Call forwarding: what is it and how does it work

As a business owner, being reachable matters enormously. You don't want to miss customers — and the revenue that comes with them — when you're out and about, for instance. And being chained to a desk phone is far from ideal. The good news: you can forward your phone. Call forwarding means people reach you on your business landline, simply through your mobile. A landline on your mobile, in other words.

In this article we'll walk you through everything to do with call forwarding: how to switch it on, what you can do with it, and the difference between transferring and forwarding a call. Read on! ⬇️

At Rinkel we use two terms a lot: "forwarding" and "transferring". They sound similar, and you might assume we mean the same thing by them — but they're two completely different things, with completely different purposes. Here's how they break down:

Call forwarding. Your business landline is permanently linked to your mobile. The number is set to forward: when someone rings your business landline, the call lands on your mobile. You set the forwarding up in advance, the same way you'd set up a queue or answering service. It's a lifesaver when, for example:

• you're not around;
• you can't pick up the phone;
• you're already on a call;
• you're closed or away on holiday.

So if you can't take the call yourself, the caller is forwarded to, say, a colleague, the queue or the answering service (depending on your settings).

Call transferring. You transfer a call when someone rings you but needs a colleague or another department. You've already picked up, and you put the caller through to the right person yourself.

Tip: before you transfer someone to a particular colleague, it's worth quickly telling them who's calling and why. That way they know straight away what they're dealing with. It also happens that a colleague doesn't want to be disturbed — a quick word first tells you whether they do (or don't) want to take the call right then.

Forwarding isn't something that just happens by itself. To forward a business landline to your mobile, you need an external provider (like Rinkel).

Rinkel is a landline-on-mobile solution that plenty of business owners already use. We handle the connection between your mobile and your business landline. As soon as someone rings your national 0330, London 020 or regional number, the phone rings on whichever number sits first in the forwarding chain — or on all of them, if you've got several numbers set up. And it makes no difference whether your mobile plan is with EE, O2, Vodafone, Three or another provider.

In My.rinkel.com or the Rinkel app, you forward your business landline to your mobile in a couple of taps. And there you are, reachable on your business landline, through your own mobile. Sorted!

You can even use WhatsApp on your business landline. Read our WhatsApp Business page for more.

Let us convince you that call forwarding is worth it. With a forwarded business landline you're reachable wherever you are. You get all the upsides of a business landline without the faff of cables or being tied to one spot. Landline and mobile in one.

Forwarding calls to your business number brings plenty of benefits, and we're happy to run through them:

• keep work and personal easily apart;
• set your own greetings, queue and business hours;
• record a professional voicemail (or have one of the professional voice-overs record it for you);
• set up a call menu so your customers reach the right person or department straight away;
• use WhatsApp Business with your (potential) customers;
• come across as more professional than a mobile number would
• record calls and listen back to them easily.

A business landline gives a different impression than a mobile number does. And with Rinkel you can switch plenty of settings on and off yourself, like a greeting and your business hours.

That's how you give your customers the best service — for questions and orders alike. All by forwarding to your mobile.

There's an important difference in how your calls actually travel. A VoIP solution makes calls over the internet — so it needs WiFi or mobile data to work. Lose your connection, or hit a weak-signal spot, and your call quality drops with it (or the call won't connect at all).

Rinkel works differently. We use the mobile network — the same one you use when you call from your own mobile — not an internet connection. So you stay reachable even with your mobile data switched off. Handy when you've used up your data allowance before the month's out.

Good news: you've often got everything you need to forward a business landline already. It's not some endlessly complicated process.

• First, a working number you want to be reachable on — in other words, the number the calls get forwarded to. This can be your mobile or another landline. Usually it's your own number.
• Second, a working mobile network connection.
• And then the business landline you want to be called on. This can be an existing number you want to bring over, or a new business landline. You can order one easily.

Forwarding your calls through a company that handles these connections (like Rinkel) does cost something. That's just how it is. But it certainly won't cost the earth.

With Rinkel you choose from an Expert, Professional or Essential plan. Expert and Professional come with unlimited calling minutes. Go for Essential and you pay £0.05 per minute. Check out all our plans.

Forwarding your business landline to an international number is no problem with Rinkel either. You can already call 50+ international destinations, inside and outside Europe, at no extra cost.

Working with a team and want to add more users to your business landline? You can add them easily. The best way to think of a user is as a mobile number you can forward the business landline to.

The short answer: yes! We get that keeping your number matters to a lot of business owners — maybe you've used it for years, or it's printed on everything. It'd be a shame to reprint all your t-shirts and business cards just because you're switching telecoms provider.

There are a few things to be aware of, though. We can only port landline numbers (regional and national). We can't port mobile numbers, or premium-rate and freephone numbers.

Bear in mind that porting a number can take up to a few working days. If you want to move several lines, we'd recommend getting in touch with your current provider too.

Got more questions about call forwarding with Rinkel? Chat with us using the button in the bottom right.