Forward your missed calls, step by step
Keep the number your customers know. Your phone rings first, and the calls you miss go to your answering service instead of voicemail. Pick your phone company below for the exact steps.
- Checked against each company’s own help pages
- Every guide shows how to turn it off
- No sign-up needed to read
Who is your phone company?
It’s the company on your phone bill. Pick it to see the steps for that phone.
Not sure which one you have? A desk phone that plugs into your internet box is a cable phone, even if it looks like a landline. If it’s a cell phone, it’s the company on your phone bill. Still not sure? Our team can check it with you.
Another cell company?
Visible, Mint, Tracfone and other smaller cell companies borrow a bigger network, and some of them can’t forward only the calls you don’t answer. Search your company’s help pages for “call forwarding”, or let our team find the steps for your line.
Using something else?
Most phone apps and office phone systems have the same setting under another name. As the account’s admin:
Open the app or website that runs your business number, as its admin.
Find call forwarding or call handling, and set calls you don’t answer to forward to your answering number, after about 15 to 20 seconds.
Save it. Leave “forward all calls” off, so your phone still rings first.
Can’t find it? Ask their support this:
“I want my business phone to ring first, then send unanswered calls to my answering service. Which setting does that on my plan, does it also cover busy calls, and how do I turn it off?”
Missed calls or every call?
These are separate settings. Most shops start with the first one, so they still pick up when they can.
Calls you don’t answer
Your phone rings first. If nobody picks up after a few rings, the call goes to your answering service instead of voicemail.
- Your phone rings
- No answer
- Answering service
Calls while you’re on the phone
Some phone companies set this up on its own, as “busy” forwarding. Each guide shows it where there is one, so a second caller isn’t lost.
Every call
Your phone doesn’t ring at all. Keep it for when you trust your answering service, like a day off.
Test it in two minutes
Do this once after you switch it on, and again if you change phones.
Call your business number from a different phone
Not the answering number. That only tests the answering service.
Let it ring. Don’t press decline.
Declining can count as busy, which is a different setting.
Check who answered
Your answering service should pick up. If your voicemail answers, forwarding isn’t on yet.
Turn it off any time
Do it from the same phone or account. Your calls go back to ringing and voicemail as before.
| Your phone | To turn forwarding off |
|---|---|
| Verizon, Spectrum Mobile or Xfinity Mobile cell phone | *73 |
| AT&T or T-Mobile cell phone | ##61#, and ##67# if you dialed the code for declined calls |
| Spectrum Business or Comcast Business desk phone | *93, and on Spectrum *91 if you also forwarded calls while you’re on the phone |
| A phone app or office phone system | Set missed calls back to voicemail, in the same setting |
| A landline or a cable home phone | Ask the phone company to turn it off |
| The iPhone or Samsung setting | Turn it off in the same place |
Want Wakeman to answer the calls you miss?
Hear it answer as your business first, with no account needed. Once you sign up, your Forwarding page shows the steps for your phone with your Wakeman number already in them.
Already using Wakeman? Open your forwarding page. Plans and what each one answers are on the pricing page. More free tools.