When you are setting up Ooma Office for WeWork, you need to consider what will happen when calls come in to your main company phone number. The default Ooma Office for WeWork configuration directs calls to the Virtual Receptionist, which plays an automated greeting and handles calls based on the option the caller selects. Our robust Virtual Receptionist can be fully customized to suit your company’s needs. You also have the option to set up Ooma Office for WeWork to direct incoming calls to a single person, or to a group of people who share the responsibility of answering the phone.

Virtual Receptionist

Have you ever called a company and been greeted by an automated announcement that asks you to select from a menu of options? With Ooma Office for WeWork, your company can set up a Virtual Receptionist just like the ones that are frequently used by large businesses.

The Virtual Receptionist is fully customizable. When you assign your company’s main phone number to the Virtual Receptionist, your incoming calls will be automatically answered and routed to the appropriate extension, giving your business a professional feel. The automated greeting that callers will hear can be recorded by you or your staff, or it can be automatically generated with the Ooma text-to-speech feature. The Virtual Receptionist also supports:

  • Different greetings and menu option during business hours and after hours,
  • Up to ten custom menu options for one-touch connections, and
  • Dial by name or extension number.

You can learn more about getting started with the Virtual Receptionist in our overview article.

Dedicated Receptionist

If your company prefers a personal feel with every call being answered by a person, you can route your company main number to a specific individual (the receptionist). This receptionist’s phone will ring each time the company’s phone number receives an incoming call, whereupon the receptionist can transfer the caller to the appropriate extension. If the receptionist does not answer, calls can be routed to one of the following alternate destinations:

  • Voicemail: Unanswered calls can be automatically transferred to the receptionist’s voicemail box or to another voicemail box on the account
  • Virtual Receptionist: Unanswered calls can be picked up automatically by the Virtual Receptionist, which will play a greeting that you specify and route calls based on the caller’s key presses
  • Another user: Unanswered calls can be automatically forwarded to another user’s extension (the “backup” for the receptionist)

You can learn more about configuring your Ooma Office for WeWork account with a dedicated receptionist in our setup article.

Receptionist Group

If you want to ensure that incoming calls to your main company number are answered, you can route them to several people by assigning your company’s main number to a Ring Group. You can select which users are part of this group and whether the call will ring the users simultaneously or sequentially. The simultaneous ring option is perfect if you have no preference for who answers the call, while the sequential ring option will always ring the first user in the group first. If the first user does not answer, the call will then ring the next member, and on down the line.

If no one in the Ring Group is available to take the call, then the following alternative options can be set up:

  • Voicemail: Unanswered calls can be automatically transferred to any voicemail box
  • Virtual Receptionist: Unanswered calls can be picked up automatically by the Virtual Receptionist, which will play a greeting that you specify and route calls based on the caller’s key presses
  • Another user: Unanswered calls can be forwarded to another user who is backing up the receptionist group

You can learn more about configuring a receptionist group in our Ring Group article.