Call Rules (6.6)

This article describes Call Rules for Switchvox 6.6. See MAIN-FEATURES-CALL-RULES-6-0 for previous version article.

Your personal Call Rules control what happens to your incoming calls. By default, regardless of date and time, if your Status is Do Not Disturb, queue calls are declined and direct calls go immediately to voicemail; otherwise, all calls go to voicemail after 5 rings.

The Call Rules page has tabs for specifying Unanswered Call Rule Sets, Busy Calls Rule Sets, Call Blocking Rules, and Messages/Prompts. Each Rule Set tab includes a Create Call Rule Set button and a table listing that category's defined rules with detailed information, move (up or down) control arrows, and available actions.

Open

Unanswered Call Rule Sets (default tab)

Unanswered Call Rule Sets specify what happens when a call reaches your extension and you are not already on a call. You can set up actions that happen after a certain number of rings, or actions that happen immediately.
Click the Create Call Rule Set button to display the popup menu and enter the following:

• Rule Set Name. Choose a name that helps you remember why you created the rule.

• Rule Set Time Frame. Choose the time frame during which the Rule is active.

• Rule Set Status. Choose a Status option that must be active for this Rule to be active

When a call comes to your extension, Switchvox evaluates each of your Active Call Rules in the order listed.

NOTE: It’s a good idea to test your rules by calling your extension from another phone.

Actions icons (below) enable Disable, Activate, Modify, and Delete, respectively.

Open

Click the Activate icon to specify the constraints of a rule:

Busy Call Rule Sets (tab)

Busy Call Rule Sets are triggered when your extension is active in some way (on the phone, phone is ringing, one or more calls on hold, etc.). Switchvox only uses these rule sets if you have Use Unavailable Call Rule Sets set to NO. Unavailable means that your phone extension isn't active any way, but you did not answer the phone.

To create Busy Call Rule Sets, set Use Unanswered Call Rule Sets to NO. That makes the Create Call Rule Set button active, so you can click it to create a Busy call rule set.

Busy Call Rule Sets use the same settings and actions as described for Unanswered Call Rule Sets.

Call Blocking Rules (tab)

Switchvox lets you specify phone numbers for which you do not want to accept calls. You can block specific phone number or any numbers that begin with the same prefix. You can also choose how Switchvox handles the blocked calls.

To create a Call Block Rule, click the Create Call Block Rule button to display the menu popup:

• What to block. Phone Number or Prefix from the dropdown. Be careful using Prefix. If you put in the wrong prefix, you might block more calls than you expect.

• Number to block.  Enter the number to block.

• Block and send to. Select the action Switchvox should take with the blocked call.

• Save Action to save your changes.

Messages/Prompts (tab)

Sound prompts are used in your Call Rules' Secret Code actions. You can change the prompts by either recording your own sound over your phone or uploading a new sound file. To create or modify your own sound, click the Upload or Record New Sound (plus sign) icon.

• To play the sound, click the prompt’s Play icon

• To remove a sound that you created and go back to the default sound, click the prompt’s Use System Default Sound icon.

Managing Call Rule Sets

To create a Call Rule Set, click Create Call Rule Set, which displays the General Settings popup menu. The General Settings popup menu prompts you to specify a name for the rule set and set the time frame the rule set is active.

• Rule Set Name. Enter the name of the rule set.

• Rule Set Time Frame. Select the Time Frame during which the rule should apply.  Switchvox evaluates the current date and time against this time frame, and if they match then the rule is followed. If they do not match, Switchvox moves on to the next rule. See Time Frames for more information.

• Rule Set Status. Select what your current status is set as.

• Click Save Call Rule Set when finished. This displays a Settings tab and an Actions tab for the new rule set.

To create an Action for the rule set, click the Create Action button. This displays a popup menu listing the action types:

• Send to Voicemail. This action sends a call to your voicemail so the caller can leave a message. Use your Voicemail Greeting Rules to determine what greeting is played.

  • Type of Call. Specify whether the rule applies to direct calls, queue calls, or all calls.

  • Number of times to ring. Specify the Number of Times to Ring, which is the number of times to ring your phone before initiating this action.

  • Click Save Action.

• Call Forward. This action forwards a call to another local Switchvox extension. The extension can be another phone, a call queue, or any other type of extension. Once a call is forwarded to the extension, the call rules for that extension are followed.

• Type of Call. Specify whether the rule applies to direct calls, queue calls, or all calls.

• Extension to Forward to. A Switchvox extension.

• Number of times to ring previous rule before forwarding.  Specify the Number of Times to Ring, which is the number of times to ring your phone before initiating this action.

• Click Save Action.

