This article will give you the short and skinny on how to forward your phones. This is mainly used when you or your employees can't answer your phones or would like to overflow the phone calls to an answering service or call center.
There are two ways to forward your phone calls; either through your own telephone system, or through your phone company's switch.
Note: You are always forwarding your main telephone NUMBER.
If a caller dials another number to your office, such as the number to "line 2", you can still
answer that call, even if your main number is forwarded.
Note: Only one call will get forwarded simultaneously. Additional callers will get a busy signal,
UNLESS you order MULTI-PATH Call Forwarding from your phone company.
1 - Forwarding through your own virtual phone number telephone system
Your phone vendor will program a button on your telephone (most often called the "night" button") to forward calls to the desired destination when the button is activated.
Warning: A power outage could disable this feature.
2 - Forwarding through your phone company's switch
A - Manual CF
You forward the number yourself when you leave for the day. You must have the "Manual Call Forwarding" feature from your phone company.
To activate:
- Pick up your main line & Dial 72# or *72.
- You hear a dial-tone. Now enter the number you want to forward your calls to.
- Once the phone is answered and the line is open for 5 seconds, call forwarding is in effect.
To disable:
- Pick up your main line
- Dial 73# or *73
- You will hear 4 short beeps, indicating call forwarding has been disabled.
B - Fixed CF: No Answer or Busy
Your phone company programs your phone number in their switch to forward calls to the desired destination in the following scenarios:
1. Fixed CF - No Answer: If you don't answer a call within a preset number of rings
2. Fixed CF - Busy: If the line would otherwise ring busy. This would only apply to the last
number in your hunt group, for overflow reasons.
C - Remote CF ("permanent")
Your phone company routes all calls automatically to its destination phone number.
D - Ultra CF
This is a special feature from your phone company that allows you to forward your phones while you are away from your office. This is mostly used for disaster preparedness.
