Branch on business hours
The step that belongs at the top of nearly every flow, reading the hours the channel already knows.
This step branches on whether you are open, and it reads the channel's restricted call timings rather than defining hours of its own. One place hours live, and one place to change them.
It belongs near the top of almost every inbound flow, because everything below it depends on the answer. And the single most common go-live failure in the entire product is a correct set of hours in the wrong timezone — which routes every call wrongly by several hours and is completely invisible until somebody complains.
Before you start
- Restricted call timings set on the channel.
- The timezone on those hours checked, not assumed.
- Date exceptions added for public holidays.
Steps
Set the hours on the channel first
The step branches on them; it does not define them. If the hours are wrong here, every flow that reads them is wrong.
Add a business hours step near the top
Almost every inbound flow wants this first, because everything below it depends on the answer.
Putting it first also means you only ask the question once. A flow that checks hours in three different branches will eventually have those three checks disagree.
Build the open branch
Usually ring agents, then an AI agent or voicemail if nobody answers.
Build the closed branch
An AI agent, or voicemail, or a message and a clean hang-up. Something, always — a closed branch that does nothing is a call into silence.
Check the timezone specifically
Read it aloud. If you serve a market in a different timezone from your office, this setting is about their clock, not yours.
Add date exceptions for holidays
These live with the hours on the channel. An exception beats the weekly pattern, so you do not have to remember to switch days off and back on.
Test by temporarily changing the hours
Make "now" out of hours, ring in, and see exactly what a customer gets at 2am. Then change them back — and write yourself a note, because people forget.
Check it worked
Ring the number at four moments: mid-morning, just before closing, just after closing, and on a day you have set as an exception. Four calls, and you have tested the whole thing.
The parts people get wrong
- Because hours live on the channel, changing them changes every flow that reads them — which is usually what you want, and occasionally a surprise.
- The same hours editor is used for booking-link availability, so the vocabulary is worth learning once.