How to route your phone calls based on a custom schedule

[stevestormoen]

In addition to your other options routing phone calls, you can also use Invoca to create a schedule, then route calls to different destinations based on that schedule. For example, if you have different call centers that are open during different days of the week, or during different times of the day, this feature can save your bacon!

Creating your routing schedule

First, let's create your routing schedule. To do so, we'll be using a feature in your Invoca account called Lookup Tables. Here's how to do it:

1. Follow section 1, steps 1-8 of our guide How to route your phone calls to many different call centers using lookup tables to create a new Marketing Data table with the following field names:
   
• Lookup Field: Call Start Time
• Secondary Lookup Field: Day of Week
  
  
2. At this point, you should have created and downloaded a spreadsheet template (.xslx format) for your new lookup table. Open that template in any spreadsheet program.
   
   
3. Starting in row 16 of your template spreadsheet, you should see one column each for the time of your phone call (based on the time the phone call starts, time zone of your Invoca network), and the day of week of your phone call. You'll also see columns for every other marketing data field in your Invoca account, including the "destination_phone_number" field you created while following our Lookup Tables guide.
   
   Fill out each of the first two columns for every single hour of the day (00:00-23:00) and each day of the week (Monday-Sunday) even if you don't plan to be open to receive calls during those times. Each time of day must be written out in 24 hour time (for example, 5 pm must be entered as "17:00"), and each day of the week must be written without abbreviations (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). For example:
    
   

   Call Start Time (24h Time)	Week Day
   00:00	Monday
   01:00	Monday
   02:00	Monday
   03:00	Monday
   …
   11:00	Monday
   12:00	Monday
   13:00	Monday
   14:00	Monday
   …
   22:00	Monday
   23:00	Monday
   0:00	Tuesday
   1:00	Tuesday
   2:00	Tuesday

    
4. In the "destination_phone_number" column of your template spreadsheet, enter the phone number of the destination you want to route calls to beginning at each time and day, as corresponding to the first two columns. Leave any other columns in your spreadsheet blank.
   
   
5. When you're finished, save your template spreadsheet and go back to your Invoca browser window. Click the Choose File button and select the lookup table spreadsheet you just saved. Then, click Upload.
   
   

Utilizing your routing schedule in your Invoca call treatment

Now that you've set up your schedule, follow section 2 of our article How to route your phone calls to many different call centers using lookup tables to add that schedule to your Invoca call treatment. 

That's it! Once you've tested and saved your call treatment, your phone calls will now route according to the schedule you set above!

If you need to change your schedule at any time, you can follow our guide How to edit your lookup tables , and if you'd like to collect reporting data based on this routing, check out our guide How to add reporting data to your lookup tables.

Related:
• How to route your phone calls to many different call centers using lookup tables 
• Modify a campaign's hours of operation 
• How to edit your lookup tables