Add a New Time of Day Rule to a Policy in ContactNow

Overview

A Time of Day (TOD) Policy is a collection of Rules that are used to define what should happen to call at different times of day, days of the week, or on a specific date.

This applies to both inbound and outbound call queues.

Once a policy is created, any number of individual rules can be added to that policy. Each rule will define the action taken if the rule is matched.

Instructions for creating a new Policy are located in the following article: ContactNow: Add a New Time of Day (TOD) Policy

How Configured Times Operate in TOD Rules

Keep in mind that when you set a specific block of time for your policy's rules to operate, the actual time values you set for the 'end' time include the full minute (00-59, or 60 seconds).

Example: This means that if you configure a rule's parameters to operate from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM, the time you've entered will actually apply from 07:00:00 AM to 05:00:59 PM.

To correctly set a rule's time span from 7 AM to 5 PM, set your values from 7:00 AM to 4:59 PM. This way, the actual time span for the rule will be 07:00:00 AM to 04:59:59 PM.

Add a new Rule to an Existing Policy

To begin adding a new rule:

1. Navigate to Configuration  > Time of Day, and click on the gear icon  of the policy you are changing.
2. Select Add Rule.
   

In the Add Rule to Policy window:

3. Select rule type: Select one of two types of rule.
   • Specific Date: This allows you to create a rule which will apply only on that date. This is useful for holidays or company events.
   • Days of the week: Select either All days of the week, or choose individual days of the week that this specific rule will apply to.
4. Between hours of: Specify the time frame for the rule to apply to.
   • Choose either specific hours between which this rule will operate, or:
   • Select All day to specify the 24-hour period of one or more days you've selected.
5. Action: Select the type of action to be performed:
   • Active: Calls will follow the new rule for any queue to which the policy is assigned, with no additional action. This means that any call which passes this policy rule will route to the assigned call queue.
     
   • Inactive: Calls will follow one of three specific actions for any queue to which the rule/policy is assigned:
     • Hang up: Will play your hangup message in [Assigned call queue] > Edit > Audio Messages > After Hours Messages > Hangup and then disconnect the call.
     • Voicemail: Will play the voicemail greeting in [Assigned call queue] > Edit > Audio Messages > After Hours Messages > Voicemail and then record the caller's message.
     • Jump: Calls to queues assigned with this policy will instead be forced to the selected IVR, Inbound queue, or Message queue.

6. Click Save Rule to complete the rule creation process. You should receive a Success notification at the top of the Time of day page.
7. Rules can now be reorganized as desired within the policy using drag-and-drop.
   • Rules are tested by the service in top-down order, meaning that when the criteria of any rule is met, the action of that rule is performed, and all rules beneath it will be ignored. The inverse of this is that if all of the top-most rules fail when tested, the bottom-most rule will be invoked (if it passes the check).

NOTE: When creating a rule which extends past midnight (12:00AM), two rules must be created to cover the desired block of time. EXAMPLE: In the screenshot above, Rules 2 and 3 together span the time between 5:00PM the previous day to 6:59AM the next day. The time actually recognized by the service will be 05:00:00PM through 06:59:59AM, and Rule 1 will become active at exactly 07:00:00AM, etc.