Set call timings on a call bot
When a call bot is permitted to be on a call. Related to, but not the same as, the calling hours on the channel.
There are two sets of hours in play on a call and they do different jobs. Restricted call timings on the channel govern the line — they are the compliance boundary, and campaigns inherit them. Call timings on the bot govern this particular agent.
Both apply, and in practice the narrower of the two wins. A bot allowed to work at 2am on a line restricted to daytime will never be reached, which is a confusing thing to debug if you do not know both exist.
Steps
Open the call bot and find call timings
One of the two things a call bot has that a chat bot does not — the other being voices per language.
Understand the difference from channel hours
The channel is the line and the legal boundary. The bot is one agent that answers on it. A single line can carry a daytime qualifier and an after-hours receptionist, each with its own timings.
Set them to match the job
An after-hours receptionist and a daytime qualifier want opposite windows, even on the same number.
Check them against the channel
If the bot is never being reached, compare the two. The narrower wins, and a mismatch is the usual cause.
Check the timezone before the hours
When bot and channel appear to disagree, the timezone is the first thing to look at. Hours that look identical in different timezones are not identical.
Test at an edge
Ring just before and just after a boundary. Two calls, and you know it works.
Check it worked
Ring the number at a time when the bot should answer and at a time when it should not. Both outcomes should be what you intended — and the second one should fall through to whatever is next in your flow rather than to silence.
The parts people get wrong
- A bot outside its permitted timings does not answer, and the call falls through to the next step in the call flow. If there is no next step, the caller gets nothing.
- Channel hours are the compliance boundary. Bot timings are an operational preference. Do not use bot timings to enforce a legal restriction.