• Call Cascade. This action rings another extension or an external phone number (i.e., your mobile phone). If the call isn’t answered, then it is passed on to the next action. If you cascade to a Switchvox extension (local or peered), that extension's call rules are ignored. This action depends on your Outgoing Call Provider: if your provider supports it, you can stack several rules to try and reach you at several phone numbers.

  • Type of Call.  Specify whether the rule applies to direct calls, queue calls, or all calls.

  • Number to forward to. A Switchvox extension, or an external number. If this is an external phone number, be sure to add a ‘9’ or other necessary digits that you normally use to dial out.

  • Number of times to ring previous rule before cascading.  Specify the Number of Times to Ring, which is the number of times to ring your phone before initiating this action.

  • Attempt to preserve Caller ID. YES indicates that Switchvox should try to send the originating caller ID when it rings the number. This is not always possible, depending on the provider, but it will be attempted.

  • Acknowledge call. YES indicates that you want to acknowledge (accept) the call before Switchvox completes the call. Switchvox does not complete the call until you have answered it and acknowledged it by pressing ONE on your keypad. So, if the action rings this number and it is answered but not acknowledged, Switchvox continues to follow your Call Rules. This protects calls from being answered by unauthorized individuals (like kids, or very smart dogs!). Acknowledge Call is useful if you might not be the person answering the phone number. It can also ensure that your calls end up in your Switchvox voicemail (as opposed to your voicemail at home, or on your mobile).

  • Click Save Action.

• Secret Code. This action prompts the caller to enter a secret code, then passes the caller to the next action. If the caller cannot enter the correct secret code after the specified number of tries, then you can specify what to do with the call.

  • Type of Call. Specify whether the rule applies to direct calls, queue calls, or all calls.

  • Secret Code to prompt for.  One to 7 characters (0-9, *, or #).

  • Number of times to ring previous rule before code prompt. Specify the Number of Times to Ring, which is the number of times to ring your phone before initiating this action.

  • Number of tries to allow. The number of times the caller can try to enter your secret code. After this number of tries, the following action happens:

  • If code is incorrect, then (select the action)

• Click Save Action.

• Ring All. This action simultaneously rings up to 3 extensions or external phone numbers. If you ring a Switchvox extension (local or peered), that extension's call rules are ignored.

If you need to ring more than 3 phones, you may set up subsequent Ring All actions that ring those additional phones. In this case, the first set of phones ring, and then the second set of phones ring.

• Type of Call. Specify whether the rule applies to direct calls, queue calls, or all calls.

• Numbers to Ring. A Switchvox extension or an external phone number. Enter the number then click Add, which adds the number to the table. Note: If you are ringing an external phone number, be sure to add a ‘9’ or other necessary digits that you normally use to dial out. 

• Select numbers from the table and click the Acknowledge call icon. Each number in the list can be set to complete the call without an acknowledgement or with it. To change that, select the number and turn Acknowledge Call on or off.

Switchvox does not complete the call until you have answered it and acknowledged it by pressing ONE on your keypad. So, if the action rings this number and it is answered but not acknowledged, Switchvox continues to follow your Call Rules. This protects calls from being answered by unauthorized individuals (like kids, or very smart dogs!).

• Number of times to ring previous rule before ringing extensions.  Specify the Number of Times to Ring, which is the number of times to ring your phone before initiating this action.

• Attempt to preserve Caller ID. YES indicates that Switchvox should try to send the originating caller ID when it rings the number. This is not always possible, depending on the provider, but it will be attempted.

• Decline. This action declines incoming calls. For Direct Calls, you can indicate the number of silent rings to be played to the caller after the call is declined.

To modify an Action, click its Modify icon.

When you create or modify an action, you must choose which type of action you want. If you want two or more actions in your call rule set, then you need to create two actions.

Activating Call Rule Sets

To activate a rule set for a specific period of time, you need to define how long it will be active. Click the rule's Activate icon, and specify:

• A duration of time that begins immediately and runs as long as indicated.

• A date on which the rule deactivates. At 12:00 AM on that date, the rule is deactivated.

Then click the Activate button.

You can see the Active state of the rule set in the Call Rule Sets list:

Prioritizing Call Rule Sets

Your Call Rules need to be prioritized because Switchvox executes them from top to bottom. Use the arrows on the far left of each rule in the list to prioritize your rules.

In the following example:

• Calls are handled one way during business hours, and another outside of business hours.

• During business hours, multiple numbers ring at the same time and after 5 rings go to voicemail

• Outside of business hours, calls go immediately to voicemail. (Notice that there is no Time Frame on this rule set. That's all right, because during business hours Switchvox always follows rule number 1.)

Prioritizing Actions in a Call Rule Set

The Actions in your Call Rules also need to be prioritized because Switchvox executes them from top to bottom.

To prioritize Actions, use the arrows to the left of the list to move the Action up or down.