If customers call your business, can they quickly reach the right person or department? Or are they frustrated because they have to be transferred from one person to another, explaining why they’re calling each time?
Phone extensions are an easy way for customers to self-serve when they call your main business phone number. Most people are used to phone extensions, like“Press one for customer support,” and will listen to a short phone menu greeting.
If you’ve not used phone extensions before, we’ll walk you through some of the benefits and how to set them up for your small business.
What is a phone extension?
A phone extension is a number assigned to a specific department or employee of your business. Instead of talking to a receptionist or dialing an employee’s direct phone number, customers can dial a phone extension to easily and quickly connect with the person who can help them.
Businesses can also use extensions instead of adding more phone numbers for departments. The business’s main phone number can have many extensions.
How do phone extensions work?
Extensions are typically short numbers — a few digits — added to the end of your main business phone number. If you’re using an interactive voice response, or IVR, menu, you can let customers know how to reach different people or departments using the extension. Many phone menus also let customers know they can bypass listening to the menu options if they know their party’s extension and can dial it at any time.
With Quo (formerly OpenPhone), you can get up to 10 when adding extensions to your phone menu, which would be on your phone menu as items 0-9. For example, you might let your customers dial extension one to reach the sales department. Quo doesn’t support multi-digit extensions at this time.
Types of phone number extensions explained
The type of phone number extension you have access to depends on your phone system. Not all phone number extensions are created equal. Here’s a comparison of the main phone extension types:
Home phone extensions vs business phone number extensions
Telephone extensions are part of every phone system, both at home and at the office. However, they each function differently.
With a home landline phone number extension, you and your household can make calls from any landline device using the same telephone number. One main line is split across multiple devices. For this reason, if someone in your house is using your landline, you can’t accept another incoming call.
Business phone number extensions take a different approach. After all, your team wouldn’t be productive if every team member had to wait for your business phone to be free to make and receive calls. Business phones have a single phone line that splits into multiple extensions. Each extension is associated with a dedicated phone. This system allows a business to purchase fewer phone numbers than their total employee size.
Phone extensions vs virtual phone numbers
Physical phone extension numbers in a PBX phone system are added to a main number. They help callers get in touch with specific team members by forwarding incoming calls to that person’s extension.
With virtual phones, business phone systems offer extensions in multiple ways. Multi-digit phone extension numbers can be added to an existing VoIP number, similar to the traditional phone extension model. Extensions can also be used to route calls to multiple other numbers in a virtual phone system.
In both cases, VoIP extensions are more cost-effective and easier to scale than traditional desk phone extensions. Team members can take incoming calls to their extension on their cell phone. And when you add a new extension, you don’t need to purchase an additional desk phone.
How to set up phone extensions in Quo
If you’re a Quo business customer, here’s how to set up phone extensions within your IVR menu:
- Go to Settings in the workspace, tap Phone numbers, and select your main business phone number.
- Set your business hours so you have the option to add a phone menu during or after your company’s working hours.
- Scroll down to Call flow and click Edit call flow to start setting up your menu. You’ll be taken to the call flow builder that lets you map out your call routing.
- Drag and drop the Phone menu block from the right-hand menu to the position below either During hours or After hours.
- Add an auto-attendant that callers will hear when they call your phone number. Click Add greeting message to upload an audio file, record a message, or type out a message to generate an automated voice recording.
- Under Menu options, you can add up to 10 extension options, including the numbers 0-9. Plus, you can add the specific keywords customers can say if they select the option by speaking.
- Next, you can route callers based on the menu option. Simply click Replace step below each menu option. You can choose from these other phone menu options:
- Voicemail: Send the call to voicemail
- Ring users: Choose a custom ring order for your team to receive calls
- Play audio: Play a pre-recorded audio message
- Forward call: Forward your call to a backup number
- Go to: Direct the call to another step in the call flow
- Sona: Send the call to our 24/7 AI voice agent
- Once you add extensions to your phone menu, you can choose a default destination for callers who don’t type or say a command. By default, if a caller stays on the call without selecting a phone menu option, the call flow builder will default to a Voicemail step. Under No selection, you can set a destination when a caller stays on the call without selecting an option. You can change this destination by selecting the three-dot menu on the top right-hand corner of the step.
