How to set up call forwarding to Smart Pager

Once you have your Smart Pager number, the next step is telling your office phone to send after-hours calls to it. This is called call forwarding, and every carrier handles it slightly differently.

The good news: it usually takes less than five minutes, and you only need to do it once.

Before you start

You will need two things:

• Your Smart Pager number (the dedicated number you received when you signed up)
• Access to your office phone system or your carrier’s online portal

If your practice manager handles the phones, forward this guide to them.

Telstra landlines

Telstra offers several forwarding options. The one you want is call forwarding on no answer, which sends calls to Smart Pager only when nobody picks up.

To activate

1. Pick up the handset on your office phone
2. Dial *61* followed by your Smart Pager number, then #
3. You will hear a confirmation tone

For example, if your Smart Pager number is 03 1234 5678, you would dial: *61*0312345678#

To deactivate

1. Pick up the handset
2. Dial #61#

Telstra business portal

If you have a Telstra business account, you can also manage forwarding through the My Telstra portal under your service settings.

Optus landlines

Optus uses similar codes to Telstra for call forwarding.

To activate

1. Pick up the handset
2. Dial *61* followed by your Smart Pager number, then #

To deactivate

1. Pick up the handset
2. Dial #61#

VoIP and cloud phone systems

If your practice uses a VoIP system (like 8x8, RingCentral, or a hosted PBX), call forwarding is usually configured in the admin dashboard rather than with dial codes.

Look for settings labelled:

• After-hours routing or time-based routing
• Call forwarding on no answer
• Overflow destination

Set the forwarding destination to your Smart Pager number. Most VoIP systems let you set a schedule so forwarding only kicks in outside business hours.

If you are not sure where to find this, your VoIP provider’s support team can usually set it up for you in a few minutes.

Testing your setup

After configuring forwarding:

1. Call your office number from a mobile phone
2. Let it ring until forwarding activates (usually 4-6 rings)
3. You should hear the Smart Pager greeting
4. Leave a short test message
5. Check your Smart Pager dashboard. The message should appear within a minute

If the call is not forwarding, double-check the number you entered and make sure you included the area code.

Running both services in parallel

If you are switching from a traditional answering service, you do not need to cut over all at once. A common approach:

1. Set up Smart Pager and test it with a few calls
2. Once you are happy, update the forwarding destination from the old service to Smart Pager
3. Cancel the old service after a week or two

Your clients never notice the change because they keep calling the same office number.