Changing the ring to number
Yes, one of the important benefits of a toll free number is that you can change the ring to number. That’s why our signup form says INITIAL local ring to number. You can certainly change the ring to number. There is also no charge for changing the ring to number at any phone company that I’ve seen either. By the way a toll free number can’t ring to another 800 number (see http://www.tollfreewatch.com/faqs/800-to-an-800.html)
To change the ring to number at a regular phone company, you usually have to call customer service. It’s not an instant process but it goes into effect within a couple hours depending on their system and how fast it updates. It’s not something that you would want to do to change the ring to number to your cell phone every time you go out the door. If you want to do that or make very short term changes with a regular carrier you would really want to use call forwarding on the local number.
One great tip that I used for years is to use Forward No Answer and Forward Busy (a type of call forwarding) on the local number so that if I didn’t answer the local home office line after a couple rings or if I was on the phone and another call came in, it would forward to my cell phone. That way I could walk out the door and it would automatically “follow me” to my cell phone. That is great for a lone eagle type of home based business but it doesn’t work as well though if other people answer the first number when you’re not there.
The other type of toll free service, I usually refer to as Enhanced Voicemail Service or sometimes as “Milkshake” toll free service in my Milk and Milkshake analogy, makes it a little easier to change the ring to number. Those services usually have an internet control panel of some kind that you can log in to, to change the ring to number. Many will also allow you to try multiple different numbers or schedule the calls to go to different places at different times, or even rotate the calls. These cost a little more per minute because you’re also paying for the voicemail platform but can give you a lot of nice features and make you sound very professional too, and if you need to change the ring to number a lot can definitely be a good option. We give you a list of some of these Enhanced Voicemail service in the Toll Free Manual that you get after you activate a toll free number.
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Rico Connor says:
November 25, 2008 at 1:44 pm
If we get a number, can it be routed to my current cell phone with a different ring or somthing???
Bill Quimby (346 comments.) says:
November 26, 2008 at 2:35 am
Rico,
You can send the calls to your cell phone and you probably already have most of the people going to your cell phone programmed into your phone so you can essentially get a different ring if you program their rings differently. Or just look at the caller id.
Bill