What Is Call Forwarding — Always, No Answer, and Busy?

What it actually is

The Hebrew name for this feature, "akov" (follow), comes from the days of home landlines: you dial a code, and from now on calls "follow" you to another number. In the office world it is called call forwarding, and the idea is the same — a call that reaches your extension does not ring there (or not only there), but goes to the destination you chose.

Common destinations:

• Your mobile phone — when you leave the office and want to keep receiving calls.
• A colleague — when you are on vacation and someone else is covering.
• An external number — for example your home, or another office.
• Voicemail box — when you want all calls to go to a message.
• A group or queue — when a whole team can handle calls in your place.

Forwarding is a setting of the extension, not of the phone. That means it works even when the office phone is off, unplugged, or does not exist at all — as long as it is set in the PBX.

The three types

Forwarding is triggered by a state, and each state suits a different use:

The fourth type — "unavailable" — is less well known, but very important in a cloud PBX. If the internet in the office went down, the phones are not connected, but the PBX itself keeps working and can send the calls to a mobile phone. This way, a problem in the office does not mean customers hear a disconnect.

Forwarding vs. Follow Me

The two terms get mixed up all the time, partly because in Hebrew both sound like "akov". The difference is simple:

• Forwarding (Call Forwarding): one destination. The call goes there, and that is it. If nobody answers there either, it continues according to what is set at that destination.
• Follow Me: a list of destinations, in order. First the desk, then the mobile, then home, and finally the voicemail box. Or several of them at once.

In other words: forwarding says "send it there". Follow Me says "look for me". Forwarding fits when you know exactly where you will be. Follow Me fits when you are on the move and not sure where you will answer.

In practice, many PBXs combine them: "no answer" can lead to a group of several destinations — which is already close to Follow Me. What matters is not the name, but understanding what happens to the call at each step.

Ring time: the small setting that changes everything

With forward on no answer, the critical question is how long to ring before moving on. Too short — the employee does not have time to reach the phone, and the call has already moved. Too long — the caller waits, and may hang up.

Between 15 and 25 seconds is common, which is about four to six rings. In an office where employees move between rooms, you can allow more. At a station where the employee sits by the phone all the time, you can allow less.

And remember that times add up. If the extension rings for 20 seconds and then moves to a mobile phone, which rings another 25 seconds before going to the mobile carrier's voicemail — the caller waited almost a minute, and ended up in a voicemail box that nobody in the office checks. This is one of the most common mistakes in forwarding to a mobile.

The mobile voicemail trap

When you forward calls to a mobile phone, a quiet problem appears. The mobile has its own voicemail box, belonging to the mobile carrier. If nobody answers on the mobile, the call ends up there — and not in the office voicemail box. The message is saved on the private mobile, is not sent to the office email, and sometimes nobody ever hears it.

What is more, from the PBX's point of view, the moment the mobile's voicemail answered, the call was "answered". It will not continue to the next destination you set, and in reports it will look like a call that received an answer.

What to do:

• Shorten the ring time on the mobile, so the call returns to the PBX before the mobile's voicemail answers — on PBXs that support this.
• Use a softphone or a SIM extension instead of forwarding to the mobile number. This way the mobile is an extension of the PBX, and a call that is not answered continues on the office route.
• On some PBXs: require a key confirmation on the mobile ("To accept the call, press 1") — so a voicemail box cannot "answer" in your place.

Who pays for forwarding to a mobile

When you forward a call to an external number, the PBX actually places a new call — from the office to the mobile. The incoming call from the customer continues, and at the same time an outgoing call is opened. That is why forwarding to an external number takes up two channels, and the outgoing call is counted like any other outgoing call from the office.

This is not a reason to avoid forwarding, but it is good to know. In an organization where several employees constantly forward to their mobiles, it is felt both in the channels and in the outgoing calls. Here too, a mobile extension (softphone or SIM) is sometimes a more economical solution than forwarding to a number.

Caller ID on a forwarded call

When the call arrives on the mobile, which number appears on the screen? There are two options, and each has an advantage:

• The customer's number: you see who is calling, and can decide whether to answer. But you do not know it is an office call — it looks like a private call.
• The office number: you know right away that it is a work call and answer accordingly ("Hello, yeshiva office"). But you do not see who the customer is.

On many PBXs this is a setting you can choose. The general recommendation: for someone who receives many personal and work calls on the same mobile, it is better to know that the call is from the office. On some PBXs you can also add a prefix to the displayed name, such as "Office:", to get both. Note that some mobile carriers do not display a number that is not the caller's real number, so it is worth checking in a test call what actually appears.

Forwarding vs. routing by time

A common mistake is to use forwarding to solve a regular problem. A secretary turns on "forward always" to her mobile every day at two o'clock, and turns it off in the morning. One day she forgets, and all the morning's calls go to her mobile at home.

When the change is regular — by hour, day of the week, or holiday — the right tool is routing by time. You set it once, and the PBX makes the switch by itself. Forwarding is left for temporary and unexpected changes: a sick day, a trip, a meeting outside the office.

How to turn it on

There are usually three ways:

1. From the phone: a "Forward" key or menu item, where you choose the type and destination.
2. With a star code: many PBXs have one code to turn it on and one to turn it off. Especially convenient when the phone is basic.
3. In the PBX control panel: the manager sets the extension's forwarding from a computer, without touching the phone.

Watch out for the same trap as with DND: forwarding that was turned on in the phone itself may work only while the phone is connected, and on some devices it is not visible in the control panel. Anyone checking "why are calls not arriving" needs to check both the phone and the PBX.

Loops and chains

When several employees forward to each other, a circle sometimes forms. Yaakov is on vacation and forwards to Rachel. Rachel left early and forwards to Yaakov. The call goes around between them — and in the end fails, or lands somewhere nobody expected.

Most PBXs detect loops and stop them, but it is better not to get there. A simple rule: before forwarding to a colleague, check that they are not forwarding themselves. And in a PBX with a call route chart, you can see the whole chain and catch a circle before it happens.

An example from the field

Rabbi Shlomo, a kollel director, is at the beis medrash in the morning and at the office at noon. In the morning his calls reached the extension in the office, rang in an empty room, and went to voicemail. He heard the messages only at noon.

The solution was a combination: routing by time that forwards his extension to his mobile between seven and twelve, and forwarding on no answer to the office voicemail box — so that messages not answered on the mobile arrive by email, and not in the mobile carrier's box. When he travels for the day, he turns on "forward always" to a colleague, and turns it off when he returns.

A bit of history

Call forwarding is one of the oldest services in telephony. It appeared on public lines when exchanges moved to computers, together with call waiting and three-way calling, and quickly became a familiar service. People forwarded the home line to their parents' house on Shabbat, or the business line to their home in the evening.

In a cloud PBX, forwarding no longer depends on a physical line. The extension is a record on a server, and the server can send the call anywhere there is a phone — in Israel or abroad, to a mobile or to another extension — and change the destination at any moment from the control panel.