Most people know that Broadvoice b-hive is a communication and collaboration platform that allows you to connect with your customers. But did you know that it can help you manage your business? One of the features we’d like to highlight is the business hours function, which lets you quickly and easily customize your phone’s business hours to fit the needs of your business.

b-hive offers you complete flexibility in configuring your business hours. Schedules can be set based on the day of the week, time, and even date, and you have full control over how calls are handled before, during, and after the schedules are in effect. You can have as many schedules and modifications as you want (or need), and they can be configured on-the-fly or in advance. Best of all, business hours can be applied to any service that accepts incoming calls, such as auto attendant, ring groups, and contact center queues, so you don’t have to worry about configuring the same schedule on multiple services.

Here are three examples of how business hours can be set and modified to fit the needs of your business.

1. Holiday closures. Most businesses close for holidays such as Christmas and Thanksgiving. With b-hive, you can modify your business hours to reflect the closure and program where calls will be routed, such as to a voicemail or an off-network number. You can even set a custom greeting to let your customers know about the closure and when they can expect to have their call returned.
2. Modified hours. Sometimes you need — or want — your business to close early. Maybe you have an all-staff meeting or a holiday party planned for the afternoon; whatever the reason, you can modify your business hours to accommodate your calls while your business is closed. You can still configure your call destinations and set a custom greeting to keep your customers in the loop, and when those hours have passed, everything will default back to normal.
3. Schedule an agent or employee. Things change, and sometimes you need to modify a specific employee’s business hours. Let’s say your customer service lead needs to change their hours to 7 to 4, but your business hours are from 8 to 5. You can create a specific schedule for that employee, so their calls go to them from 7 to 4 without affecting your regular business hours.

We believe in meaningful connections, and a crucial part of this is ensuring our customers can customize our technology to fit their needs and those of their customers. Even something as simple as setting and modifying your business hours can greatly impact your ability to connect with customers and keep them informed, so we’ve made it easier than ever for you.