Understanding Zoom Contact Center contact callable hours

The contact callable hours feature for outbound dialers ensures that outbound dialer calls are only placed at the right time. It respects both the campaign’s schedule and each contact’s settings, so calls never occur too early, too late, or outside business hours.

Requirements for Zoom Contact Center contact callable hours

Account owner or admin privileges; or relevant role/privilege

Zoom Contact Center license with Premium or Elite package

Voice queue created with outbound calling enabled

How to configure the contact callable hours

Create an outbound preview, progressive, or agentless dialer.

Under Campaign settings, set the contact callable hours based on the following:

Campaign schedule (default hours)

If Set contact callable hours based on is set to None (default), then only the campaign schedule applies.

Every campaign has a default dialing window, defined by the campaign schedule.

This includes business hours, time zone, and closure days.

Calls are made if the current time is within both:

the campaign’s business hours; and
the contact’s callable window

Time zone-based hours

If Set contact callable hours based on is set to Time zone, the system uses the contact’s time zone.

Contacts may have their own time zone field.

Calls are made only during 9AM to 5PM local time for the contact, and still must fall within the campaign’s business hours.

Area code-based hours

If Set contact callable hours based on is set to Area code, the system uses the highest-priority phone number’s area code to determine time zone.

All numbers for the contact are treated as being in that same time zone.

Calls occur only during 9 AM to 5 PM in that derived time zone, and still must fall within the campaign’s business hours.

How dialing behavior works

A contact is dialed only if the current time fits within their callable window.

If the contact is outside their callable window, they are skipped, and this counts as a call attempt.

Skipped contacts are returned to the dialing queue for the next 9:00 AM in their local time zone. See Skipped contacts examples.

While this structure helps avoid calls at inappropriate times, it doesn’t prevent repeated skips when time windows don't overlap. See Always skipped examples.

Example scenarios

Dialed contacts

Scenario	Current Time (Contact Local)	Campaign Window (ET)	Contact Window (Local)	Campaign Window (ET)
Campaign Schedule Only	10:30 AM ET	9 AM – 6 PM ET	N/A (None set)	Within campaign window, no contact-specific restriction
Contact-Specific (Time Zone)	2 PM PT (5 PM ET)	9 AM – 8 PM ET	9 AM – 5 PM PT	Within both campaign hours and contact’s local window
Contact-Specific (Area Code)	4 PM CT	8 AM – 6 PM CT	9 AM – 5 PM CT	Within both campaign hours and contact’s area code-based window

Skipped contacts

Scenario	Current Time (Contact Local)	Campaign Window (ET)	Contact Window (Local)	Reason skipped	Next call attempt
Too Early (Time Zone)	7:30 AM PT (10:30 AM ET)	8 AM – 8 PM ET	9 AM – 5 PM PT	Contact local hours have not started yet	9 AM PT, Same Day
Too Late (Area Code)	7 PM ET	8 AM – 8 PM ET	9 AM – 5 PM ET	Contact local hours already ended	9 AM ET, Next Day
Outside Campaign Schedule	6 PM PT (9 PM ET)	9 AM – 5 PM ET	9 AM – 5 PM PT	Campaign schedule already closed for the day	9 AM PT, Next Day
Closure Day	Sunday, 2 PM Local	Closed (all day)	9 AM – 5 PM Local	Campaign is closed for the day	9 AM Local, Next available Day

Always skipped

Scenario	Current Time (Contact Local)	Campaign Window (ET)	Contact Window (Local)	Reason always skipped
Campaign Too Narrow / Misaligned	10 AM PT	8 AM – 10 AM ET	9 AM – 5 PM PT	No overlap (9 AM PT = 12 PM ET, after campaign closes)
Contact Local Hours Later Than Campaign Close	9 AM PT	9 AM – 11 AM ET	9 AM – 5 PM PT	No overlap (contact callable 12 PM–8 PM ET, campaign ends 11 AM ET)
Misconfigured Time Zone / Area Code	9 AM Beijing (CST, UTC+8)	9 AM – 5 PM ET	9 AM – 5 PM CST (China)	No overlap (9 AM CST = 9 PM ET, contact callable 9 PM–5 AM ET)