Only one person to take calls at night, how to set up call handling

[ablong]

We close our offices at 5pm but one person remains to answer calls until 6pm. We usually turn on the night bell at 5pm then he will answer all calls but if he is already on the phone, can we set it up so that the other call goes straight to his voice mail?
The only thing I can think to do is do not turn the night bell on at 5pm and have all calls re-routed to his phone extension and then at 6pm he can turn the night bell on.
Any other ideas of how to go about doing this?

 

[GSmitherman]

I would set something up like this...

Create 2 schedules. Label one "Normal Hours" Give time 8 to 5. Create second group and label "After Hours". Give time 5 to 6.

Create 2 Hunt Groups. Label one "Operator Normal Hours". Label the other "Operator After Hours".

Put the extension of the normal operator in the first hunt group and the extension of the person answering after hours in the second hunt group.

In your "Operator Normal Hours" hunt group apply the schedule for normal hours. In the off hours schedule send them to "Operator After Hours" hunt group.

In your "Operator After Hours" hunt group apply the schedule for after hours. In off hours I would send to an Auto Attendant.

The system would automatically send the calls based on the time of day and you would not have to put the system into night mode.

Remember you will still need to decide how you would like calls to be handled if either group can not answer the call.

 

[metballnut]

I like the Shoretel System, I really do.
It seems to me shortsighted not to have a "Night" button to be able to place on a set to automatically reroute the calls on demand.
In this day of flexible schedules, this "alternate' routing on one touch demand needs to be developed by the shoretel engineers.
Currently, we have to enter (I am doing this from memory *18xxx (xxx being the group number or hunt number) to reroute and this cannot be assigned to a button.

 

[fledder]

I was hoping that we would be able to make a Call Manager Toolbar that could give the option to create a button to be a shortcut to make a Hunt Group Busy and Make it not Busy. I thought ShoreTel was going to head in that direction but it appears that after checking their support site, that it is now a paid custom service. It is called Hunt Group Manager and is done via the ShoreTel Professional Services group.



Brad Fledderjohn
Premises Systems

http://www.premisessystems.net

 

[EddieVenus]

I would like to note that the 'night' button is already there, it is called 'Mode' but it is the same feature you are talking about.

Do as GSmitherman suggested with the workgroup, and then use the 'Out of Office' mode (or any of the other 3 DND modes) as the 'Night' mode. This mode would send all calls diretly to voicemail.

This is not a limitation of the system, trust me, it is a limitation of imagination. I am currently doing several after hours configurations for customers who need vastly different solutions and having a single 'night' button on the phone (which can actually be programmed into all the phones or users PCM) would be the limiting option. If they need a button, which so far none of mine do, then we can make one. If they need automatic time based controls we can do that, if they need workgroups or hunt groups etc to and different schedules we can do that on the ShoreTel too.

Though there may be a system that does have a night button, I cannot see an actual 'need' for it, especially when you already have better ones there such as the mode button and programmable buttons that can be ANY option.

 

[metballnut]

Sorry Eddie Venus, but there are limitations to the Shoretel and one is what is called in the history of telephony a "night" button.
Customers wanting a "visual" appearance that the system is in night will not get one UNLESS they are logged into and viewing the current schedule.
This is a problem with Shoretel.
Additionally, if your calls hit a hunt group, you have to busy that group for the calls to route to the overflow (done by hitting *18xxx).
Now, you can create all the schedules you want but like I stated, unless you are in the system, you cannot "see" the mode as on a standard telephone pbx.
But, this is NOT a PBX.
It is a great system, but this, the inability to select trunks or have even trunk appearance calls on phones (for small business systems with analog trunks)is a lack in design.