Phone calls: let your Secretary answer

Your Secretary can pick up the phone when you cannot: answer questions about your business, book services that need no upfront payment, read out your booking link, and take a message. Every call is written up in Messages. Phone calls are in beta.

1. Choose a setupForward your number, a new number, or your phone system.
2. Get your Secretary linePaid from your Phone balance.
3. Turn on forwardingDial the codes shown, from your phone.
4. Test callCall your number from another phone.
5. Switch onYour Secretary answers from now on.

Step 1: choose how calls reach your Secretary

Open Integration, then Phone calls:

• Forward your number (recommended). Customers keep calling the number they know, and your phone forwards the calls you do not pick up. The Secretary line does not need to be in your country, and lines that need no documents are ready in seconds.
• A new number. A number just for your Secretary, for your website, cards and ads. Pick the country your customers call from. Some countries ask for business documents first; they are usually checked within a few hours.
• Connect your phone system. If you already use a phone system or VoIP provider, it sends calls to your Secretary as a SIP destination. There is no number to buy. Save the password shown when you create the connection; it is not shown again, but you can make a new one in Settings.

The line and its monthly renewal come out of your Phone balance. Top it up on the same page.

Step 2: how your Secretary answers

• Ring me first: your phone rings for the time you choose (10 to 30 seconds). If you do not answer, are busy or have no signal, your Secretary answers.
• Always answer: every call goes straight to your Secretary; your phone does not ring.

Step 3: turn on forwarding

The page shows the forwarding codes for your line. Dial each one from the phone you want to forward and press call; your phone shows or says a confirmation. These are the standard codes; if one is refused, ask your network how to forward calls. Your network bills forwarded calls at its usual rate.

Step 4: test the line

Tap Start the test, then call your business number from a different phone. When the call reaches Ordina, the step turns green: "We heard your call. The line works."

After setup

• Edit call greeting: choose the first thing callers hear, for example your business name.
• Calls: every call, with what your Secretary did on it. When it takes a message, you get a notification.
• Minutes: up to 300 minutes a month, and up to 10 minutes per call. Once the minutes are used up, callers hear that the line is busy until the 1st.
• Test mode: new lines start in test mode. Your Secretary checks a booking with the caller but does not create it, until Ordina switches your line to live.
• Switching off: while your Secretary is off, calls that reach the line hear that the number is not in service, so turn forwarding off on your phone too. To stop forwarding, dial the Turn all forwarding off code from Settings. Ordina cannot switch forwarding on or off for you.