How to Set Up a Call Answering Service

Before you set anything up, decide what kind of service fits your business. Human answering services staff phones with real people, which works well when calls need judgment or empathy. AI answering services answer conversationally using saved information about your business, take detailed messages, and can book appointments. AllDayDesk is an AI receptionist: it answers calls around the clock using the business information you save, and it takes a message whenever it does not know an answer, price, or opening.

Cost models differ too. Human services use different pricing: some charge per call, while others advertise a monthly starting price. AI services typically use a monthly plan with included minutes and an overage rate. Compare what each quote includes before deciding, since a low starting price can hide overage charges.

• Human services: good for judgment-heavy calls; pricing varies by provider, from per-call to monthly plans.
• AI services: good for consistent answers from saved details, messages, and booking.
• Check the included allowance and overage rate in any plan, not just the base price.

With AllDayDesk, setup starts by choosing your business or entering its website. The service pulls in your public information, and you check that the details are correct before anything goes live. This saved information is what the receptionist uses to answer questions about your hours, services, and location.

Be thorough here. If a caller asks something the saved details do not cover, the receptionist will not guess. It takes a message instead, so anything you want answered on the phone needs to be in your saved details. After checking your information, you hear a personalized sample of how your calls would be answered. The sample is a preview only and creates no real booking.

• Enter your business name or website to pull in your details.
• Review every saved answer for accuracy before going live.
• Listen to the personalized sample to hear how callers will be greeted.
• Remember the sample does not create a real appointment.

After the sample, AllDayDesk asks you to choose your phone setup. This is the step where you decide how calls will actually reach the service. The right choice depends on your phone provider, because the connection is made through your provider's own forwarding feature, not through AllDayDesk itself.

Before you pick, find out two things from your provider: whether it supports forwarding at all, and whether it offers all-call forwarding, conditional forwarding, or both. If you are unsure how forwarding works or which option you have, the provider guides below walk through the major carriers step by step.

• Choose your phone setup in AllDayDesk after hearing the sample.
• The connection happens through your phone provider's forwarding feature.
• Confirm whether your provider supports all-call or conditional forwarding before continuing.

You keep your public phone number. Calls reach the answering service because your phone provider forwards them to AllDayDesk, and the exact instructions depend on who provides your phone service. Most providers fall into one of three patterns: a star code dialed from the phone line, a setting in an online account portal, or a settings menu on the device.

Two kinds of forwarding matter. Unconditional forwarding sends all calls to the destination, which is what you want if the service should handle everything. Conditional forwarding sends calls only when your line is busy or unanswered, which suits overflow coverage. Check which one your provider supports before activating, and follow your provider's own verification steps to confirm forwarding is working before relying on it. Note that forwarding a Google Voice number to an automated system is not supported by Google, so Google Voice customers need a different approach.

For example, Verizon mobile uses *72 plus the destination for all-call forwarding and *73 to turn it off; this applies to Verizon mobile specifically, and Verizon business landline service has its own separate instructions. Optimum Business Phone uses *72 followed by the destination for all-call forwarding, and for busy or unanswered situations you press the flash or hook switch, dial *72 again, and redial the destination, where two beeps and dial tone confirm it worked. Spectrum Business Voice manages forwarding in its online portal under Voice Settings. These are examples only: identify your exact service and follow its own instructions.

• Find your provider's forwarding instructions before dialing anything.
• Choose all-call forwarding for full coverage or conditional forwarding for overflow.
• Use your provider's own verification steps to confirm forwarding is active, and deactivate with the provider's off code if needed.
• Google Voice numbers cannot be forwarded to an automated system.

A phone menu, often called an auto attendant, is the recorded voice that says things like press one for sales, press two for billing. Traditional phone systems make you build and maintain these menus yourself, and callers have to listen through the options and press the right number. If your current system has a menu, setting it up means recording prompts, mapping each option to a destination, and updating both whenever your services change.

A conversational AI receptionist replaces the fixed menu with a conversation. Instead of pressing numbers, callers simply say what they need, and the receptionist answers from your saved business details, takes a message, or transfers the call. If you are starting fresh, you usually do not need to build a menu at all. If you already have one, you can decide whether to keep it in front of the AI or route calls straight through. The auto attendant guide below explains when a menu is enough on its own.

• A phone menu makes callers press numbers; an AI receptionist lets them just talk.
• Setting up a traditional menu means recording prompts and mapping every option.
• With AllDayDesk, callers describe what they need instead of navigating a tree.
• If you keep an existing menu, decide whether calls route to the AI or around it.

Some calls should reach you directly, such as an existing customer with an urgent question or a caller who asks to speak with the owner. Transfer rules decide when the receptionist puts a call through to you instead of handling it or taking a message.

You configure both the destination number and the rules for when transfers happen. Keep in mind that a transfer is a real phone call to your line, so neither the pickup nor an immediate response is guaranteed. When a caller asks something the saved details cannot answer, the default is simple: take a message so nothing important is lost.

• Configure a transfer destination number and the rules that trigger a transfer.
• Transfers are not guaranteed to be picked up or answered immediately.
• Unknown answers, prices, or appointment requests become messages for you.

If you want callers to book appointments over the phone, first configure your services and availability in the AllDayDesk dashboard. New appointments go into the built-in AllDayDesk dashboard calendar by default, where you can see every booking alongside your calls, transcripts, and summaries.

If you already keep your schedule in Google Calendar, you can optionally connect it in Settings. You connect and authorize your Google account yourself, and after that the service works from your connected calendar. No other external calendar connections are supported, so if you use different scheduling software, the built-in dashboard calendar is the way to handle bookings.

• Configure services and availability before enabling booking.
• New appointments land in the built-in dashboard calendar by default.
• Google Calendar can be connected in Settings after you authorize your account.
• Changes to existing appointments are requests for you to approve, not confirmed changes.

Once you are live, check the dashboard regularly. Calls appear in the dashboard with transcripts and summaries, and bookings appear on your calendar. Reading transcripts is the fastest way to spot questions the receptionist could not answer, which usually means a detail is missing from your saved business information.

Treat the first few weeks as a tuning period. Add missing answers to your saved details, adjust transfer rules if too many or too few calls reach you, and confirm your availability matches how you actually work. Most owners answer their own phones alongside the service, so the setup should reflect your real schedule, not an imagined staff schedule.

• Review transcripts and summaries to find gaps in saved details.
• Adjust transfer rules based on how many calls actually reach you.
• Keep services and availability current as your schedule changes.