Forwarding your school number: after-hours vs always

You keep your existing school number — the one on your website, your Google profile, your signs. Call forwarding decides when calls to it reach the Receptionist. There are two sane configurations, and most schools use the first.

1. 1

   Option A — Conditional forwarding (recommended)

   Calls ring your normal phone first. Only when nobody answers, the line is busy, or the phone is off does the call roll over to the Receptionist. Your staff keeps the day shift; nothing that would have been missed gets missed. This is the 'after-hours and overflow' setup.

2. 2

   Option B — Forward everything

   Every call goes straight to the Receptionist, 24/7. Choose this if nobody at the school answers the phone reliably anyway, or during a season when you're on the flight line all day. You can switch back and forth — it's a carrier setting, not a commitment.

3. 3

   Set it up with your carrier

   Conditional forwarding is a feature of your phone carrier, set with star codes from the school's phone or from your carrier's app or account page. The codes differ by carrier — Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and landline/VoIP providers each have their own — so we set this up together on your onboarding call.

4. 4

   After-hours schedules

   If your carrier or VoIP provider supports schedules, forwarding can follow your opening hours — after-hours calls go to the Receptionist, business-hours calls ring the desk first. VoIP providers (the kind most modern schools have) usually support this in their web portal; cell carriers usually don't.

5. 5

   Test both directions

   Call your school number and answer it — normal behavior, nothing forwarded. Then call and don't answer: within a few rings the Receptionist should pick up. If either side misbehaves, call us — it's almost always a carrier code entered with the wrong ring count.

6. 6

   Your caller ID stays honest

   Callers see your school's number, always. Forwarding is invisible to them — as far as a prospect knows, your school simply answers its phone now, every time.