Call forwarding: A business guide on how to forward calls

It’s easy to overlook call forwarding nowadays, but it really is one of the most important tools in your phone management quiver. It is a flexible, powerful tool that can help you reap benefits as a business owner looking for any edge.

So let’s take a look at what it is and how to forward calls.

What is call forwarding?

Call forwarding allows you to redirect incoming calls to another number or even multiple numbers. It’s typically used in specific situations, like when someone is unavailable or it’s after hours. However, some VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) providers, like Ooma, also allow special types of call forwarding, like forwarding calls when there’s a device outage.

Types of call forwarding

• Unconditional forwarding (all calls are automatically forwarded).
• Busy / no answer forwarding (if a call is busy, it’ll be forwarded).
• Selective forwarding (depends on time of day or Caller ID).
• Call forwarding during device outages (if your device is down, the call is forwarded).

What are the benefits of call forwarding?

There are a number of useful ways to take advantage of call forwarding. The most common is when it’s after hours. Instead of having customers call and fill up your voicemail, you can simply forward all your calls to another number. This way, customers can always reach someone.

Another use case is to maximize efficiency and, therefore, sales. If you have sales people who are out of office or aren’t available for whatever reason, they can simply activate call forwarding and have someone pick up the slack. This keeps your operations running smoothly because all those inbound calls are being routed to available sales people.

This works similarly for customer service teams. If customers have problems and need to call, the last thing you want is for them to have to leave a voicemail. They’re frustrated and want help, and they can’t get it, that frustration only grows. Having these calls forwarded to someone else to take care of them is far more helpful and shows that your business cares.

Additionally, if you’re traveling and can’t answer your business phone, you can use call forwarding to receive calls on another phone number in the interim. This means your business will seamlessly continue to operate normally and you won’t miss out on any important client calls. This is especially great for lawyers, real estate agents, travel agents and other professions that might need to travel for work.

Arguably one of the most important use cases is call forwarding during device outages. If there’s a storm that knocks out power, taking out your phones, you don’t want to leave customers or clients hanging. The Ooma Office call forwarding feature takes care of this, automatically forwarding calls to another number when it senses that devices are offline.

These are just a few of the ways call forwarding can help your business thrive, and there are plenty of other call forwarding use cases that can help your business.

How to forward calls

Setting up call forwarding is super easy with Ooma Office. There are two ways to do it, but we’ll start with the simple way first.

How to turn on call forwarding (for the first time)

• Pick up the phone and call *72.
• Wait for the prompt.
• Enter the phone number you want calls forwarded to.
• Press #.
• The system will confirm the number.
• You’re done!

How to turn off call forwarding

• Pick up the phone and call *73.
• You will hear a message confirming that call forwarding is disabled.

How to toggle call forwarding on/off

• Pick up the phone and call *74.
• You will hear a message confirming that call forwarding is either enabled or disabled.

Note: If you’re setting up call forwarding for the first time or want to change the number you’re forwarding to, use *72. If you have call forwarding set up already, *74 is an even simpler way to get started.

How to turn on call forwarding via the End User Portal

As an administrator, you can also use the web portal or desktop app to enable call forwarding. Here’s how you do it.

• Go to Settings.
• Click Users.
• Choose the user you want to enable call forwarding for.
• Click the Gear icon.
• Select Call Handling.
• Next to “When a call comes in” choose “forward it immediately.”
• Choose where to forward the call to: Voicemail, Another Extension, Another Voicemail or Forwarding Number.
• Enter your forwarding number and choose whether to show the original phone number or company phone number in Caller ID.

How to enable call forwarding during device outages

Enabling call forwarding during device outages will require you to head over to the Ooma Office web portal.

• Go to Settings.
• Choose Users.
• Select your User.
• Click the Gear icon.
• Select Call Handling.
• Tick the box next to “When all devices are offline, send calls to Forwarding number.”
• Enter your forwarding number.

Once your call forwarding preferences are in place, managing them is simple and can be adjusted anytime.

Call forward like a pro

Now that you know how to use call forwarding, you can take advantage of its ease and utility to make your business more efficient. You no longer have to worry about missing an important client call because you have to travel, or that your business will miss a sale because you’re down a couple people. Or even worse, that customers will be left in the dark during an outage. You’ll be able to handle it all.

Ready to make your business more responsive? Explore the Ooma Office call forwarding feature and over 100 other tools that help you stay connected anytime, anywhere.

Common call forwarding questions

Q: Can I forward calls to my mobile phone?

A: Yes! You can forward calls to any phone of your choice.

Q: What happens if my internet goes down?

A: With call forwarding during device outages, your call will automatically forward to your forwarding number in case the internet goes down.