Call Times

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Call Time definitions are the limits that you place on the days and times that you call customers, or in the case of In-Groups, the days and times that you will receive calls from customers. These are currently definable by day of the week down to hours and minutes. There is also a method for creating special rules to override these call time definitions by state (province). These times are defined by local customer time, not by the time where your agents or your dialer are located, except in the case of In-Groups where the time defined is for the local server time.

When you click on the CALL TIMES link in the Admin section, you will enter the Call Times subsection. This starts with a full listing of every call time definition in the system with its call time ID, name, the default start and stop time, admin group, and a link to the call time modification page. We will first look at adding a new call time.

Add a New Call Time Definition
You can get to the Add New Call Time screen by clicking on the "ADD NEW CALL TIME" link at the top of the CALL TIMES section. When adding a new call time you must make sure that you set both the “Call Time ID” and call time name or the submission will not be accepted. Also, please make sure that the call time ID you have chosen does not have any spaces or punctuation, only letters or numbers.
Once you create a call time you will not be able to change that call time ID unless you delete the call time and re-create it again with a different call time ID. You cannot have duplicate call time IDs in the system, and call time IDs must be between 2 and 10 characters in length.

Modify a Call Time Definition
At the bottom of the Call Time modification page you will see a list of campaigns currently using that call time definition that you can click on to go to each campaign modification page.

Call Time ID
This is the short name of a VICIdial Call Time Definition. This needs to be a unique identifier. Do not use any spaces or punctuation for this field (it will support dashes).
Max 10 characters, minimum of 2 characters.

Call Time Name
This is a more descriptive name of the Call Time Definition. This is a short summary of the Call Time definition.
Max 30 characters, minimum of 2 characters.

Call Time Comments
This is where you can place comments for a VICIdial Call Time Definition such as "10am to 4pm with extra call state restrictions".
Max 255 characters.

Admin User Group
This is the administrative user group for this Call Time record, this allows admin viewing of this record restricted by user group.
Default is --ALL-- which allows any admin user to view this Call Time record.

Default Start and Stop Times
This is the default time that calling will be allowed to be started or stopped within this call time definition if the day-of-the-week start time is not defined. 0 is midnight.
To prevent calling completely, set this field to 2400 and set the Default Stop time to 2400.
To allow calling 24 hours a day, set the start time to 0 and the stop time to 2400. For inbound only, you can also set the stop call time higher than 2400 if you want the call time to go beyond midnight.
If you want your call time to run from 6 am until 2 am the next day, you would put 0600 as the start time and 2600 as the stop time.

Weekday Start and Stop Times
These are the custom times per day that can be set for the call time definition. Same rules apply as with the Default start and stop times.

AH Override
Audio files placed in this field will override the the After Hours message for for any In-Groups assigned this Call Time.
Default is empty.

State Call Time Definitions
This is the list of State specific call time definitions that are followed in this Call Time Definition. State Call Time Definitions, if selected in a call time definition, will override any call time settings for the state that is set in the state call time definition. To add an existing state call time definition to a call-time record, simply select the state record you want to add and click submit. It will then appear in the listing of state call time records being followed for this call time definition.

State Call Time State
This is the two letter code for the state that this calling time definition is for. For this to be in effect the local call time that is set in the campaign must have this state call time record in it as well as all of the leads having two letter state codes in them.

Holiday Call Time Definitions
This feature is designed to work with the inbound facet of Call Times. A holiday is created in the Add_Holiday section for a period of hours, or a full day (in military time). The Holiday definition is then added to a Call time. Any In-Groups or Call Menus that receive inbound calls, during the indicated holiday time, will be automatically routed to the After Hours option.
Once the time period for the Holiday is over, the system reverts back to the normal call routing. The added benefit is that all the holidays can.

State-specific Call Time Definitions
The state-specific call time definitions are available from the CALL TIMES section by clicking on the "SHOW STATE CALL TIMES" link to display all of the state call times, or the "ADD NEW STATE CALL TIME" link to add new state specific call times. State-specific definitions function just like Call Time definitions except that they are restricted to one state(or province/territory) and multiple state-specific call times can be assigned to one or many call time definitions. State-specific call time definitions only work if you have the "state" field populated in the lists that you load into the dialer.

Delete Call Times
If the option is enabled, a manager can go to the bottom of the call time modification page and click on the "DELETE THIS CALL TIME DEFINITION" link to remove a call time from the system. This is a two-step process to prevent accidental deletion. Once the link is clicked on, the page will load again with a confirmation link at the top of the screen. You must click on the second "DELETE THIS CALL TIME DEFINITION" link to remove the call time from the system.