How to set up call forwarding on a business line when nobody answers

You dial a short code from your business phone and unanswered calls start going somewhere else. It takes about two minutes, it does not change the number your customers dial, and you can undo it with another code.

The thing most people get wrong is forwarding everything instead of only the calls nobody picks up. Those are different settings and only one of them is what you want.

Conditional versus unconditional

Unconditional forwarding sends every call somewhere else immediately. Your phone never rings. This is right when you are away for a fortnight and wrong the rest of the time.

Conditional forwarding only fires when something has already gone wrong — nobody answered, the line was busy, or the phone had no signal. Your phone rings normally and you answer normally. The forwarding only catches what would otherwise have been missed.

Conditional is what a working business wants. It is invisible when things are fine and it only exists for the calls you were going to lose anyway.

The codes

Dial these from the business phone itself, not from another handset. Replace the digits in brackets with the number you want calls sent to, with no spaces or dashes.

• No answer: *61*[number]# — fires when the phone rings out
• Busy: *67*[number]# — fires when you are already on a call
• Unreachable: *62*[number]# — fires when the phone is off or has no signal

Dial each one separately. You should hear a short confirmation tone or see a brief on-screen message after each. Set all three — a setup that only catches no-answer will still drop calls when you are already on the phone, which is exactly when you are busiest.

Checking it worked

Do not assume. Take a second phone, ring your business line, and let it ring all the way out without touching it. It should land wherever you sent it. If it goes to your normal voicemail instead, the code did not take.

Test the busy rule too, which people almost always skip: call your business line from one phone, answer it, then call again from a third. That second call should forward.

When the codes will not work

There are two common setups where dialling star codes does nothing at all, and it is worth identifying yours before you spend twenty minutes wondering why.

Desk phones and office systems

If your phones came from a provider who set up the system — a hosted phone system, a VoIP provider, anything with an admin portal — forwarding is a setting in that portal, not a code you dial. Log in and look for call handling, call routing, or forwarding rules. The concept is identical: forward on no answer, forward on busy.

Do not guess at these settings. It is genuinely easy to route your main line somewhere unintended and not notice for a day, which is a much more expensive mistake than the one you are trying to fix.

You already have an answering service

If unanswered calls currently go to a service, adding forwarding creates a fight over who gets the call first. Only one thing can catch it.

Decide the order deliberately. Usually the answering service should stay first for calls during its covered hours, with the forwarding catching what falls outside that. Getting this wrong is worse than doing nothing, because you end up paying for a service that no longer receives the calls.

Choosing where the calls go

The destination matters more than the setup. Forwarding to a second phone that also does not get answered has moved the problem, not solved it.

• Another person who reliably answers — the best option if you have one
• A number that records a message and then alerts you immediately, so the caller gets something and you find out in minutes rather than hours
• Your own mobile, if the business line is a landline and you are usually contactable — but be honest about whether you actually are

What you are trying to avoid is a second voicemail box. If the destination is somewhere nobody looks quickly, you have built a slightly longer path to the same outcome.

A few things worth knowing

• Your published number does not change. Conditional forwarding leaves it exactly as it is, and customers dial what they always dialled — only the calls nobody picks up reach us.
• Forwarded calls may be billed as outbound minutes on some plans. Worth a look at your bill if you are on a tight allowance.
• The forwarding lives on the line, not the handset. Replacing the phone does not remove it, and neither does turning it off.
• Ring time before forwarding is usually a fixed number of seconds set by the carrier. Some let you change it, most do not.

If you would rather not do this yourself

Second Shift sets this up with clients on a short call, gives them a number to forward to that catches every missed call, and gets a reply back out to the caller within minutes. The codes above are the same ones we would walk you through — there is nothing proprietary about them, and if reading this is enough to fix it yourself then it has done its job.