What's the difference between transferring a call and call forwarding?
- When you answer a call and you need to pass the caller to another person, you transfer the call by pressing the flash button and dialing the other extension.
- But when you want your own phone to ring somewhere else, then you enable call forwarding so all your callers will be routed to another extension or to your cell phone.
Now that you know the difference, below we'll go into detail on each...
Intructions to Transfer a Caller
You can transfer a caller to another inside extension or to someone's voicemail.
Transferring to a Person
You can announce the party or you can just hang up and the parties will be connected when the other extension is answered.
Transferring to a Mailbox
The system knows if you are transferring to an extension or to a mailbox because extensions are only two digits (10, 11, 12, etc.) Voice mailboxes are three digits (301 thru 399). Yes, there are 99 voice mailboxes.
The caller will not miss the beginning of the personal voicemail greeting because the system will not play it prematurely. The greeting starts to play to the caller only when you hang up after dialing the other extension.
Transferring to an Announcement
If you have announcement messages and you routinely have the situation where you answer live, but need to transfer the caller to one of your prerecorded announcements, then record those announcements in broadcast-only mailboxes.
Then you can transfer callers to any specific message. You do that the same as transferring to any mailbox, as explained above. Broadcast-only mailboxes will play the greeting, but will not take a message.
Music On Hold
When you transfer a caller to another extension, the caller will hear silence while the other phone is ringing. If you have a music source connected to the VoicePro, they will hear that Music-On-Hold.
How To Transfer A Caller
- Announced Transfer
- While talking on an outside line, press Flash.
- Dial a station extension number.
- When the called party answers, announce the call and hang up.
- Unannounced Transfer
- While talking on an outside line, press Flash.
- Dial a station extension number.
- When you hear the ring-through, just hang up.
- Transfer to a Mailbox
- While talking on an outside line, press Flash.
- Dial mailbox number. You will not hear anything. Just hang up.
- Other party will hear the entire mailbox greeting once you hang up.
Intructions to Set Remote Call Forwarding
Any physical extension can be programmed to forward callers to a cell phone or to any other telephone number anywhere. The VP206 has physical extensions 10 thru 15 and the VP412 has 10 thru 21.
Note: If someone answers a call and transfers the caller to another extension, it will ring that extension even if it is programmed to forward calls. Only outside callers will follow programmed forwarding.
There are four ways the VoicePro can forward calls. You can specify the best forwarding method that is available to you from your phone company...
- Forward on second line (supervised transfer): This will actually tie up two lines. You can decide if you want to accept the call or send to Voice Mail. The caller will never hear your personal greeting on your cell phone or home answering machine.
- Forward on second line (blind transfer): Same as above except it connects when answered. The caller will hear your OGM if you don't answer.
- Three-way-calling: This method uses only one line but holds the line open so the parties remain connected.
- Centrex or Plexar®: These phone company features allow the VoicePro to forward calls by doing what is called a "Hook-flash, Transfer and Release." This is the best method because it frees up the line to accept more calls even while the forwarded call is connected.
How to Enable/Disable Call Forwarding
Any of your personnel can forward their own extensions. Here is how they do it...
- Dial * # from extension.
- Dial 1 # to start call forwarding setup or
Dial 1 # # to cancel call forwarding. - Dial off-site number then #.
- Press 1 # to forward all calls, or
Press 2 # to forward busy or ring-no-answer calls. - Dial * * to exit programming.
See Additional info below explaining how to specify the forwarding number.
How The Administrator Can Forward Any Extension
Extension forwarding can be done by using Function 16. So it is not necessary to actually do it from that extension's phone. Function 16 will ask which extension you want to program. Then it will ask to enter the number. See Additional info below.
Finally, it will ask if you want to forward all calls or just busy or no answer.
How To Specify The Forwarding Number
- To forward to another extension, enter the two-digit extension. Then #
- To forward to voice mail, enter 3 followed by the extension, then #. i.e. 312 is the voice mail for extension 12.
- To forward to an outside number, enter the entire number followed by the # key. If 1 and area code is required then include that too.
What To Do if Forwarding Does Not Work
You need to be sure you are using the correct method as explained in the "Remote Forwarding Instructions" above on this page.
If you use three-way-calling, make sure you have that service on all your lines.
Test doing a transfer manually without using the VoicePro. You may discover that you don't have the correct service. In that case, set the VoicePro to use the two-line method.
If you still have trouble, it may be possible that the hook-flash time needs to be extended or shortened. The default is 500ms. You can use Function 40 to change this. First try increasing it to 6 (600 ms) and test. If it fails, try setting Function 40 to 7. If that does not work, try shorter flash times by setting Function 40 to 4 or 3. One of those should solve the problem.
