Guide
How to divert your clinic's missed calls
You don't need a new phone system to stop calls going to voicemail. Every UK landline, mobile and cloud phone system can send the calls you can't answer to another number, such as an answering service or an AI receptionist. Here's how, in about five minutes.
First, choose which calls to divert
There are three kinds of divert. Most clinics want all three:
- No answer: your phone rings as normal, and if nobody picks up after a few rings the call moves on. This also covers evenings and weekends automatically, because nobody is there to answer.
- Busy: if you're already on a call, the next caller is diverted instead of hearing an engaged tone.
- Unreachable (mobiles only): if your phone is off or has no signal.
Avoid divert all calls for day to day use. It stops your phone ringing at all, so your team never gets the chance to answer first.
BT landline (and most traditional business lines)
Pick up the phone on the line you want to divert, and dial:
| Divert | Turn on | Turn off | Check |
|---|---|---|---|
| No answer (after about 15 seconds) | *61*number# | #61# | *#61# |
| Busy | *67*number# | #67# | *#67# |
| All calls | *21*number# | #21# | *#21# |
Replace number with the full number you're diverting to, for example *61*02012345678#. These are BT's published codes, and many other providers use the same ones. BT Featureline lines may need a 9 before the number.
On BT Cloud Voice or Digital Voice? Diverts are set in the online portal instead. Find your number, open its call settings, tick "forward calls when there is no answer" (and "when busy"), enter the number and save.
Mobiles (EE, O2, Vodafone, Three and others)
UK mobile networks all use the same standard codes. Dial them from your phone's normal keypad and press call. Networks recommend writing the number in +44 form (drop the first 0).
| Divert | Turn on | Turn off |
|---|---|---|
| No answer | **61*+44number# | ##61# |
| Busy | **67*+44number# | ##67# |
| Unreachable | **62*+44number# | ##62# |
| Cancel every divert | ##002# |
Your voicemail is itself a "no answer" divert, so setting **61* replaces it. If calls still go to voicemail, cancel everything with ##002# and set the diverts again.
Cloud phone systems (RingCentral, 3CX, Teams, Vonage and others)
Cloud systems don't use star codes. Look in the admin portal or app for your main number's call handling or call forwarding rules, and set:
- when calls aren't answered: forward to the new number
- when all lines are busy: forward to the new number
- outside business hours: forward to the new number
Most systems let you choose how many rings before a call moves on. Four or five rings (about 20 seconds) gives your team a fair chance to answer first.
Test it
- Ring your clinic number from a different phone, such as a personal mobile.
- Don't answer it. After the rings, the call should move to the new number.
- Then ring while the line is busy, to check the busy divert.
What does it cost?
A diverted call is charged to your line as if you'd made a call to the number you divert to. Calls to ordinary 01, 02 and 03 numbers are included in most business call bundles, so for many clinics it costs nothing extra. Check your tariff if you're not on a bundle.
Switching it off
Use the "turn off" code above (or untick the rule in your portal) and calls go back to exactly how they were. Your number never changes.