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Outbound - Calling Hours

This section describes the campaign calling hours that are configured in the Calling Hours section of the Services and Campaigns Outbound tab.

Calling hours determine time intervals within which calls to specific destination phone numbers can be made. All hours defined in this tab are specified for the time zone of the destination number to be called.

Note that campaigns also have general hours of operation. See the description of the property using hours of operation of the General tab. Note that hours of operation are defined in the time zone where your contact center is located.

Services & Campaigns > Outbound Voice Service > Outbound > Calling Hours

Calling Hours Configuration

Calling Hours table

This table defines calling schedules for phones of specific types and the order in which phones of different types will be called within each such schedule. For example, you can define that only mobile numbers will be called during the day, while during the evening hours, home phone numbers will be called first, and then mobile phones will be tried.

Note that specification of calling schedules is mandatory. That is, you must define a schedule even if the associated calling lists contain only one type of phone. Note also that the system does not check whether these hours fit within the general campaign’s hours of operation specified by Start/Stop Automation settings of the General page.

To define a schedule:

1. Click add schedule in the Hours column.
2. Select a calendar.
3. Specify the calling hours. (See section Calendars for more information. A schedule can have several calendars, each with its own hours of operation.)
4. Click add to add another calendar (if desired).

To apply the schedule to a particular phone type:

1. Click add in the Phones to call, by preference column. The drop-down menu that appears will contain the phone types from the list(s) associated with this campaign.
2. Select the phone type to which this calling schedule will apply. The same schedule can be used for multiple phone types.
3. Click add again to add another phone type to the same schedule.

Note that the order in which phones of the same record will be called within the given schedule is determined by the order in which they appear in this list. You can change the original order at any time by dragging a phone type to a new desired location in the list.

Repeat these steps to create additional schedules.

For the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, and Australia, the adjustment of calling hours for time zones of destination numbers is performed using area codes. For all other supported countries, adjustment is performed using the country code only. Thus, in order for any restricted calling hours to work properly, destination phone numbers must start with a country code. In other words, unless the campaign is set to be open 24/7, any numbers without a country code will be skipped. Note that a country code can be added to imported numbers automatically as part of the list import process.

For the list of countries for which the adjustment of calling hours is currently supported, see section Countries, Codes, and Time zones. Note that if a number in the calling list begins with a calling code that is not on that list, it will be dialed only if (1) the campaign calling hours for the corresponding phone type are set to 24/7, and (2) the Comply with State calling hours checkbox (see below) is not selected.

Use safe calling hours

Select this checkbox to enable an additional time zone check using the postal code.

Without the Use safe calling hours option selected, the adjustment of calling hours for time zones of destination numbers is performed using the area codes only. If this option is selected, both the time zone associated with the area code and the time zone associated with the postal code is checked. If they are the same, this option does not have any special meaning. If they are different, calling the corresponding number will take place only during the “safe” window (i.e., when the campaign is open in both time zones).

Note: This setting currently works only for US zip codes.

Comply with State calling hours

Many countries impose restrictions on the hours when consumers can be called by businesses. In some countries, such restrictions may differ from one state/province to another. For information about configuring state- and nation-wide calling hour restrictions, see section State Calling Hours.

Select this checkbox if you would like to observe the configured State Calling Hours while making calls for this campaign. If this checkbox is selected, the country/state information of the calling list record will be checked against the configured hours, and the call attempt will only be made if the current day and time fit within the permitted calling window.

Note that the system first looks for state information in the list field of the State/Column type. If this field is absent/undefined, the system will try to look up the state information using the value of the Postal Code field. Area codes are not used to determine state information.

To review and/or change the configured restrictions, click the State calling hours link.

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