Setting up Business Hours Routing with an Advanced IVR
For clients who want their IVR to change based on the time or a specific date range, a Date/Time Routing option can be added within an advanced IVR, which will automatically route callers one way or another based on the time or day that they called.
In this article we'll discuss:
Creating a Date/Time Routing Block
1
Within SAS Flex, go to the Builder icon on the left navigation panel. Then select IVR Blocks.
2
From the Builder drop down, drag and drop the Date/Time Routing block to the center of your screen.
3
Under the Options tab, choose your Routing Type from the drop down. In this tutorial, we'll select Business Hours. However, check below for a breakdown of both options.
- Business Hours - This option will use the business hours set or holiday set you've already created with your account's settings. If you choose this option, the Logic tab will show 2 default options; Business Hours and After Hours.
If you choose the Business Hours option, you'll want to make sure your business hours set is selected under the Options tab within the IVR workflow.
- Specific Dates - This option will allow you to configure specific dates within the block itself. If you choose this option, the Logic tab will show the specific dates you entered, as well as a Default option, which the system will use if the specific dates you've programmed have passed or no longer apply.
4
Under the Field tab, you'll need to name your block. We named ours DateTime. When you are finished, click Save.
Adding a Date/Time Routing Block to an IVR Workflow
Once your Date/Time Routing block has been created, it's time to add it to your IVR workflow.
1
Within SAS Flex, go to the Builder icon on the left navigation panel. Then select IVRs.
2
If you already have an IVR created, go ahead and select it. If not, you'll want to follow the instructions in this article
3
On the next page, you should see your IVR workflow. In our example, we want the IVR to automatically direct one way or another based on the business hours. In order to do this, we'll need to make some updates to the Greeting block. To update your Greeting block, click on the hyperlinked Greeting field as shown below.
4
In the Greeting block, go to the Logic tab and click Add to add an option. In this case, we want all calls to flow through to the Date/Time Routing block, so we'll have only 1 option to start.
5
Next move to the Options tab so we can tell the system what to do if the caller either doesn't press anything or presses the wrong key. In this case, we're not giving the caller a prompt to press anything yet, as we want the system to automatically move to the Date/Time Routing block. So, we'll set both the No Input and Invalid Input options to Transfer to an Extension. Then, we'll choose the applicable extension number based off what you set within the Logic tab.
6
When you are finished, click Save.
7
Back on the IVR Workflow page, you should see your newly added Date/Time Routing option within your Greeting block. Now we'll need to connect that option to your Date/Time Routing block.
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On the left-hand side of your screen, locate your Date/Time Routing block under the Unassigned Blocks section. Then drag it out to your workflow.
9
Connect the Date/Time Routing block to the Greeting block by clicking the empty circle in the Greeting block and dragging it to the empty circle in the Date/Time Routing block as shown below. Then click Save.
10
Next, we need to tell the system what to do during business hours and after hours. In this case, we'll have all after hours calls route to a Disconnect block that will play a recording and the disconnect the call. During business hours, we'll have calls route to an SAS agent.
11
When you are finished, click Save.
Congratulations! You've just built an advanced IVR. Now you'll need to assign your SAS numbers to the IVR and Script accordingly, or you can contact support for help!
