Corey McCraw is a staff writer covering VoIP and Unified Communications. Corey has over a decade of experience in marketing, tech writing, and corporate communications and has even penned content for the former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative.
Call forwarding is a business phone feature that lets you redirect incoming calls to another number. It enhances call management capabilities by routing calls to your desk phone, mobile device, or landline—ensuring all incoming calls are attended. This feature also helps your business establish a local presence by using it to redirect calls to numbers with local area codes. Keep reading to learn what call forwarding is, its top benefits, and the best providers.
How Call Forwarding Works
Originally, call forwarding worked by simply routing an inbound call to another phone number without the caller even knowing. Today, phone technology allows you to implement advanced forwarding rules and auto-attendants to optimize the calling experience and improve efficiency.
How your phone forwards calls will depend on your individual service. As a result, you will need to contact your phone service provider and follow their guidelines to start re-routing your mobile or landline calls. It’s worth noting that full-featured business phone system providers will provide more advanced call routing control and customization than more basic services.
For example, some providers only allow users to redirect inbound calls to an assigned number, while others enable you to redirect inbound calls using auto-attendants to route calls intelligently to the right destination.
We’ve explained below how to forward calls using a business phone service, RingCentral, vs a virtual phone service, Grasshopper:
How To Forward Calls Using RingCentral
RingCentral’s comprehensive list of voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) features includes advanced call handling, which allows for complete flexibility with your inbound calls. You can route incoming calls to any of your devices, regardless of the extension or location. Another option is to have numbers ring sequentially or simultaneously, ensuring a balance between availability and responsiveness.
Set up your own call redirect rules based on criteria such as time of day, day of the week, or caller ID. For example, you could establish rules to ring you or a manager’s number when a high-profile client calls. On the weekends, you could forward calls to your customer support team or voicemail box, depending on the caller ID.
How To Forward Calls Using Grasshopper
Use Grasshopper’s services to forward incoming calls to specific prerecorded greetings, voicemails, or specific extensions. Grasshopper is intended for small teams and solopreneurs working primarily from a mobile network who want to create custom rules to handle calls. For example, it allows you to build a schedule based on the time of day and which phone you’ll have access to.
Additionally, Grasshopper enables you to choose how to handle incoming and unanswered calls, sending them to voicemail or even redirecting them to a backup landline number.
Top 3 Benefits of Call Forwarding
Call forwarding is a beneficial call management feature for businesses of all sizes. It allows your employees to stay reachable and provides you the ability to work across various locations. Here are the other benefits of using call forwarding:
Avoid Getting Missed Calls
Missing calls is a threat to businesses—leading to missed sales opportunities or orders. Enabling call forwarding is an excellent way to ensure that people calling your business always have a way to reach you. Whether your office is closed, employees are out of the office, or a line is busy, incoming calls are automatically sent a ready device or alternative numbers.
Provide Better Customer Service
The speed of your response contributes to your overall customer satisfaction rates. With this functionality activated, incoming calls are redirected to various numbers and devices, or the call can be forwarded to another employee with the right knowledge to assist the customer. This process ensures all calls are attended to, and customers are served to their fullest expectations.
Improve Work Productivity
Call forwarding allows you to establish rules and filter calls by schedule, call type, and origin. Your business as a whole will benefit from this feature since someone is always available to take a client’s call. You can set up a phone tree with inbound calls directed to an employee’s landline or mobile phone. If you’re managing a remote workforce, call forwarding allows them to travel where they need to go, since their calls will always be routed to them.
Providers With Call Forwarding Feature
Call forwarding is a basic call management feature offered by most business phone providers. However, each service differs in pricing and call handling functionalities. Here are the top small business call forwarding providers to consider:
RingCentral is a popular cloud-based platform for managing communications across various channels, such as text, voice, video conferencing, voicemail, and fax. It comes with a call forwarding feature that allows you to set up your extension’s call forwarding settings. Users have the option to choose where they want calls to be forwarded, whether through desktop, mobile app, desk phone, or third-party numbers. Fees start at $14.99 per user, per month.
Grasshopper is a virtual phone system that allows you to connect your existing phone line to its platform. Its call forwarding feature enables users to redirect any incoming call directly to their home landline, voicemail, or a co-worker’s Apple or Android phone. The entry-level plan costs $29 per user, per month, with one free phone number, three extensions, and robust call management capabilities.
Nextiva is a business phone platform that offers powerful communication tools for growing businesses. It offers multiple call forwarding options that can be applied to users, auto-attendants, call groups, and call centers. Nextiva also has its own team collaboration tool, called CoSpace, that enables you to manage business communication and stay in sync with your team. Pricing starts at $30.95 per user, per month.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the difference between call forwarding & call transfer?
Call forwarding happens when you redirect calls to another number before they get answered. Call transfer, on the other hand, is the process of transferring an ongoing conversation from one party to another.
How many numbers can I use for call forwarding?
The numbers that you can use for call forwarding depend on your provider. For example, RingCentral lets you forward calls to up to 10 numbers, while Grasshopper lets you forward to a maximum of 15 numbers.
What is location-based call forwarding?
Location-based call forwarding occurs when a business provides a single number to customers regardless of their location. When the customer contacts the business phone number, the call is directed to the nearest call center based on the caller’s location. If you’re interested in learning more about advanced call forwarding features, check out our article about remote call forwarding, an excellent feature for businesses with multiple locations.
Bottom Line
Call forwarding is an essential call management feature that ensures a great customer experience and seamless workflows. It adds efficiency to your communication system by reducing the number of missed calls and voicemails and making sure customer calls are answered promptly. While most business phone providers offer call forwarding functionality, choose one with features that match your small business needs.
