How to forward your office phone to an AI receptionist

Forwarding an office phone to an AI receptionist takes two jobs. First the receptionist has to learn your business and get a phone line. Then your office number has to send calls to that line. This guide walks through both on Leap, then covers the part most guides skip: what to do when you only want calls forwarded after you close.

How do you set up an AI receptionist on Leap?

You give Leap your website at /start, and it builds the receptionist from what it reads there. If you don't have a website, search for your business by name and Leap builds from your Google profile instead. The build takes about two minutes. You'll see it read your reviews and website, draft answers for callers, and activate a phone line. The line goes from "Built · number being assigned" to "Line active" on the same screen.

Next comes a short review. Leap asks you to confirm a few things one at a time:

• Is this your business?
• When are you open?
• What do you offer?
• How do callers book?
• Anything callers should know about cost?
• What is an average appointment worth to you?
• How should it answer these?
• Anything else it should know?

Every fact the receptionist knows is a card you can tap and change later. Your hours matter here. If you turn on the after-hours greeting in your receptionist settings, callers outside the hours you set hear "We're currently closed, but I can take a message." You can edit that greeting.

Setup is free. Billing starts when Leap answers real calls, at $149 a month with the first 100 calls included, then $0.99 a call. See pricing for the details.

Which forwarding mode should you pick?

Pick "Forward every call" if you want Leap to answer all calls, and "Ring me first" if you want your phone to ring and Leap to pick up only when you're busy or miss it. Those are the two modes in Leap's forwarding screen. The screen walks you through four steps: choose the mode, confirm your carrier, dial the code it shows you, and verify.

• Forward every call. Leap answers everything. Your office phone won't ring.
• Ring me first. Your phone rings first. Leap answers the missed calls and the ones that come in while you're on another line, which is what people mean by call overflow.

Leap looks up your business number and detects the carrier for you, so the code on screen should already match your phone. You keep your number. Forwarding only changes where the call rings, and nothing is ported.

Can Leap forward calls only after hours?

No, Leap doesn't switch your forwarding on and off by the clock; any after-hours schedule has to come from your carrier or your office phone system. Carrier dial codes have no clock either. A code like *72 stays on until someone dials it off. So you have two choices.

1. Dial it by hand. Someone dials the forward code at closing and the off code before the first call each morning. It works, and it fails the first day that person is out.
2. Use your phone system's schedule. Cloud phone systems and some phone-company portals let you set business hours and pick where calls go outside them. Point the closed-hours destination at your Leap number and it switches by itself.

Here is where that setting lives on common systems. Menus change, so check your provider's current help page before relying on these paths.

RingCentral

In the RingCentral app, go to Settings, then Phone, then Call handling, and click Edit. Open the After hours tab (use Edit Schedule if your hours aren't set yet). Under Missed calls, choose Forward to external number, enter your Leap number, and save. RingCentral notes that if your work hours are set to 24/7, the after-hours settings mirror your work hours until you set a schedule. Source: RingCentral's user forwarding guide.

Nextiva

Build the after-hours schedule first. Then, as an admin, open the user or team, choose Voice Settings, then Forwarding, and expand Call forwarding (selective). Click Add Condition, name the rule, set Forward To a specific number (your Leap number), attach the schedule, then click Add and Save.

Two details from Nextiva's article save trouble later. Selective forwarding overrides Call Forward Always. And rules are checked alphabetically with the first match winning, which is why Nextiva suggests names that start with a number, like "01 - Holiday".

Other systems

Grasshopper, Spectrum Business (its tool is called Call Scheduler) and Comcast Business also have business-hours or time-of-day forwarding. The idea is the same everywhere: set your hours, then set the closed-hours destination to your Leap number. Ask your provider's support for the current menu if you can't find it.

Virtual numbers such as Google Voice, OpenPhone, Grasshopper and RingCentral forward from inside their own app. Carrier dial codes won't change them, and Leap's forwarding screen tells you so when it detects one.

What are the call forwarding codes for each carrier?

The codes below are the ones Leap's forwarding screen shows, checked against each carrier's help page where we could reach it. Dial from the phone that gets the office's calls, use the full 10-digit Leap number, and wait for the confirmation tone before hanging up.

Sources: Verizon call forwarding FAQ, Verizon Fios star codes and AT&T call troubleshooting help.

Many smaller carriers run on the big three networks. Leap groups Visible, Xfinity Mobile, Spectrum Mobile, US Mobile, Straight Talk and Total by Verizon with Verizon. Mint, Metro, US Cellular, Ultra and Google Fi go with T-Mobile. Cricket, Boost, H2O and Consumer Cellular go with AT&T. If you're not sure, Leap shows **21* and **004*, and suggests trying Verizon's *72 if those don't take.

Verizon says call forwarding has no monthly fee on most plans, and forwarded calls use your plan's minutes as if you had answered. Text messages don't forward at all, so texts to the office cell still land on that phone.

How do you test that forwarding works?

Call your office number from a phone that isn't on the office account and listen to who answers. Then run through these:

1. If you chose Ring me first, let it ring out once so you hear what a caller gets when nobody picks up.
2. If you use a closed-hours schedule, call once after closing and once after opening the next morning.
3. Check the Leap inbox. The test call should show up with a recording, transcript and summary.
4. Before forwarding to any number, check what that number forwards to. Two phones forwarding to each other bounce the caller back and forth.

Test calls, calls from your own business number and calls from your team don't start billing. After setup, Leap watches for real forwarded calls. If none arrive for several days, it sends you an alert, since that usually means the forward never took.

How do you turn call forwarding off?

Dial your carrier's off code from the office phone: *73 on Verizon, ##21# or ##004# on T-Mobile, #21# or ##004# on AT&T. On a cloud phone system, remove the closed-hours rule or change its destination in the admin portal. Calls ring your office phone again as soon as the off code takes.

Turning off forwarding doesn't cancel your Leap plan. You cancel from the dashboard at any time, with no contract, and it takes effect at the end of the billing period.