Holiday Greetings is one of the most commonly used settings by us and our 3CX customers. It can be used anywhere between 10 to 20 times in a year as a recurring setting. While it may seem simple for small-scale deployments, configuring holiday greetings can become complicated when dealing with multiple IVRs and several inbound rules for the main number. Below are some scenarios and challenges we face:
Scenario 1: If a customer does not have a custom holiday greeting, simply adding the holiday to the holiday list will automatically redirect the call to the after-hours IVR. This process is easy and straightforward with no complexity.
Scenario 2: For a customer with a single 3CX instance and multiple locations, each with individual inbound rules pointing to different IVRs, the process becomes more complicated. After adding a custom message to the holiday list, the announcement will not play unless we force the rule 'Play Holiday prompt when it's a global holiday.' However, this will redirect the call to the general after-hours destination, which is not ideal. To address this, we have to create individual IVRs (Multiple holiday IVR’s) for each inbound rule with a holiday greeting and point the after-hours inbound rule to the holiday IVR of the respective location. Managing this process becomes time-consuming and cumbersome, especially when dealing with a large number of IVRs. Additionally, after the holiday, we have to remember to change the after-hours IVR back to its original setting, which is tedious.
While I can provide more scenarios, they all require a single solution. Here are my suggestions:
What is 3CX's recommendation regarding this matter?
Scenario 1: If a customer does not have a custom holiday greeting, simply adding the holiday to the holiday list will automatically redirect the call to the after-hours IVR. This process is easy and straightforward with no complexity.
Scenario 2: For a customer with a single 3CX instance and multiple locations, each with individual inbound rules pointing to different IVRs, the process becomes more complicated. After adding a custom message to the holiday list, the announcement will not play unless we force the rule 'Play Holiday prompt when it's a global holiday.' However, this will redirect the call to the general after-hours destination, which is not ideal. To address this, we have to create individual IVRs (Multiple holiday IVR’s) for each inbound rule with a holiday greeting and point the after-hours inbound rule to the holiday IVR of the respective location. Managing this process becomes time-consuming and cumbersome, especially when dealing with a large number of IVRs. Additionally, after the holiday, we have to remember to change the after-hours IVR back to its original setting, which is tedious.
While I can provide more scenarios, they all require a single solution. Here are my suggestions:
- When we have a global holiday with a global prompt, it should be set as the default for all inbound rules (at least for the opted rules used for IVRs). The system should play the prompt and continue with the same inbound rule after hours, instead of redirecting it to the HOL Digital reception. Inbound rules should have an option to select 'play global holiday greetings and continue after hours with the same flow.'
- Each inbound rule should allow us to select and prepend a holiday greeting message from the list of available messages. This would make it easier for us to update the holiday list under 'Holiday,' with the default being the global prompt or a custom prompt for each inbound rule. After playing the message, the system should continue with the respective IVR after hours.
What is 3CX's recommendation regarding this matter?
