We currently have VOIP service from Phone Power, and it works great. I'm hoping whatever solution we come up with, it will be able to be done without changing providers. If we must change providers, I would at least like to keep our current number.

Basically, I have 3-5 priority customers that pay me a monthly salary to be at the top of my work list at all times. It is essentially 24x7 availability. I am looking to do 2 new things with our phone support in the next month:

1. I want to drop ALL calls (IE send to voicemail without ringing) automatically after we're closed.

2. I want priority customers to be able to enter a numeric password after we're closed, and be immediately forwarded to my cell phone.

I'm thinking it would go like this: Customer calls during business hours, phone rings as normal; Customer calls after business hours, is prompted for their priority support password. If they don't have one, are given the option to leave a voicemail; If customer has entered a valid numeric password, forward the call to my cell phone.

So, what services can do this and what's it going to run me? Additionally, if this can be done with a dedicated local linux box (I've got a spare one just sitting here), then I would be interested in that solution as well.

Hopefully someone has gone through this and has some suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

You *could* approach this backwards without too much trouble.

Give your priority customers the cell number, and have it forward to the desk when you are in the office. If you have no answer forwarding turned on, just turn off the cell when in the office. That way you don't have to remember to remove the call forward at the end of the day.

The problem there is that I don't want them to have my personal cell number.

I have a contracted employee who takes over every other weekend, at which point I would adjust the settings to forward to his cell for the priority clients and change it back to myself when I'm available.

Thank you for the suggestion though.

Well, it can be done on asterisk.

How about a Google Voice account as a "Priority Support" number, route it where you wish whenever you wish.

I've still got the problem of turning off the business line automatically when we close, though (Although your suggestion is one I hadn't thought of....)

Doesn't asterisk have a nightlines setting? It would be awfully incomplete if it didn't.

What kind of phone system you using at work?

At work, we have an option for night mode on our PBX to send calls straight to voicemail.

Just a simple VOIP plan from Phone Power. I'm willing to switch to another service, I just need to keep this number.

I'm looking at RingCentral's offerings, but I don't know for sure whether or not what they offer fits my needs.

have an iphone? you can try ringcentral, http://mobile.ringcentral.com/receptionist/

Advertise like "pay $? more you will have my cell number,the most preferential." So they can have you on the phone if they cant get the line through your work number.But if they refused to continue paying for it,just left them in the blacklist,I assume most mobile got this function.
This first came into my mind when I see this,and I am not sure it would work.:P
I suggest contact with your current service provider check out if they can help you with this.

Get a dual sim card phone and give them your second number. Then turn that number off when you are closed :P hope that helps.

Kevin, take a look at virtualpbx.com. It will do exactly what you want, where you can have numeric passwords setup for your priority customers and you can set the other calls to go to voice mail except for business hours. You can also transfer your existing voip number to them, this can be done on their order form.

Kevin, take a look at virtualpbx.com. It will do exactly what you want, where you can have numeric passwords setup for your priority customers and you can set the other calls to go to voice mail except for business hours. You can also transfer your existing voip number to them, this can be done on their order form.

I'm also interested in such a setup. Do you have any personal experience with VirtualPBX?

You should be able to do this quite easily with one the the Asterisk distros that already has FreePBX installed (Trixbox, Elastix, PBX-in-a-Flash ...) if your current voip provider will allow you to forward your incoming calls to a SIP URI.

In FreePBX/Asterisk you can route calls based on time of day.

The day time calls would just go to an extension or your cell.

The night time calls you could direct to an IVR (automated menu) which has 2 options (obviously you wouldn't tell them the options in the prompt!). If they enter the correct number it forwards to your cell, if they enter an invalid number or no number it goes to voicemail.

You can set this all up through FreePBX, the web gui.

Port forward a new number to your cell, then ur cell is hidden......

I'm also interested in such a setup. Do you have any personal experience with VirtualPBX?

Yes and it works flawlessly.

We offer a Voice Mail number for USA based clients.
WE offer a 24x7 local based (India) number for anyone who needs to call for emergency or anything. It's totally manned (diverts to 4 cellphones, the closest person picks up or the available one picks up). It's straight forward. A bit expensive if you call international but standards are so defined with net based calling or VOIP it comes out decently.

We have rarely missed a call this year.

Best Regards,

Greetings Kevin:

We are in a similar situation where we have customers who contract for 15-minute guaranteed response time.

For those customers we provide a special toll free number that routes to the office during working hours, and to a cell phone outside of working hours. We also provide a special email address which our ticket system then uses along with the customer information (to prevent false pages) to page us as well.

Thank you.