Easily Switch Who Answers Your Calls with "Redirect" SMS Command

At Smith.ai, we're here to help you run a better business by offering the best-quality, lowest-cost live answering service. We charge per call, not per minute, which means you're in control of your costs. Moreover, we make it even easier to cut down your costs by allowing you to instantly adjust who handles your calls — you or us. Want to adjust the number of calls we handle at any given time? It's as easy as changing your phone routing settings with a quick "redirect" text to our receptionists.

Below, we review how redirecting your calls works and how to set it up for your phone line. (You can learn all about our full suite of SMS commands; today we're focused only on "redirects.")

How to Redirect Your Calls with SMS commands

Let's say you're going to be in the office for the next two hours. You can save a bit of money by taking your own calls. Just text redirect 2h to your assigned Smith.ai number. That means we'll redirect your calls to ring you directly for the next two hours.

Or, you can just text redirect without specifying a duration, and then text normal when you want us to kick back into gear.

The "formula" is easy: Just type "redirect" and then optionally add a duration.

The supported time formats are:

• Days: d
• Hours: h
• Minutes: m

Note: Do not put a space between the number and the unit. For example, the correct format is 3d for 3 days.

How to Stop Redirecting Your Calls

After the time period is over, we'll resume answering your calls.

If you change your mind and wish to have us answer your calls sooner than your redirect command indicated, just text normal and we'll immediately return to taking your calls.

If you never set a duration, you will need to text normal so we know it's time to resume handling your calls.

How to Enable Call Redirects For Your Phone Line

To use the "redirect" command, you must have both a main business number and an office or personal number.

Your main business number is the number you display on your website, marketing materials, advertisements, etc. It is your "public" number. This might be the number you use from Google Voice or RingCentral that is set up to point all your calls to your actual number. It's the same number you provided to Smith.ai when you created your account.

Your actual number will be your office line, which may just be your cell phone. This is the number we will need from you to set enable call redirects.

To set up call redirects, send your office line or cell phone number to support@smith.ai, with "Set up redirect" in the subject line. We can typically complete setup within one business day.

Questions?

If you need help determining which phone number to send us, please email us at support@smith.ai or call us at (650) 727-6484 Monday through Friday between 5am – 6pm PT for assistance.