Computer monitor showing Dialpad's call forwarding user interface

Call forwarding service

Improve your business’s availability by forwarding business calls to colleagues, different departments, or even your mobile phone. With Dialpad's AI-powered collaboration platform, you can automatically forward incoming calls to a maximum of five external phone numbers—and never miss a call again. Try it now with a free trial. It takes just a few minutes to sign up and you'll be set up with a virtual phone number!

Missed calls can be annoying—for both the caller and receiver. But it can be even more annoying if you’re a customer who’s been on hold for ages and then ends up not getting your call answered or being connected to the wrong person or department.

And don’t get us started on the bad hold music.

Every missed call to your business phone number could be a missed opportunity for a customer to connect with you—and that missed opportunity could mean lost revenue when the caller decides to try another business instead of yours.

So how can you save that situation? With a call forwarding service, of course.

What is a call forwarding service and how does it work?

Call forwarding is just a call management feature that lets you route unanswered calls to another number. (It's kind of like an automatic call transfer.) If you’re on vacation, you can set up automatic rerouting so any calls to your number go to someone else.

Good VoIP phone services and communications platforms should come with a call forwarding service included. Here's how it looks in Dialpad:

Screenshot of adding a call forwarding number from Dialpad’s online dashboard.

Get more than just call forwarding with Dialpad

Before, a “missed call” would go to voicemail, which could lead to a ping pong scenario where both parties were constantly reaching voicemail instead of the other person. With Dialpad's call forwarding service, you'll never have to put your customers through that again. But more than that, you're getting a robust communications platform, not just a phone system with a call forwarding feature. Here are just a few examples of what Dialpad comes with.

Screenshot of adding a call forwarding number from Dialpad’s online dashboard

Easy setup

Add call forwarding numbers in just a few clicks to forward any business call that you receive at your Dialpad number. You can direct it to a maximum of five external telephone numbers, landline numbers, or mobile phone numbers. Like everything else in Dialpad, it's easy to do on your own—no IT help needed.

Screenshot of making a phone call from Dialpad's desktop app

Gives small business a big presence

Let’s say you're located in California but you do lots of business in other states. Why not use a virtual phone number with a local area code to receive forwarded calls and make your business look more "local?"

Setting business hours for a company from Dialpad's dashboard

Better after-hours coverage

There's always a time of day when employees need to stop working and don’t want to be answering calls. Or, you might have a team that doesn’t work the usual 9-to-5 (for example, repairs or tech support). With Dialpad, you can set it up so that calls are forwarded to any rotating staff on duty outside your normal business hours.

Screenshot of Dialpad transcribing voicemail messages in real time

Voicemail forwarding

That's right, you can forward voicemail messages to other people too. And with Dialpad's visual voicemail feature, you can read your voicemails instead of having to listen to them.

Screenshot of Dialpad's call routing options

Custom call routing

With Dialpad, you can make sure customers get to speak to a human as quickly as possible with call routing options tailored to how your teams are set up. For example, you can use an auto attendant or IVR (Interactive Voice Response) to deflect calls and allow callers to find answers on their own without needing to be forwarded to someone.

Screenshot of Dialpad's built-in call analytics dashboard

Built-in call metrics

For busy contact centers and call centers, Dialpad comes with built-in analytics to help supervisors assess the performance of their routing and call forwarding system. Track metrics like missed calls, abandoned calls, call duration, and more.

Screenshot of Dialpad's built-in heat map analytics feature showing call volume patterns

Super flexible

Spikes in inbound calls can happen for a number of reasons, from seasonal fluctuations to other events entirely out of your control. If you can see when these volume spikes happen, you can plan your inbound call or call forwarding strategy more effectively. For example, Dialpad has a call volume heat map that shows when you're receiving the most calls.

Screenshot of Dialpad Ai transcribing a phone call in real time

Call recording

Record any call or meeting with a simple click. Dialpad's built-in artificial intelligence technology, Dialpad Ai, also provides transcriptions—in real time!

A video conference happening in Dialpad's desktop and mobile app.

Desktop and mobile app

Dialpad's app works across iOS, Android, PC, and Mac. Make outbound calls, receive calls, send SMS messages, start video meetings, and more—all in one app.

How to set up call forwarding with Dialpad

Let’s look at some of those features in detail to see how easy it can be to set up a call forwarding service:

  1. If you have a Dialpad number, you can set it up to forward calls to a maximum of five external call forwarding numbers. (You can forward to a mobile phone, a landline number if you have poor mobile coverage, a colleague, or even another team.)

  2. You can toggle between the assigned numbers to choose which ones will receive forwarded calls. For example, you could set a home landline number as the primary number for forwarding if you’re working remotely. It’s also easy to add new phone numbers if your forwarding choices change later.

  3. You can also choose what shows up on the caller ID for the person who ends up receiving the call—the original caller's number or the Dialpad number that received this call and is forwarding it.

Want to try an easy-to-use call forwarding service?

Sign up for a 14-day free trial to get started with a virtual phone number to try it now or, take a self-guided interactive tour to play with Dialpad's app first!