Modes of Operation
Option 1 - Use Tradie Pal service number as your main business number
Your assigned service number becomes the primary point of contact for your clients. You can publish it on your website, Google listing, Yellow Pages and any marketing materials.
Every call and text sent to this number is answered by your Tradie Pal receptionist. Your receptionist will answer queries based on the information provided to them and send you an SMS notification in real-time. Your receptionist will forward calls to your mobile phone if they are not able to answer any questions. You can choose when and how calls are forwarded to your mobile. You can forward all calls that are not resolved by the receptionist, urgent calls only, or no calls at all, based on how busy you are. You can even define a custom schedule where you apply one rule for a given time period (e.g. Mon to Fri 9am to 5pm) and another rule for the rest of the time. Making changes to these rules can be done by logging to your member dashboard and selecting "Settings" from the menu. You can also make temporary changes to these rules simply by calling or texting your smart receptionist. For example, if you get stuck with a new job and do not want to receive any calls for the rest of the morning, you can simply instruct your smart receptionist and they will udpate the rule accordingly. Check out the "Hot tips" section for more details.
In this option, your receptionist is able to answer calls and text messages that are sent to you. Moreover, in this option you can enable spam filtering. If spam filtering is enabled, suspicious calls identified as marketing or robocalls won’t trigger an SMS notification, keeping you focussed on real customers. You will still have access to all the call and text records including complete transcripts in your member dashboard.
Using this option also ensures that you don't have to publish your personal mobile phone on your website or any other bulletin board. You can still choose to receive calls on your mobile as your schedule allows without making it public.
Option 2 - Keep your existing mobile number as your main business number
Use this mode of operation, if you want to keep your current mobile phone as the primary contact point for your business. This may be necessary if you have already handed out your mobile phone to all your contacts and do not want to change that. In this mode, you continue to receive calls and texts sent to your mobile as normal. You will have to setup call forwarding on your mobile phone to forward unanswered/missed calls to your Tradie Pal service number.
In this option, any calls that you are not able to answer will be forwarded to your smart receptionist who will answer them on your behalf. Note in this option, your smart receptionist cannot respond to any text messages that you receive as your mobile number remains the main line.
IMPORTANT:
In order to use this mode of operation you have to make sure you complete these two steps:
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Follow the call forwarding instructions based on your phone carrier and enable call forwarding on your mobile phone (here is a link to the detailed call forwarding instructions).
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During the sign-up process, when you are asked to setup call forwarding rules, you must select “Do not forward” at all times. This prevents your calls from bouncing back and forth between your mobile phone and your smart receptionist. If you already have completed the sign-up process, you can change the call forwarding rule by logging in to your customer dashboard and selecting ‘Settings” from the left hand menu. (Click here for more information).