Proper Call forwarding is a critical component in the use of our Answering Service. We are only able to process the calls that you successfully forward to our service.  There are several different ways to forward your calls and the instructions for doing so may vary slightly depending on your phone company. If your company has a Telephone System Administrator we would recommend you consult with them to properly configure you forwarding.

Forwarding Options

On Demand or User activated Call Forwarding – This option is used when you want to control when the calls are forwarded to the Answering Service. You can turn it off if you are in the office and would like to take your own calls and turn it on when you leave the office. 

To activate:

Dial * 72   or 72 #  depending on the phone company.

1. Listen for dial tone.
2. Call the telephone number we assigned to your account.
3. You will hear two short tones followed by a normal ring.

When the called number answers Call Forwarding is established. You may want to place a test call from another line afterwards to verify that the line forwarded

To deactivate:

1. Press *73 or 73 #  depending on the phone company.
2. Listen for two beeps and a dial tone.

When forwarding using this method you will hear a short ring anytime someone calls your number. You will not be able to answer any incoming calls as they are automatically transferred to the Answering Service. Remember to deactivate call forwarding if you are in the office and want to answer your own calls. You can still make outgoing calls if you have forwarded your phones. Call forwarding only affects incoming calls. If your line is forwarded and you are on an outbound call, an incoming call will not ring busy.

 

Full Time Call Forwarding – This option is used when you want all of your calls to be directed to the Answering Service 24 hours a day. Once you set this up with your phone company by providing them with the phone number that we assign to your account you do not need to do anything further. All of your calls will be directed to our customer service representatives and handled per your custom instructions.

Delayed Call Forwarding – This option is set up with your phone company. You provide them with the phone number we assigned to your account and calls will be forwarded to the Answering Service after a predetermined number of rings at your office. This allows you to pick up the call when you can or, after a few rings, it is automatically forwarded to the Answering Service. When using this option we recommend setting up with no more than 3 rings before forwarding.  Allowing it more than 3 rings at your office prior to forwarding delays the transfer time to the Answering Service and can frustrate your callers. 

Call Forwarding on a multiple line Phone System -

Most offices have more than one telephone line and combine the line using a phone company feature called Call Hunt.  With this feature, if you have 4 lines and line 1 is busy any incoming calls will roll over to lines 2, 3, and 4.

In order to determine the number that needs to be forwarded you should only consider the telephone number you give out to the public.  In most cases this will be line 1. Keep in mind that when you activate call forwarding on your primary line call hunt will be disabled.  All calls to your primary number will be forwarded; no calls will roll over to the other lines.

Your Answering Service and selected contacts can reach you if you are in the office by dialing the telephone number for line 2, also referred to as a private or back line. If you have more than 1 number that you give out you’ll need to call forward each of those numbers independently.  The exception to this rule is toll free numbers as they are normally piggy backed onto your primary line.