Use Case

We use targeting rules to control when buttons and channels are shown or hidden on the website based on operating hours and/or agent availability. At scale, this becomes difficult to manage because separate rules are required for different channels and variations such as weekday and weekend opening hours.

Currently, this results in managing hundreds of targeting rules, creating significant manual overhead. This becomes particularly challenging when managing exceptions such as bank holidays, when individual rules need to be identified, reviewed and updated manually.

There is also a challenge with timezone management. Targeting rules currently operate based on the end user's browser/local time. For global operations, we need the ability to configure a targeting rule against a specific timezone, regardless of where the end user accessing the website is located.

For example, if a channel operates from 09:00–17:00 UK time, the targeting rule should follow the configured UK timezone and automatically account for daylight saving changes, rather than interpreting 09:00–17:00 based on the website visitor's local browser time.

Desired Outcome

Targeting rules should provide greater flexibility and centralised management through three key capabilities:

Multiple channels per targeting rule:

Allow multiple channels to sit under the same targeting rule. Channels with the same operating requirements could then be managed centrally rather than requiring duplicate rules for each channel.

1. Holiday and exception management

Introduce a Holiday/Exception Dates feature, similar to the functionality available for queues. Administrators should be able to add specific dates and define what should happen on those dates, for example:

Apply different operating hours
Hide the channel/button completely
Apply alternative availability for a specific date

1. Configurable timezone per targeting rule

Allow administrators to select the timezone that a targeting rule should operate against, rather than relying on the end user's browser timezone. Operating hours and exception dates should then be evaluated against the configured timezone, including automatic handling of daylight saving time.

Business Outcome

These improvements would significantly reduce the number of targeting rules required and make large-scale, multi-region operations much easier to manage. They would reduce manual administration, simplify bank holiday and exception management, provide consistent operating hours regardless of the customer's location, and reduce the risk of channels being incorrectly available or unavailable.