Refine Which Calls Reach Your Receptionists — and You

In our never-ending quest to reduce distractions and improve your workflow, Smith.ai has introduced three new features. Our intelligent system, in combination with our friendly, professional live receptionists work to provide you with effortless control when it comes to how your incoming calls are handled. All of our pros can now create lists of callers you always and never want directly transferred to you, as well as define the hours in which their receptionist is on duty.

Redirect list / direct transfer

Do you have clients or other callers that you always want to reach you directly, bypassing your virtual receptionists? With our new direct transfer feature Smith.ai can set specific phone numbers to skip our receptionists altogether, and ring directly to you! To do this, simply tell us (email or phone) the numbers to add to your VIP list.

Block list / do not transfer

As a small business owner, you undoubtedly receive unwanted or unnecessary calls during the course of your day. As we work with you to improve your workflow, these pesky calls pose a significant obstacle and a constant source of unnecessary distraction. Whatever your motivation is for blocking them, you can have Smith.ai compile a list of numbers that will never answered by your virtual receptionist and never redirected to you: your personal do not transfer list.

In both cases, redirecting or blocking, the calls don’t count against your quota, because our live receptionist won’t be handling them.

Custom hours of service

If your motivation for using Smith.ai virtual receptionists is cost, we can help you save even more! Or if you’re always around to answer your phone some portion of the day, but always in meetings later, we can accommodate that too. By setting custom hours of service, you have the flexibility of using your friendly, live virtual receptionist during your busiest times, while opting to field calls yourself during periods of low call volume.

Example 1: Making an access list (VIP list) for family or personal calls

Some pros, often those with a main office line that they’ve been using for years, mix personal calls with business calls. They may not want a call from their mother counted towards their quota, or a call from their doctor to be handled by a receptionist. Your virtual receptionist is happy to answer any and all incoming calls for you, personal or otherwise. Given that, we do understand that there are some calls you would rather answer yourself. Add those numbers to your VIP list today! Those calls will go directly to you, bypassing your Smith.ai virtual receptionist, and do not count against your quota.

Example 2: Blocking sales and vendor calls

Many pros consider marketing, inbound sales, and SEO calls as spam, but some pros do not. That is the beauty of Smith.ai’s new do not transfer feature. We can block specific numbers for you, based on your preferences, without blocking them for everyone. Are you fed up with receiving sales calls when you are trying to get work done? What about calls from Yelp about promoting your profile? Adding them your personal do not transfer list is easy — just respond to your email or give us a call and let us know. And of course, these calls don’t count, because you wouldn’t want to answer them either.

Example 3: Setting custom hours for your busy time

Are there certain times during the day when you know your phones are going to be busy, and others when the call volume is low? At Smith.ai, our virtual receptionists are happy to answer calls anytime, but with our custom hours feature you have more control. You can now schedule your Smith.ai call answering service to answer calls within specific time frames. For example, let’s say your phones are typically busy from 9 to 10 AM and then slow the remainder of the day. You can now have your virtual receptionist answer your calls only during that hour. Any calls outside your desired time frames will be redirected directly to you, without the assistance of your friendly receptionist. Setting custom hours allows you more freedom and flexibility, saves you money and improves your productivity!

Of course, you can also set this as-needed, as well! With Smith.ai’s status over SMS feature, you can set yourself away, redirecting, or available through text messaging.

Smith.ai is always working to give our pros the most control possible over how their calls are handled. Implementing VIP lists and custom hours is just another way for us to give you finer control over your workflow. Combined with your ability to provide Smith.ai with dynamic status updates via text message, these new features provide you with an industry leading virtual reception experience. Our intelligent software combined with friendly, professional live receptionists, and our unique features will leave you wondering why you didn’t sign up sooner!