Phone Number Settings Explained 🤔

Number Name

The internal name for the phone number (e.g., “Main Prayer Line” or perhaps named after a volunteer who will be assigned this number).

Forwarding Number

The number to which incoming calls made to this number should be routed. When someone calls the new number, the call is redirected to the number saved here (such as a mobile or office number).

Pass Called Number As Caller ID

If unchecked, the caller’s phone number will show up on your Caller ID. If checked, the new number will be displayed instead, allowing you to recognize calls from your account immediately.

Use Your Verified Number as CallerID for Outbound Calls

Boost your ministry's professionalism with a feature that shows your verified number on the caller ID when making calls. This strengthens trust and brand recognition, offering a consistent brand experience. Use your verified number to present a reliable, detail-oriented image to your customers with every call.

Enable Call Connect

When disabled, calls will connect automatically as soon as you answer. When enabled, you’ll hear a prompt asking you to press a button to accept the call. This feature helps track whether a call was answered by a person or went to voicemail.

Why Enable This?

With Ministry Contacts, you can easily manage off-call statuses like "connected" or "not connected." This lets you do cool things like automatically texting people who don't answer your calls with our Missed-Call Text-Back feature. To make sure this works right, the system has to recognize if a call is truly connected to a person and not just a voicemail. Sometimes it gets this wrong. To fix this, simply check a box, so that the person receiving the call has to press a button to confirm they're real. This assures the system that a live person picked up the call, and it's why we suggest you use this feature.

 Whisper Message

The Whisper Message controls the message played to the person who answers the call when the Call-Connect features are enabled. So we would put something like “Your Ministry call” or “Call from your ministry, press a key” so that you know you’re about to hop on a call from the system and that you need to press a key to connect.

Call Recording

Call recording is a potent feature—once activated, it automatically records calls and places them directly into each contact’s conversation history, alongside emails, texts, Facebook, and Instagram messages. Remember, in most states you’ll need to include a prompt, such as “this call is being recorded for quality purposes,” to inform the caller.

Inbound timeout

The amount of time (in seconds) the system lets the inbound call ring before being dropped or forwarded to a voicemail (personal voicemail or pre-recorded voicemail within Ministry Contacts).

    Scenario 1

To direct the lead to your cellphone's voicemail, you can either leave the field empty or set the time to 60 seconds.

    Scenario 2

To ensure calls go straight to a pre-programmed voicemail in Ministry Contacts, adjust the inbound call timeout to about 20 seconds. A shorter timeout stops calls from hitting your personal voicemail.

    Scenario 3

To direct incoming calls directly to the pre-recorded voicemail in Ministry Contacts, adjust the inbound call timeout to a brief 1-4 seconds. This guarantees that the voicemail in Ministry Contacts is activated. Remember to upload your voicemail message, in MP3 or WAV format, under the Business Info tab.

Outbound timeout

The system has a timer for outbound calls—it counts the seconds before ending the call if no one answers. By setting this timer to around 30 seconds, you'll less likely hit a voicemail. This is perfect for leaving voicemail messages on purpose or when agents have long lists and prefer talking to leads who pick up quickly.

Ring Incoming Calls to All Users

This tool lets you route incoming calls to selected team members. As soon as there's an incoming call, all the chosen team members’ phones ring at the same time until the call is answered or the wait time ends. You can select up to 7 team members for call answering, increasing the likelihood that the call will be picked up quickly, even if some team members are occupied or can't answer right away.