Assitance with Holidays & Special days Greeting setup

[AJ800]

Two questions:

1. Our installer tech set up our time profiles and currently we have 2 set up for 2 departments for after-hours and holidays, but I'm not sure how to apply custom messages for other days and holidays and return to normal afterward. We want to add a small recorded alert for our customers and associates for special days & holidays (for example, we'll be closing early Christmas eve and currently, for holidays I think it just follows weekend procedures and forwards calls during off hours specified in the time profiles). Is there an efficient way of setting this up? Can anyone provide a simple step by step guide to doing this and/or a strategy? [Currently, I believe we have a greeting that plays all the time regardless of day/time, but when you press a number for either of these departments it will then follow the time profile according what day/time it is]

2. For the 2 time profiles we have set up, when selected in IP Office configuration, the first in the list of times are the operating hours of the department (example: 9:00am to 5:00pm M-F). Then the others are holidays but the time listed shows 12:00AM to 12:01AM, which seems odd since technically that's only the first minute of those days. Should it be 12:00AM to 11:59PM instead?

 

[AACon]

Without seeing your configuration, it's hard to know how this mystery person setup your system. There are many ways to do it. This is not something that should be just *done* by anyone, as it can really mess up your inbound call flows if you don't know what you're doing. Also, your BP/Whoever that installed it should have left instructions on how to setup additional greetings based on time. This is just something a GOOD tech would have done, and it pisses me off when they don't.

-Austin
ACE: Implement IP Office

 

[AJ800]

Unfortunately, we don't have instructions, which is why I came here. Our whole installation took forever and you need a full-blown course to learn how to do all of these things in both IP Office and VM Pro and the two combined to make the system work and to make necessary changes on the fly... and we were only given a crash course on the basics. We basically just want to alert our callers that we will be closing early and redirect their calls (the same thing that happens on weekends & non-work hours). if we can do this automatically so we don't have to every holiday, that would be great. This is difficult to test seeing that this is going to be edited during business hours.

 

[AJ800]

Importantly, as asked in the first post, int the time profile, the "start time" shows 12:00AM and the "end time" shows 12:01AM. Does this mean that, although the appropriate holiday dates were entered in the time profile, that it hasn't been working all this time since that's technically one minute?? I haven't ever called during those times to test it and I don't know how technical IP Office is with these things since you can't put seconds into the time profile. I would expect it to show 12:00:00AM to 11:59:59PM or something like it. Is this correct or must this be changed?

 

[AACon]

It should be 12:00AM to 11:59PM. What you have there is for only 1 minute. it won't span 24 hours. They set it up wrong.

-Austin
ACE: Implement IP Office

 

[AJ800]

Pardon me once again as I am a little confused (a little under the weather and not quite thinking 100% clearly):

After further review, The time profile, when selected, first shows 9AM-5PM M-F. This implies that this profile is used during these hours. So, if the others, which are calendar entries (specific dates, which I assume, override recurring time entries), show 12:00AM to 12:01AM, then on those specific dates, this profile will be used and active - which means, during that one minute, calling would go through to those assigned to that hunt group using this time profile... OTHERWISE, it defaults to the fallback group as configured for that hunt group. Is this correct?

To be clear, and if this is true, for example:
- December 25th, 2013 12:00AM (start) to 12:01AM (end) is entered in the time profile.
- Anytime between 12:01AM December 25th and 12:00AM December 26th, call will default to the Fallback Group selected in 'Hunt Group > Fallback' configuration. Otherwise, between 12:00AM and 12:01AM on December 25th, calls will go through.

Am I right on this?

 

[AACon]

Yep!

-Austin
ACE: Implement IP Office

 

[AJ800]

This did not work. I'm not sure what to do. It was set to the hours of that day (8:30AM - 2:00pm) but nothing changed. It still goes to our hunt group number for our cues. Any suggestions?

 

[AACon]

Where do you have the options applied. To the hunt group, or do the call route? They really should be applied to the call route.

-Austin
ACE: Implement IP Office

 

[AJ800]

I managed to get it to work under the Hunt Group's 'Fallback' tab by selecting 'Night Service' but that defeats the purpose of scheduling it in the time profile and must later also be switched back manually. How is this done in the call route to switch to this time profile automatically?

