One of the first questions businesses ask about an AI receptionist is whether they'll have to change their phone number. The answer is no. Your number is printed on your website, your cards, your vehicles, and your listings — and it can stay exactly where it is. Call forwarding lets your existing number ring through to your AI agent.
How call forwarding works
Your phone carrier or phone system can send incoming calls on to another number. You point your business line at the number your AI agent answers on, and callers are connected to the agent without noticing any difference. They dial the number they already know; the agent picks up.
Three ways to set it up
- Full-time: every call goes to the AI agent, which handles or routes each one
- Overflow: calls go to your team first and roll to the agent when no one answers or the line is busy
- After-hours: your team answers during the day, and the agent takes over evenings and weekends
Many businesses start with overflow or after-hours coverage, see how the agent handles real calls, and then expand. Because every call is recorded and transcribed, it's easy to review what happened and decide when you're ready to give the agent more of the load.
Your customers keep dialling the same number. What changes is that somebody always picks up.
Getting callers to a person when needed
Forwarding calls to an AI agent doesn't cut your team out. The agent can transfer a caller to a live person, take a message, or schedule a callback, based on rules you set — for example, sending billing questions to the office and emergencies to whoever is on call.
Prefer a separate number?
Some businesses want a dedicated line for the agent — for a new location, a marketing campaign, or to keep AI-handled calls separate. That's available as a paid add-on, billed separately from your plan, and you can buy one from your dashboard at any time.
We handle the setup
With Calldone, we configure the agent, walk you through the forwarding settings for your phone provider, and test the whole flow with you before anything goes live. There's nothing technical for you to build.