Getting calls to your agent

Every agent with an active subscription has a phone number of its own, in the agent's Settings tab. The number belongs to the agent, not to your account, so a call to one agent's number never reaches another.

There are two ways to send calls to it, and you can use both.

Forwarding your existing number is the usual approach. Your customers keep dialling the number they know, and nothing on your website or your business cards has to change.

Handing the Dialup number out directly suits a campaign, where you want to know exactly which calls it produced, or one service you'd like handled automatically while your own line stays for existing customers. It means new material to print, but a clean answer to "which calls did the agent take?"

Running both at once means two agents, each with its own number. See running more than one agent.

Which kind of forwarding

Forwarding is set up with your mobile operator, not in Dialup, and works the same on business numbers as on personal ones. There are four kinds, they're independent, and most people should have several on at once.

Starting out, set "when no answer" and "when busy". You still take every call you can, the agent catches the ones you'd otherwise lose, and you build up a week of real transcripts before trusting it with more. Add when unreachable too; it costs nothing and covers the flat battery.

All calls is right when the Dialup number is effectively the main line: a campaign number, or a business where nobody is meant to answer live.

How long your phone rings before a no-answer forward kicks in is set by your operator, not by Dialup.

Setting it up

Codes differ by operator, and each one has to carry your Dialup number. The forwarding tool in your Dialup account lists every operator with your number already filled in, ready to copy.

Two things it can't do for you. If your company routes calls through a virtual exchange, forwarding usually has to be configured there rather than on the handset, so whoever administers it needs to point it at your Dialup number. And forwarded calls may be charged by your operator depending on your plan, which is worth checking before you forward high volumes.

Checking it worked

Ring your business number from a different phone, not from the forwarded phone itself, which behaves differently. For "when no answer", let it ring right through without touching it. For "when busy", be on another call at the time. The call should appear in the agent's Conversations tab within a few seconds of hanging up.

If it rings your own phone instead, work through nobody answered the call.

Turning it off

Forwarding stays on until you cancel it, and cancelling is its own code per operator — the same tool lists those too. Each kind cancels separately, so you can drop "all calls" and keep "when busy" if you want.