How to Add a Christmas Greeting on SHUC
A scenario which we are often asked for is how do I play a simple message to a caller during a holiday period, to tell them we are closed and without giving the option to leave a message, as would happen if simply directing the call to a voicemail.
In summary, the answer is to point calls to an IVR which is 'inactive' and has no options set, other than the 'Not active' option. If configured to 'Disconnect' the call with an audio uploaded to play before the action is performed, it will play the audio and disconnect without allowing the caller to leave a message.
This scenario could also be adapted using a selection other than disconnect in the not active selection of an IVR, thus allowing you to play a message before sending the call on to somewhere else, such as a Main IVR, Queue, Huntgroup or voicemail etc.
Below we will run through a typical example using a time schedule on a numbers forwarding destinations, in order to send calls to such an IVR on specific dates.
Step 1 - Creating a business time filter
There are specific help articles which cover all the settings we will go through here, which can be reached by clicking on the help ? icon in the relevant pages of the portal. But below, we will show an example using Christmas Day in the UK.
First of all from the 'My Company' section of the left hand menu select 'Time Filters' and click on the '+Add New' button top right of the page.
This should display the following pop out menu where we can start configuring a time filter.
Give the filter a name (1), then select '+Add Time Filtering Rule' (2) and select the drop down (3) to show the existing default options.
Next select 'Pick Days' next to 'Days of the month'(4) and set the date e.g. the 25th (5)
Now select 'Pick Months' next to 'Months of the year'(6)
You will notice 'Days of the week' will expand to display days to select but you can ignore this from a practical perspective, as the date set previously overrides it and it should be left as Everyday.
So in 'Months of the year' we now select 'December'(7).
We could now click '+Add Time Filtering Rule' again to add another date in the same way to combine multiple rules e.g. Adding 26th December to cover Boxing day but for this example we will just 'Save Changes' on the filter with the one entry for Christmas day.
Once saved you should now see something like this in the time filters list and it's ready to be applied anywhere in the portal that time filters are an option.
Step 2 - Setting up the IVR
Before you start, make sure you have your message recording file available as you will need to upload it shortly (MP3 or WAV files are acceptable)
Go to the 'IVRs' option in the main left hand menu under 'Phone system' and select a spare unused IVR by clicking on it's name(1). You may need your supplier to add one for you if you don't have one available to use.
In the IVR 'Settings'(2) give it a meaningful 'Name'(3) and 'Description'(4) and save it.
Move to the first tab of the IVR (5) where we see all the menu options available to configure.
Scroll down to the 'Not Active Option' (6) and click on the 3 dots to reveal the options available.
From here select 'Disconnect Call' (7)
In the popup screen select 'Play Audio' (8) and then 'Choose File'(9) to upload the audio file that you wish to play to your callers before disconnecting the call, then 'Save Changes'(10)
Finally, at the bottom of the menu options under 'General Settings', we need to set the 'Time Filter'(11) to 'Not Active'.
STEP 3 - Forwarding the number to the IVR when the time filter is active.
In the 'Phone System' menu section on the left of the page, go to the 'Numbers' subsection and find the number you wish to configure and set to play the message on the selected day(s) set by the time filter, go into its settings by clicking on the number.
Typically, we might see something like below in the 'Forwarding Destinations' (1), where the Main IVR is the first destination and clicking where it says 'During'(2) will display the hours that the destination is active, outside of these hours it will be inactive and therefore be skipped and drop down to a group voicemail which is always active (It doesn't need a time filter applied to it, as it will only ever be reached if the previous options aren't available so it acts as a "catch all" destination).
Now we want to add our holiday message destination at the top of the list so it is checked first.
To do this, we select the '+Add' button on the upper right hand side of the page and then set the forward configuration as follows.
Set Forwarding Enabled (3) - ON
Destination Type(4) - Choose IVR and then select the new holiday message IVR we created earlier.
'+Add business time filter'(5) - select the time filter we created earlier which will define when this forwarding option is active.
It should now look something like below and once happy it's correct, you can click on the '+Add new Destination' button at the bottom of the page to save it.
Once saved, you will then see the new destination listed in the Forwarding Destinations and you should drag it to the top of the list.
Similar to before, clicking on the 'During' option next to the destination will show you the schedule applied when it will become active, otherwise it will be inactive and ignored, meaning the call will try the next destination in the list.
We have now completed the setup and it is ready to test.