Inclement Weather or Delayed Opening

[Justin Estruch]

Hi everyone,

I've seen some posts from a while back but I was wondering, how do people handle playing a delayed opening or closed due to inclement weather message? A customer that we have would like to change the routing for their main numbers, instead of an inbound call going to the main open hours IVR or the closed hours IVR, they'd like to play either a delayed opening or a closed due to inclement weather recording. Either message might get played based on if they are closing or coming in late due to weather for the day.

Most of the posts I've seen basically tell you to create a "dummy" ext and change the call forwarding based on different status's for that ext. While I think this will work ok, I do think this is a workaround technically.

I've seen some other posts that say to use the call flow designer. But how could I use CFD for this? I could see a couple options with the CFD.
1. Use the http request to some external or custom system that the user changes an option for being open, closed or delayed. This seems super overkill.
2. Use get extension status for the office manager. Create two custom statuses, delayed and closed. If the status is available -> Main IVR, delayed -> Play delayed prompt then end call, closed -> Play closed prompt then end call. This option doesn't seem too bad since the office manager can just change their status from the 3cx app on their phone but it does also feel like a workaround. Also as a question. If the office manager is on a call, and their status was set to available and then another call comes in. Will the CFD logic be messed up or is the user's status still available and not "Busy" now since they are on a call?

I'm just wondering if I missed a way to play weather closing messages easier? I know we could also teach them how to change inbound routes to change the greeting as well but I'm not a fan of this option because I can see this being error prone and the user will likely either not change the routes properly or will not change them back to original after. Even with a guide.

I also know that a user can put the system into out office mode with a dial code. But this will play their regular closed message and not the delayed or closed due to weather message.

Appreciate any responses.

Justin

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

To try and answer your questions as best as I can:

Most of the posts I've seen basically tell you to create a "dummy" ext and change the call forwarding based on different status's for that ext. While I think this will work ok, I do think this is a workaround technically.

This indeed is technically a workaround, but I strongly believe this is the easiest method to accomplish what you're trying to do and will also be much easier to manage/modify in the future should you need to.

Use the http request to some external or custom system that the user changes an option for being open, closed or delayed. This seems super overkill.

If the custom system is not already in place meaning you would have to set it up just for this then I think this method would not be worth the trouble and will in fact, as you said, be overkill.

Use get extension status for the office manager. Create two custom statuses, delayed and closed. If the status is available -> Main IVR, delayed -> Play delayed prompt then end call, closed -> Play closed prompt then end call.

From all the methods you mentioned this is probably the most correct way of implementing this and should not be too hard to configure once you get yourself familiarized with the CFD.

Will the CFD logic be messed up or is the user's status still available and not "Busy" now since they are on a call?

The oncall/Idle statuses are actually separate from the extension's profile statuses so this should not have any effect, provided of course that it is the profile status of the extension you are utilizing to determine the routing to be followed.

I also know that a user can put the system into out office mode with a dial code. But this will play their regular closed message and not the delayed or closed due to weather message.

I can confirm that this would not work for you as it would simply have calls follow the Out of Office routing.

With the above, I think the easiest to configure from the system administrator's point of view would be the first method that utilizes the dummy/routing extension, but the most correct way and easiest for the user to operate would be the third method that involves the CFD and the "GetExtensionStatus" component.

If you need additional information or assistance regarding the CFD, do consider checking out our guides and also posting in the CFD section of our forum.

 

[VoIPTools]

I think the options outlined above are the best options, but you could also create a web page for changing the route, or an IVR (CFD) that would allow you to call and change the route. Naturally both of these options would be significantly more work.

 

[Justin Estruch]

With the above, I think the easiest to configure from the system administrator's point of view would be the first method that utilizes the dummy/routing extension, but the most correct way and easiest for the user to operate would be the third method that involves the CFD and the "GetExtensionStatus" component.

Thanks @ChrisC_3CX for your input. I agree with all that you have said. I think using the CFD is the least hacky way to accomplish this. Although, it will require more work to maintain in the future but it's not too bad. I highly doubt customers would change their delayed/closed due to weather messages that often. I will go down this route as I think it's easier for the customer as well.

@VoIPTools I do love the idea of creating a web portal for the user and using CFD to play the messages based on the web portal. But like you said this would require a good amount of work to launch this from scratch to do it properly. It is a nice idea though, since this could be scalable to offer it to other customers. But then again, I'm not the biggest fan of multiple portals for the customer and technicians. I think it could possibly confuse people in the future personally. I'm sort of torn on this idea.

That being said, I'll post this in the ideas forum as well if it's not already posted there. I think this is a valuable feature that many would like to utilize. I know for schools, they generally do use a feature like this with their phone system for early dismissals and when they close schools. Although I'm not sure how many school districts are using 3CX.

Luckily this is the first time a customer of ours has asked for a feature like this, but now that I think about it, I'm surprised more customers don't ask for it.