Looking for ways to improve how your business offers customer service? Make your company accessible during off-hours by using time-of-day routing.
What Is Time-Based Routing?
The time-of-day routing feature enables you to forward calls to different destinations depending on the time of day or the day of the week. This means that you can have calls routed to the main office, satellite offices, remote workers, or your home office during off-hours or the weekends, and so on.
How to Set up Time of Day Routing
Here is how to set up time-based routing in six easy steps.
1. Log in to your control panel.
2. Click My Phone Numbers on the left-hand side of the dashboard.
3. Click on the Settings Icon on the line that you would like to modify.
Underneath Call Forwarding, click Advanced Routing.
Adjust the Forwarding Rules according to your preferences. Changes will take effect based on the Activity Time Zone that you chose (under the General tab). By default, it is set to the US Eastern time zone.
4. Click Save Changes.
If a call is received at a day or time combination that is not covered by any rule, the call will automatically go to voicemail, if voicemail is enabled, or rejected otherwise.
4 Time-Based Routing Strategies to Ensure You Never Miss a Phone Call
Let’s look at the top 4 time-based routing strategies you should consider:
1. Routing for After-Hours Calls
Time of day routing allows users to route calls that come in after-hours to specific employees’ or managers’ home offices or to voicemail. This way, after-hours calls from valued customers don’t go unanswered. Furthermore, with the voicemail-to-email feature, you can set incoming voicemails to be delivered to your email that you can check when at home and return those calls the next day.
2. Routing to Satellite Offices and Remote Employees
Most businesses will use time-based routing to distribute calls to satellite offices and remote workers. This is useful during high call traffic periods such as when your company is running promotions and specials or holiday sales. You can use routing strategies to ensure that calls continue moving without long wait times and abandoned calls.
3. Routing to Virtual Assistants or Call Center Outsourcing Companies
Some companies — especially small businesses — use virtual assistants or call center outsourcing companies to handle their customer service needs. With a time of the day routing feature, you can send incoming calls to these services during certain times of the day when you need to use them the most.
4. Routing on Holidays
You can also use time-based routing by having incoming calls made during holidays sent to employees still on-call. These may be top managers and supervisors or remote agents. It is not common for companies to offer customer service during prominent public holidays. And so, your company’s ability to do so will make it stand out and seem more reliable.
Furthermore, if your company is the kind that benefits from holiday seasons such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc., you may experience high call volumes during these periods. Being able to route calls to additional workers or outsourcing companies can be helpful during these times.
Is Time-Based Routing Right for You?
Set up time-based routing if your business experiences a high call volume that may burden your current employees. As a manager, you can prepare your employees and give them the tools they need to increase conversions and improve customer satisfaction. Want to learn more about call routing strategies, speak with one of our experts today!