Inbound Routing - Forward to Answering Service?

[Brian DArcy]

Hello all,

Need a little assistance on an advanced inbound routing technique.

Client has IVR which answers on main DID both during and after business hours, (biz hours are M-F, 9AM until 6PM), however on weekends, From 10AM until 5PM on Saturday and Sunday, they want all calls forwarded to an outside answering service. I'm aware this will use up two call paths.

What's the best way to go about this? I already have a standard DID rule which handles the IVR open/closed routing for their main business hours. I've setup a CID rule with a full mask of 11 *'s set to 'specific hours" of only the requested weekend forwarding time frame, and set the forwarding number, however this rule shows at the VERY bottom of the list, so I'm afraid that the main DID rule will catch the "after hours" and the calls will never even make it to the CID rule for forwarding.

Advice?

Thanks!

 

[Jesse Amos]

I would have the calls go to a dummy extension, with the mobile number set to the number of the answering service and the ring mobile option set. You should be able to direct calls there in the afterhours and break timer sections.

 

[cobaltit]

I'd see if you can forward it at the provider level. No hacks like the dummy extension and no call path consumption.

 

[Brian DArcy]

Thanks everyone for the input and advice. I like the provider level idea, it may be the most elegant, assuming they support scheduling. It never really occurred to me how weak the scheduling and call routing aspects are here. I guess weak is the wrong word, inflexible. I've been doing this sort of thing with hosted providers for the better part of 10 years, so I just assumed it would be a piece of cake with 3CX.

 

[cobaltit]

You can do what you want with the use of a dummy extension as @Jesse Amos but it's not very clean and as you mentioned, it consumes an extra call path.