Add your second path number, option name, and the step associated with this option. In our case, the number was 2, the option name was All Other Calls, and the associated step was FirstNameMsg.

6. You've made the changes but you haven't applied them yet. click the X in the top right corner to close the logic option pop-up. Then click Save in the bottom left corner of the Greeting step. If you look on the left, you'll see that your paths, which were previously built, have all repopulated.

Populate your Business Hours Path

With your after hours path all squared away, you'll need to work on your business hours path. You'll notice that the work you did actually applied itself to the Business Hours step as well. That is because both of these paths are linked to the same first step called GreetingAH. Since we want a different greeting during your business hours, we'll need to create a new step first which will be the greeting our operators use during your open hours.

1. Click on the BusinessHours logic option, then click on the View options link at the bottom left of the script step. A pop-up will open showing both script paths. Note that the Next Step under both paths is listed as GreetingAH. Click on Edit to the right of the Business Hours option. Select the – icon under the Next Step column, then click Update. This will create a new step to differentiate the paths.

2. Next Step under Business Hours will now be blank, but you haven't applied these changes yet. Click the X in the upper right corner to return to the main scripting screen. Then click Save under the Business Hours step. Your paths will repopulate showing Business Hours followed by a red dot and the words New Step.

3. Click on New Step, and from the Step drop down menu on the right, select Logic Option. Click Continue and you will see the blank Logic Option step. Fill in the input with the following:

Step Label: GreetingBH
Step Name: GreetingBH
Text: Thank you for calling [CampaignName], my name is [OpName]. How can I help you today?

4. Click Save. Your path will repopulate showing Business Hours followed by GreetingBH. Click on the GreetingBH step. Then click View Options, where you will add your original paths back into the Business Hours script.

5. In the options menu, click Add New. Enter the path numbers, names and Next Step, just as before. Then click the X in the upper right corner to return to the main scripting screen. Remember, you haven't applied your changes until you save your work - so Click Save in the bottom left corner of the Greeting step. Your paths, which were previously built, have repopulated.

Hooray! You've just done some pretty complicated scripting and configured your script so our operators answer calls differently based on your business hours! Of course, you can do anything with this type of segmentation, like having different call paths, outcomes, and more.