Getting to know your VoIP System: One Feature at a Time
Feature 6 – VoIP Call Forwarding
Also called: “call diversion” or “call continuity”.
What is Call Forwarding for VoIP?
Call forwarding lets a user send calls to: another extension, ring group or voicemail. Calls can also be forwarded to a phone not on the system such as a mobile phone.
A user can easily turn call forwarding on and off –or, it can be done automatically.
How does Call Forwarding benefit you?
Call Forwarding for business telephone systems enables callers to quickly get in contact with whomever they need to speak to. Call forwarding is also extremely fast and simple to enable. Once enabled, a user’s extension will be forwarded to a phone number of the staff member’s choosing.
Types of Call Forwarding for Business VoIP Phone Systems
There are three common types: (we’ll go more in-depth with these in additional articles).
- All Calls – Every incoming call will be forwarded to the number, or extension that has been specified.
- No-Answer – Calls will only be forwarded if the user’s phone is not answered –within a predetermined number of rings, or seconds.
- Busy, No Answer – Calls will only be forwarded if the phone is busy on another call. In this case, it is common to have calls go to voicemail.
How do I use Call Forwarding on my cloud based PBX system?
Forwarding a call is as simple as pressing a button and entering the phone number for your calls to be forwarded to. To set up more in depth call forwarding options give us a call at: 212-290-2736, or email us at info@steadfasttelecom.com and we’ll show you how.
Practical Applications of Call Forwarding
- Forward to a cell phone – if a user is expecting an important call, but needs to leave their office, they can quickly enable call forwarding so that their cell phone will ring when a call comes in.
- When a user is on another call – If a user is on a phone call, and a new call comes in, that new call can be automatically forwarded to reception or voicemail.
- Forward calls to a coworker – If a user knows that they will be unable to answer a call, they can easily forward their calls to a coworker. This makes sure that calls get answered and addressed immediately, instead of being sent to voicemail.
Helpful tips:
- Call Forwarding can only send calls to one destination. If a user needs calls to be forwarded to multiple phones, then “Find Me/Follow Me” is the feature they should use. We will be discussing Find Me/Follow Me in our next article.
- How do I know if it’s enabled? – The best way to know is to try it out. For example, if a user’s desk phone is set to forward to their cell phone, then the user should try calling their desk phone from another phone. If forwarding is working, then their cell phone will begin to ring.
Next Week
Thanks for reading! Next week, we’ll discuss Find Me/Follow Me, which offers many more call forwarding options than the simple call forwarding discussed in this article.