- Hit Save, then toggle on the phone menu.
More advanced call routing strategies
Phone extensions are one of several ways you can route your calls in Quo. Here are a few more advanced call routing strategies that’ll save time for your team and improve your customer experience:
- Ring groups give your team flexibility over how they choose to receive incoming calls. Set up simultaneous ring, where all members of your team can receive a call at the same time, or sequential ring, where they receive a call in custom ring batches.
Ring groups are a great option for callers who want to connect with your team but don’t have a preference for who they speak to. They’re appropriate for prospects who want to know more about your business or for you to provide general customer support. - Business hours call routing helps you manage incoming calls differently, depending on the time of day. You can set up separate call flows during business hours vs after hours, with separate ring groups, auto-attendants, and call forwarding options. Individual team members can adjust their preferences for receiving call and text notifications with work schedules.
- Additional call flows enable your team to seamlessly switch between different call flows. Whether you have a reduced team because of the holidays or a company offsite, you can toggle to a custom call flow without changing your default one.
- With our call overflow features, you can always keep your customers in the loop when someone on your team can’t take a call.
Our AI voice agent Sona handles calls 24/7. It takes messages, answers common questions, and captures new leads for your team. It’s a smarter call answering option compared to voicemail.
Automatically reply to customers with a text using SMS auto-replies. You can provide reasons for why you couldn’t take their call and instruct them to talk to Sona or go to your support center to get an answer to their question.
Some calls are really important for you to take. You can add a backup call forwarding number to your call flows in case of emergencies or urgent matters that require your attention.
Benefits of phone extensions
Business phone extensions offer multiple benefits for your customers, your team, and your business. Here’s how:
1. Give customers the ability to reach specific departments
Most customers prefer to connect with specific team members instead of waiting to speak with a receptionist.. A self-service phone tree with virtual extensions quickly connects customers to the right member of your team .
Plus, when customers are familiar with their specific extension, they don’t have to wait to hear all the menu options. They can dial the extension at any time.
2. Provide a professional customer experience
A self-service phone menu with phone extensions gives your business a more polished, professional appearance. It shows that you’re trying to make connecting with people and departments easy — even if a department is only one person!
3. Offer scalability as your team grows
As your team grows and you add different departments to your phone menu, you might risk providing customers with too many options. No one wants to wait to hear 10 different menu choices when they call you.
With a multi-level phone menu, you can add several phone number extensions in an easy-to-navigate structure. For example, “Press one for Sales or press two for the East Coast team.”
Operate multiple locations or franchises? Phone number extensions make it easy for customers to connect with the right location. No need to jump around your website or transfer calls between different departments.
Have customers who speak multiple languages? You can offer each language as its own menu option and then provide an additional nested menu to connect your customers and your team.
Connect customers to your team faster with Quo (formerly OpenPhone)
You don’t want your customers to struggle to connect to the right department or person when they call your business. Phone extensions provide a better customer experience because they make it easy for your customers to self-serve from a phone menu. It’ll also reduce the demand on your team members. They’ll spend less time transferring calls around.
If you’re not a Quo customer, you can sign up for a free trial. IVR menus with phone extensions are available on the Business and Scale plans.
FAQs
Phone extension costs depend on your VoIP phone system. For example, platforms like Grasshopper give you different numbers of extensions based on which plan you choose. You pay $3 per extension per month for more extensions.
Quo includes phone extensions in our phone menu, available in our Business plan and above. You can add up to three menu levels and up to 10 phone number extensions in each level.
Examples of phone extensions include:
1. Different departments: Sales team, support team, billing department, etc.
2. Different locations: East Coast team, West Coast team, etc.
3. Different languages: English and Spanish phone extension options.
You can add an extension to your Quo number by adding a phone menu to your call flow.
Yes, you can configure extensions in Quo. Simply go to the call flow builder and adjust your phone menu.
Extension dialing is a useful option for internal business communications when team members are all located in a physical location. However, internal calls are less useful today, as you can simply message a team member directly. VoIP phone systems like Quo allow you to message colleagues without having to call their extension.
