Verizon Remote Call Forwarding Business Guide

Call forwarding sends calls that dial your business number over to a different number instead. Business owners use it when they are on another call, out of the shop, or closed for the day and want calls handled somewhere else. The word remote can mean two different things, and it helps to separate them.

The first meaning is simply forwarding your calls to a remote destination, such as a cell phone or an answering service. The second meaning is activating that forwarding remotely, from somewhere other than the phone itself. These are not the same feature, and a carrier may support one without the other. Before choosing instructions, check your bill or Verizon account to identify the exact product you have, because Verizon wireless and Verizon business landline products are set up differently.

• Forwarding to a remote destination: calls to your business number ring at another number you choose.
• Remote activation: turning forwarding on or off without being at the business phone.
• All-call forwarding sends every incoming call away immediately.
• Conditional forwarding (busy or no-answer) only sends calls you could not pick up.
• Verizon wireless forwarding covers calls, not texts.

Verizon's published instructions are done from the line itself. On Verizon mobile, dial *72 followed by the 10-digit US destination number to forward all calls. For calls that go unanswered, dial *71 followed by the destination. Dial *73 to turn forwarding off. Activation must be done from the mobile phone while it is in Verizon coverage, and charges depend on your plan.

For Verizon business landline service, Verizon's call forwarding guide says to dial *72 from the line and follow the activation instructions, then dial *73 from the same line to deactivate. This guide covers all-call forwarding; it does not provide conditional forwarding codes, and you should not substitute the wireless *71 instructions onto a landline product.

If you specifically need to activate forwarding from a different phone or remotely, Verizon's published guides above do not document that method. Contact Verizon business support and ask whether your exact product supports remote activation, and what the correct procedure is for it. Do not use star codes borrowed from other carriers, since codes differ by product and carrier.

• Verizon mobile, all calls: dial *72 plus the 10-digit destination from the phone.
• Verizon mobile, unanswered calls: dial *71 plus the destination.
• Verizon mobile, turn off: dial *73.
• Verizon business landline, all calls: dial *72 from the line and follow the instructions.
• Verizon business landline, turn off: dial *73 from the same line.
• Setup on mobile must happen from the phone while in Verizon coverage.
• No remote activation method is documented in Verizon's published guides; confirm with Verizon support for your exact product.

Once forwarding is active, calls to your Verizon business number ring at the destination you entered. Many owners point that destination at an answering service so calls get handled when they cannot. With AllDayDesk, you keep your public Verizon number and forward calls to the service, which answers around the clock using the business information you save during setup.

Setup is straightforward: choose your business or enter its website, check the details it pulled in, hear a personalized sample of how your calls would be answered, and then choose your phone setup. The sample is a demonstration only and creates no real booking. After that, calls, transcripts, summaries and bookings show up in your dashboard. New appointments go on the built-in AllDayDesk calendar by default once you have configured your services and availability, and an optional Google Calendar connection is available in Settings after you connect and authorize your Google account.

A few expectations are worth setting honestly. When a caller asks something the service does not know, such as a price or an open appointment slot, it takes a message instead of guessing. Changes to existing appointments are passed to you as requests, not confirmed changes. If you want calls transferred to you in certain situations, you configure the destination and the rules for when transfers happen; a pickup or immediate response is not guaranteed.

• Keep your Verizon number; callers never see a different one.
• Set up by choosing your business or website, reviewing details, and hearing a sample.
• See calls, transcripts, summaries and bookings in the dashboard.
• Bookings use the built-in calendar by default; Google Calendar is an optional connection in Settings.
• Unknown answers become messages; appointment changes come to you as requests.

Before you turn on forwarding, decide what kind you need. All-call forwarding sends every caller straight to the destination, which suits businesses that rarely answer the line themselves. Conditional forwarding only catches calls you miss, which suits owners who usually pick up but want backup. On Verizon mobile, *72 is all-call and *71 covers unanswered calls; on Verizon business landline, the published guide covers all-call forwarding with *72 and *73.

Know the limits too. Forwarding is set per line and per product, so a multi-line business may need to activate it on each line. All-call forwarding means your original line will not ring, which also affects any voicemail on that line. Charges can apply depending on your Verizon plan, so check before leaving forwarding on long term. And if your business number is actually a Google Voice number rather than a Verizon line, Google states that forwarding calls from a Google Voice number to an automated system is unsupported, so verify your real carrier first.

• Choose all-call forwarding for full coverage or conditional forwarding to keep answering yourself first.
• Activate forwarding on each business line you want covered.
• All-call forwarding stops your original line and its voicemail from ringing.
• Forwarding charges depend on your Verizon plan.
• Google Voice numbers cannot be forwarded to an automated system, per Google's own documentation.