1. Get your destination ready
Complete your business setup, review your agent instructions and activate your dedicated number in Spikey. Copy the number shown in Setup. Use your real assigned number, not a sample from a guide, when changing your phone service.
Before you change anything, save your current voicemail destination and forwarding settings. Confirm any charges and plan restrictions with your provider. A mobile line, landline and business phone system from the same company may have different forwarding features and setup steps.
2. Ask for the correct forwarding condition
Unanswered-call forwarding lets your phone ring before sending the call elsewhere. Busy-line forwarding and unreachable-phone forwarding are separate conditions on many services. Forwarding every call immediately is a different behavior and may bypass your team's chance to answer.
Open the Forwarding guide in Setup and select your provider and service. It includes guidance for major US providers and links to provider resources where available. If your service is not listed, ask your carrier or administrator for conditional forwarding to an external number. There is no single dial code that works for every US business phone.
3. Test the whole customer journey
Call your usual business number from a second phone and leave the first phone unanswered. Check that the intended phone rings first, Spikey answers after the expected delay and the caller can leave a routine request.
Then check Calls for the resulting record and follow-up. If you have configured notifications, check the chosen channel too. Test busy and unreachable routing separately when those are part of your setup. Completing the on-screen guide is not a verification that your carrier forwarding works.
4. Know how to reverse the change
Keep your provider's instructions for turning forwarding off and restoring voicemail. If your line or phone plan changes, repeat the test. Some forwarding settings replace the destination that previously received your voicemail, so simply guessing an off-code can produce unexpected results.
Pausing AI answering in Spikey does not change your carrier settings. Calls still forwarded to the paused service hear its pause announcement, and subscription charges continue. To send callers back to your ordinary voicemail, restore the previous routing with your provider and test from another phone.