Jan 31, 2013
During the past several months, ASD has been sharing Call Forwarding Communication Tips to help your funeral home protect every phone call and retain open lines of communication. We hope these tips provide you with the tools you need to remain connected to families 24/7 without sacrificing personal convenience. ASD highly recommends connecting with your local phone company to determine if these call forwarding features are available in your area.
In Part One of this series, ASD explained how to ensure your phone lines always forward to ASD if the line is not picked up at the funeral home by a predetermined number of rings. In Part Two, we discussed forwarding phone lines to your cell phone and how Cell Phone Back Up Call Forwarding can safeguard the calls you can’t answer in time. This week, we explore what happens when two callers contact your funeral home simultaneously while your lines are forwarded.
Are you aware that you could be losing business due to restrictions from your local phone company? Many phone companies will not forward multiple calls at the same time to ASD or to your cell phone unless you request it. This means if two callers happen to dial your funeral home’s number at the same time while your lines are diverted, one of the callers will hear a fast busy signal or error message.
ASD has the ability to answer 1 to 100 of your calls simultaneously but this feature must first be set up by contacting your local phone company. Tell them you would like to have the ability to forward multiple calls at once. This feature is known in some areas as Multi-Channel Call Forwarding. You can easily test if your phones are protected first by following these steps:
- 1) Call forward your main phone line
- 2) From other MULTIPLE phone lines, simultaneously place calls to your call forwarded main phone line.
- A) If all calls are answered, you have Multi-Channel Forwarding enabled
- B) If you receive a busy signal or an error message, contact your local phone company to add this feature.
For more information about Multi-Channel Call Forwarding and other call forwarding options, contact an ASD Supervisor 24/7 at 800-868-9950 ext 2.
About The Author
Jess Farren (Fowler)
Jess Farren (Fowler) is a Public Relations Specialist and Staff Writer who has been a part of the ASD team since 2003. Jess manages ASD’s company blog and has been published in several funeral trade magazines. She has written articles on a variety of subjects including communication, business planning, technology, marketing and funeral trends. You can contact Jess directly at Jess@myASD.com
