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Configuring business hours & inbound routing

Set up business hours, configure how calls are routed during and after hours, and enable the never-miss-a-call setup with AI fallback.

Before you start

  • At least one phone number must be provisioned (Phone Numbers > Add Number)

  • Your AI agent should be created if you plan to use AI fallback routing (AI Agents > Create Agent)

  • Know your team's operating hours and timezone

Why this matters

Business hours tell Consio when your team is available, and almost everything about inbound routing depends on it. Without it, calls arriving outside your working hours have nowhere to go. With business hours and AI fallback set up, calls that arrive after hours are answered instead of missed.

This article covers three connected features: business hours, inbound call routing, and the recommended never-miss-a-call pattern.

Part 1: Setting up business hours

Business hours is a workspace-level setting that tells Consio when your team is available. Features across the platform adapt based on these hours — most importantly, inbound call routing.

Enable business hours

  1. Go to Settings > General

  2. Find the Business Hours section

  3. Toggle business hours On

  4. Set your workspace timezone

  5. Set your schedule — for each day of the week, set your operating hours (e.g., Monday–Friday, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM)

Settings General page scrolled to show timezone, business hours schedule, and call recording options

Business hours vs. calling hours

This is the most common configuration confusion. They are two different settings:

Business hours

Calling hours

Level

Workspace-wide

Per campaign

Controls

Inbound call routing

Outbound dialing windows

Timezone

Your workspace timezone

Recipient's local timezone

Where to set

Settings > General

Campaign > Configuration

Business hours = when your team is available for INBOUND calls. Calling hours = when your campaigns can make OUTBOUND calls in the recipient's timezone.

Part 2: Configuring inbound call routing

Every phone number has its own routing configuration. Go to Phone Numbers > click on a number to open its detail page.

Phone number detail page showing name, caller ID, SMS settings, and routing configuration

The 5 routing modes

Under When a call comes in, you have five options:

  1. Ring agents — Ring your team members. Configure:

- Agents to ring — select specific agents or teams

- Call distribution — "All at once" (everyone rings simultaneously) or "One by one" (sequential)

- Max wait time — how long to ring before triggering the fallback (recommended: 45–60 seconds)

- Waiting audio — default ringtone or a custom audio file

  1. Route to AI Agent — Send the call directly to your AI voice agent

  1. Forward to number — Forward to an external phone number (mobile, landline, or another service)

  1. Send to voicemail — Play a voicemail greeting and record the caller's message. You can select a pre-recorded greeting from your audio library or use the default message

  1. Open phone menu (IVR) — Present callers with a menu ("Press 1 for sales, press 2 for support"). Each option routes to a different destination — agents, teams, AI, or external numbers

The fallback: "If unanswered"

When you select Ring agents, you also configure what happens when nobody picks up within the max wait time:

  • Route to AI Agent — the recommended option. Your AI handles the call instead of dropping it

  • Forward to number — send to an external number

  • Send to voicemail — take a message

Number detail page scrolled to show routing fallback options for unanswered calls

Route based on business hours

When business hours are enabled, you can set different routing for in-hours vs. after-hours:

  • During business hours → Ring agents (with AI fallback if unanswered)

  • After hours → Route directly to AI Agent

This means every call gets answered, 24/7 — your team during the day, your AI at night and on weekends.

Part 3: The never-miss-a-call setup

This is the recommended pattern, based on how the most successful Consio accounts are configured:

During business hours

  1. When a call comes in → Ring agents

  2. Agents to ring → your team (or specific team)

  3. Call distribution → All at once (maximizes fast pickup)

  4. Max wait time → 45–60 seconds

  5. If unanswered → Route to AI Agent

After business hours

  1. When a call comes in → Route to AI Agent

Why this works

  • During the day, customers reach a human first — the preferred experience for most callers

  • If your team is busy or away from their desks, the AI picks up after 45–60 seconds instead of dropping the call

  • After hours, the AI answers immediately — no missed calls, no voicemail purgatory

  • The AI can handle FAQs, look up orders, and send SMS links. If the caller needs a human, the AI lets them know your team will follow up during business hours

The result

Accounts using this pattern see:

  • Every call has somewhere to go — a human during business hours, the AI outside them, instead of voicemail

  • Higher customer satisfaction — no more "please hold" or "leave a message after the tone"

Teams and multi-number routing

If you have multiple teams (sales, support) and multiple phone numbers:

  • Assign different teams to different numbers

  • Set up IVR on your main number to route callers to the right team

  • Each team can have its own fallback (AI, voicemail, or forward)

Example multi-number setup:

Number

During hours

After hours

Main line

IVR menu → Sales or Support

AI Agent

Sales direct

Ring sales team → AI fallback

AI Agent

Support direct

Ring support team → AI fallback

AI Agent

Audio library

Upload voicemail greetings, hold music, and IVR prompts once and reuse them across numbers and campaigns:

  1. Go to Settings > Audio Library

  2. Upload MP3 files or record directly

  3. When configuring voicemail or IVR, select from your library

Troubleshooting

Calls going to voicemail during business hours: Check that business hours are enabled and the schedule matches your actual operating hours. Also verify that agents are logged in and available in the platform.

Missed calls showing on after-hours calls: If business hours are linked to the wrong number, after-hours calls may count against your SLA. Verify the routing on each number individually.

AI agent not picking up as fallback: Confirm that you have an AI agent created and that "Route to AI Agent" is selected as the "If unanswered" option on the number detail page.

How to verify it worked

After configuring business hours and routing:

  1. Check that the business hours toggle shows On in Settings > General

  2. During business hours, call your number — it should ring your team. If nobody answers, it should fall back to your configured option (AI, voicemail, or forward)

  3. After business hours, call your number — it should route directly to your after-hours destination (usually AI agent)

Related articles

  • Setting up your AI Voice Agent — creating the AI agent for your fallback

  • Inbound call routing: 5 modes explained — detailed breakdown of each routing option

  • Calling hours vs. business hours — the most common configuration confusion

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