This beginner’s guide will explain what conditional call forwarding is, how it works, and the benefits for your team from using it.
If you’ve researched business phone solutions, you’ve been seeing terms like “conditional call forwarding” and “automatic call distribution”.
If you’re a bit confused, that’s totally normal. The different types of call forwarding can be tricky, making picking a phone system provider stressful.
We’ll cover everything you need to know about conditional call forwarding:
- What is Conditional Call Forwarding
- What’s the Point of Conditional Call Forwarding
- Benefits of Conditional Call Forwarding
- Frequently Asked Questions
What is conditional call forwarding?
Conditional call forwarding helps you manage incoming calls, even when you can’t immediately answer the phone.
Conditional call forwarding lets you route incoming calls to another line when certain conditions are met:
- If you are busy and on another call
- If you don’t pick up and the call is unanswered
- If you don’t have service and the call is unreachable
With conditional call forwarding, you won’t have to worry about your phone line going dead or hanging up on your incoming caller.
Your call can instead be transferred to another line where an available team member can answer, rather than being sent straight to voicemail. You can customize this functionality further to send calls to voicemail if no agent is available.
What is Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)?
The ACD system is the technology in your phone system that enables conditional call forwarding.
Regardless of if you use a traditional landline phone system, or a VoIP solution, your business phone solution should include ACD capabilities.
ACD helps businesses, call centers, and contact centers better handle high call volumes by automatically receiving incoming calls and routing them to available agents. When no agent is available, conditional call forwarding kicks in and routes your callers to another line or to voicemail.
Conditional call forwarding alternatives
Not every phone has conditional call forwarding capabilities. Many providers often offer only standard, or unconditional call forwarding.
It forwards all calls to a different number, rather than to a different line associated with the same number.
So every incoming call gets routed to another phone number regardless of agent availability. This could force your callers into an endless cycle of being bounced from forwarding number to forwarding number.
If your provider gives you a choice between conditional call forwarding and standard forwarding, we recommend conditional call forwarding.
What’s the point of conditional call forwarding?
Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, how you manage phone calls hugely impacts your client relationships.
You don’t want your callers to experience long hold times, bouncing between numbers, or unanswered calls. This could lead to unsatisfied customers, and the impression of poor customer service.
That‘s why incoming call management is so crucial and starts with forwarding calls effectively.
With conditional call forwarding, you have more forwarding options at your disposal so you can better manage inbound calls. This functionality improves inbound call management, as every call will be routed if you are unavailable at the moment.
Benefits of conditional call forwarding
- A more efficient management of inbound calls: No more manually routing calls, or risking unanswered calls.
- Higher caller satisfaction: Better phone communication management means happier customers.
- A more productive workforce: Your team won’t have to be chained to their desks, while calls are handled effectively.
- Phone tag is eliminated: Avoid constantly missing calls, and instead route callers to another line or voicemail.
- More flexibility: When you use conditional call forwarding with a VoIP solution, you can take calls on the go with mobile phone apps for iPhone or Android.
Conditional call forwarding: FAQ
Simply put, what is conditional call forwarding?
Conditional call forwarding is an inbound call management functionality of business phone systems. It allows you to route calls to another line, rather than a separate phone number or voicemail.
How to forward calls?
Reach out to your business phone provider. They will walk you through their call forwarding configuration process.
How long does it take to set up conditional call forwarding?
Setup takes just a few minutes so you won’t miss many phone calls.
What does conditional call forward active mean?
Call forwarding active simply means that you have set up conditional call forwarding to direct calls when you are busy, unavailable, or unreachable.
How to turn off conditional call forwarding?
If you decide conditional call forwarding doesn’t work for your business, simply reach out to your provider to deactivate the functionality.
Get started with conditional call forwarding
Take advantage of free plans and free trials (like the Brevo Phone 60-day free trial!) to get a feel of the software and decide if they’re a good fit for your business needs.
With the right business phone solution by your side, you can get started effectively routing calls in minutes. Setup conditional call forwarding with Brevo Phone today!
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