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This is for contact centers where one group looks after the queues while the floor is staffed, and another takes over in the evening, overnight and on weekends. When you're done, the day team is only paged during the hours you set, and the night team is only paged outside them. Both work on every plan.

What you'll set up

• A Day team rotation, on duty during business hours only.
• A Night team rotation, on duty outside business hours only, using exactly the same hours and covering the same queues.
• Your alert rules set to page Whoever covers the queue, so each one reaches whichever team is on duty.

Steps

1. Create the day team. Go to On-call → Rotations and choose New rotation. Fill in the Name, Timezone, First handover, Handover and people as usual. See Rotations. Under What this rotation is paged about, choose Every queue, or Choose queues and tick the ones the two teams share.
2. Set the day team's hours. Under When this rotation is on duty, choose Business hours only. The grid asks for Your business hours, in the rotation's timezone. Tick each day you're open and set the times, such as 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. An unticked day reads Not on duty. Check the week drawn under When this rotation's phone rings, then choose Save.
3. Create the night team the same way, with the same Timezone and the same queues. Under When this rotation is on duty, choose Outside business hours only. Enter exactly the same business hours as the day team. You're still entering the hours you're open; the night team is paged the rest of the time. Unticked days now read On duty all day, so the night team has weekends. Save.
4. Let your rules find the team on duty. In Rules, create or edit a rule and leave Pages set to Whoever covers the queue, the default. When the rule fires, Standby pages the rotation that covers the queue and is on duty at that moment. One rule is all you need. See Alert rules.
5. Check the cards. Open each rotation on On-call → Rotations. The On duty: lines should be opposites of each other, and both should list the same rules.

Try it safely first

1. Go to Rules → Simulate. Pick the queue and a reading that would set off the rule. Choose At a particular time, such as a Tuesday at 2 PM, and choose Show what would happen. It should say Handled by Day team, with its steps.
2. Run it again for 2 AM, and again for a Saturday. It should say Handled by Night team.

Nothing is sent while you simulate. The simulator only shows steps for live rules, though. While a rule is in its shadow week, use the preview under Audit → Practice drill instead: choose the rule and a time, and it shows who would be paged, without booking anything. Once the rule is live, a practice drill booked in each team's hours proves the real chain.

Variations

• The day team works Saturdays too. Tick Saturday in both grids, with the same hours.
• A late shift that ends after midnight. A closing time earlier than the opening time is allowed. The grid notes that it runs into the next day.
• Nobody overnight. Skip the night team. Out of hours, the rule's incident still opens, marked that nobody was paged, so it's waiting in the morning.
• One backup for both (Business). Point both rotations at the same backup under If nobody answers. See Two people take turns, and a third backs them up.

A calendar link shows each person's whole shift, not just their on-duty hours. See Put on-call shifts on everyone's calendar.

Related guides

• Rotations, time off and cover
• Take after-hours calls
• The billing team gets billing calls; everyone else gets the rest

Next: The billing team gets billing calls; everyone else gets the rest