Overview

This tutorial explains how to manage the Hours of Operation configuration for a particular channel of a partner. This configuration rule is used by the Intelligent Contact Distribution capability to determine if a respective channel is open or closed.

Rule Builder

The Hours of Operation configuration is achieved via the Rule Builder Capability. The Rule Builder capability has 3 components we need to understand to be able to use the Hours of Operation rules. These are as follows.

1. Hours of Operation Rule

These are the actual rules that allow you to create the custom experience.

A rule consists of the following components:

• Rule Name
• Rule Description
• Rule Conditions: The conditional formula that is executed as part of the rule. This is essentially an IF statement. The conditions that show up here depend on the rule template the rule is based on. For each rule condition, you select the specific operator that you want and then provide the values that are related to this operator.
• Rule Outcome: There is a pre-defined set of tasks that can be selected for this rule's outcome, based on how the template was set up. This outcome is essentially the result of the rule - if the incoming request meets every criteria set by this rule, the rule outcome defines what behavior the customer should experience. The rule outcome for the Hours of Operation consists of the timezone, status and operating hours. When this rule is triggered, the outcome is sent back to ICD which then checks if the current time is within the operating hours.
• Effective Date Range: Defines the date range during which the rule is active. If left blank, the rule will always be active.

For example, below is a filled-out version of an Hours of Operation rule configured for BEX UK. This rule has been provided with a name, description, rule conditions, and an outcome.

This rule will be triggered if it has:

• A partner ID (any partner ID)
• A channel origin ID of '10004-220037-c3-80' or '2e185087-1f22-471f-a1b6-66d8982e82fe'
• A product (any product, it doesn't matter which one)
• A language (any language, it doesn't matter which one)

2. Hours of Operation Rule Template

Rule templates provide the base rule design from which you can build rules. There are two types of templates namely System Templates and Custom Templates.

A rule template consists of the following components:

• Template Name
• Template Description
• Rule Conditions: This sets the format and structure of the rule condition. It includes all the different business object fields, their data types and how the fields operate with each other.
• Rule Outcome: This is similar to the rule outcome. Allows for it to be set at the template level and be locked so that all rules created using this template must have the outcome defined in the template.
• Effective Date Range: Defines the date range during which the template is active. If left blank, the template will always be active.

Below is an example of an Hours of Operation rule template. This rule has been provided with a name, a description, and 4 rule conditions. Each rule condition involves a business object field. As we can see, the operator between each of the rule conditions is an 'and' which means that this rule will only be used if all the conditions are satisfied.

3. Hours of Operation Rule Policy

Rules do not exist in a vacuum - they exist in constructs called policies that must also be manually put together. A policy defines a set of rules and the order in which those rules are executed. Each time the policy is triggered, the conversation checks one rule after another until it meets the criteria associated with that rule.

Policies consist of:

• Policy Name
• Policy Description
• Effective Date Range: Defines the date range during which the policy is active. If left blank, the template will always be active.
• Rules for this policy: Consists of the rules in this policy along with their priority and version.

For example, below we have a description and image for an Hours of Operation policy:

Policy Description: Every conversation that comes in first looks at the BEX UK Non-Lodging Hours of Operation. If the rule conditions are met, the process ends. If it does not match, it next looks at the second rule: BEX US Lodging Hours of Operation. If this matches, it stops. If not, it goes to the third rule; and so on.

Creating Hours of Operation Rules

1. From the Admin Console home page, click on Rule Builder.
2. Click on Rule Library on the following page.
3. Choose Hours Of Operation from the drop-down menu at the top left.
4. Expand the NO PRODUCT TYPE list. This shows all of the available Hours Of Operation rule templates.
5. Click the rule template that you want your rule to be based on. The screen now shows all of the rules built using this template.
6. Click the Create a Rule button.
7. Provide a name and description.
8. Fill in the operator and the value for each of the rule conditions.
9. Choose RC HOURS OF OPERATION TASK as the rule outcome.