 

[AACon]

The *best* way is if the ICR points directly to the group, put the time profile in the ICR and point it to the group, and put the default destination as the night/after hours destination.
If you want to apply it to the GROUP, the time profile in fall back says "this is when the group is IN service", and the night service fall back group is where it goes when it is outside of those hours.

-Austin
ACE: Implement IP Office

 

[AJ800]

Ok so let me get this straight:
Current setup:

ICR:
>Row 1:
>>Time Profile: Default Value (grey)
>>Destination: VM:BusinessWeekdays
>>Fallback Extension: 321 (our receptionist's extension)
>Row 2:
[Blank/empty dropdown menus]

Time Profiles:
Profile1: M-F 9a-5p; holidays 12a-12:01a (I assume this means calls WILL come in during the first minute of each of these days, as well as during business hours on any unspecified days)

xoxoxoxoxoxoox


How it SHOULD be setup:

ICR:
>Row 1:
[Same as above]
>Row 2:
>>Time Profile: Profile1 (as shown above)
>>Destination: 123 HuntGroupExtension (setup for after hours calls)
>>Fallback Extension: 321 (our receptionist's extension)

Time Profiles:
[same as above]

Is this correct?
(Additional note: we actually have 2 time profiles that are slightly different for 2 departments - so how would that work out?)

 

[AACon]

First, those holiday profiles are garbage. They need to cover the entire 24hours.

Second, it should be
ICR:
>ROW 1 (DEFAULT) Destination: Whatever it is by default if it does not match a time profile, this is typically a NIGHT operation
>Row 2, apply DAY TIME profile: destination: wherever it should go during the day
>Row 3, HOLIDAY PROFILE: destination: wherever it should go during holidays.

-Austin
ACE: Implement IP Office

 

[AJ800]

Thanks so much for your help so far. Ok, this seems straightforward for one time profile. We have our ICR going to a voicemail menu system (VMay). That Voicemail system is a menu a caller hears with options and points to a sub-menu for each of the two departments, and from those sub-menus, the caller will be forwarded to the queue or to a forwarder, depending on the time and day/date. One profile was for one department, and the second profile was for the other, but your guide seems to be for a daytime (business hours) profile and then holiday profile, and then off hours (default). How can I set this up? I'm still a bit confused and to how the ICR will work with this.

 

[AJ800]

How about this:

Make profiles for standard working hours for each dept.:

'Normal Days Dept1': M-F, 9a-5pm (the start and end time reflects the time this profile is active, correct? Should it be 5:00pm-8:59am instead?)

'Normal Days Dept2': M-F, 8a-5pm (or 5:00pm-7:59am?)

Make profiles for holidays:

'Holidays Dept1': Dec 25, 2013 12:00am-12:01am, etc (or should it be 12:00am-11:59pm)
'Holidays Dept2': Dec 25, 2013 12:00am-11:01am, etc


Make a default profile for everything else (weekends, after hours, etc)

'Weekends Dept1': Sat-Sun 12:00am-11:59pm
'Weekends Dept2': Sat-Sun 12:00am-11:59pm
'Afterhours Dept1': M-F 5:00pm-8:59am
'Afterhours Dept2': M-F 5:00pm-7:59am

 

[AACon]

Okay, was confused on how your groups were setup. The best way to do this is with VMPRO then. Make time profiles, all the ones you need, and do a time check before the transfer to each group. If this time, go here, if that time, go there, etc. Don't need to put them on the groups or in the ICR.

-Austin
ACE: Implement IP Office

 

[tlpeter]

Indeed but the big question is -> do you have voicemail pro? (preferred edition)
If you have then route the call in the incoming callroute to VM:namemodule (copy the module name from VMPro)
Then make a condition and set the times or days there (in the condition editor)
Then use true or false for the routing of your calls.


BAZINGA!

I'm not insane, my mother had me tested!

 

[AJ800]

Ha! This is more complicated than I thought. How would I create a condition? Where do I apply that condition? Set up a transfer? Would you be able to guide me through that process also?

 

[AJ800]

Ok I finally managed to think it through and have it working. I didn't remove or change anything on the IP Office side, but set up the conditions in VMPro. So, one or the other should work according to the configuration. Hopefully if one were to override the other, it would be the VMPro as I'm more confident with that configuration. Hard to test during business hours but it should be good now. Whew!