10. Fill in values for timezone, status, and the operatingHours as explained below:

    • timezone - the timezone for which to interpret the listed hours of operation. I recommend using US/Pacific unless you absolutely have to use something else. If you list the timezone incorrectly, this won't work.
      Timezones we use in the system:

      • US/Pacific, US/Eastern
      • Australia/Sydney
      • Pacific/Auckland
      • Asia/Seoul
    • status - there's two possible states, open and closed. Any rule should be open, unless we need to block all traffic to this channel origin and product for whatever reason. The closed state will let no chats through and will list them all as out of hours.
    • operatingHours - This is a JSON string that lists the operating hours for each day of the week. If a customer contacts us within these hours, they will get through to the next step. If they're outside hours, they'll be deflected. The JSON format of the string needs to be correct for this to work. Otherwise it will deflect the customer no matter what. We highly recommend using a JSON formatter tool any time you need to make a new rule or change a rule.
      
11. If you need the rule to be active only for a particular date range, choose the date range. If not, leave it blank.
12. Click on Create.
13. The rule will now show up on the page in Draft status.
14. Click on Publish to publish the rule. The rule will not be triggered at run time until it is published. Once it is published, the Status will show as Published.

Updating Hours of Operation Rules

1. Repeat Steps 1-5 listed above in Creating Hours of Operation Rules.
2. Choose the rule template that the rule you would like to update was based upon.
3. Once you find the rule, click 'Create Draft'.
4. Update the fields you would like to change and click the 'Update' button.
5. The page now displays the rule as being in Draft status.
6. Click on Publish to publish the rule. The rule will not be triggered at run time until it is published. Once it is published, the Status will show as Published.

Disabling of Hours of Operation Rules

1. Repeat Steps 1-5 listed above in Creating Hours of Operation Rules.
2. Choose the rule template that the rule you would like to disable was based upon.
3. Once you find the rule, click 'Disable'.

Creating an Hours of Operation Template

1. From the Admin Console home page, click on Rule Builder.
2. Click on Rule Templates on the following page.
3. Choose Throttling from the drop-down menu in the top left corner.
4. Click on 'create new rule template'.
5. Provide a name and description.

6. For set Rule Conditions:

   • Add as many rule conditions as needed by clicking the '+' sign.
   • For each rule condition, select the business object field and enter 'string' in value type.
   • Choose the 'and' / 'or' operator as needed between each of the rule conditions.
7. Choose an Effective Date Range, if applicable.
8. Click on Create.

Updating an Hours of Operation Template

1. Repeat Steps 1-3 listed above in Creating an Hours of Operation Template.
2. Click on Rule Templates on the following page.
3. Choose Throttling from the drop-down menu in the top left corner.
4. Click Edit for the template you want to edit.
5. Update the fields you would like to change and click the 'Update' button.

Creating an Hours of Operation Policy

1. From the Admin Console home page, click on Rule Builder.
2. Click on Hours of Operation Policies on the following page.
3. Click on 'create a policy'.
4. Provide a name and description.
5. Choose an Effective Date Range, if applicable.
6. Click on Save.
   
7. Now that you have created the policy, you need to add rules to it.
8. Expand the policy and you can now drag rules from the left hand column to the policy.
9. The priority value dictates the order in which the rules will be applied.
   
10. Once you have added the rules to the policy, click on Publish.

Updating an Hours of Operation Policy

1. From the Admin Console home page, click on Rule Builder.
2. Click on Hours of Operation Policies on the following page.
3. Find the policy you want to update and click 'Create Draft'.
4. Update the fields as needed.
5. Click 'Update'.
6. You will now see the draft version of the policy right below the published version:
   
7. Expand the policy and you can now drag rules from the left hand column to the policy.
8. The priority value dictates the order in which the rules will be applied.
9. Once you have added the rules to the policy, click 'Publish'.

Deleting an Hours of Operation Policy

1. From the Admin Console home page, click on Rule Builder.
2. Click on Queue Wait Time Policies on the following page.
3. Find the Policy you want to remove and click 'Delete'.