Hello, I am trying to determine if this service can do what I need for two different situations:
Cat Shelter - currently have phone through CenturyLink for too much money. No one answers the phone onsite and it is never used for outgoing. I just need calls to go to voicemail and then someone checks them about once a week. Having VM transcribed to email could be nice.
Apartments - currently using a live receptionist service ($$$!), which emails and texts a variety of users. Possible to have as VM instead with transcriptions emailed and texted instead? This one will need outgoing, currently have Comcast with one line on a PolyCom phone. That number is a different one from the main line I need to go to VM. I’m not sure how the lines interact.
Both would need to port over the existing main numbers.
Is this something I can easily do? Thank you for any help. Apologies if these are basic questions, I’m a bit confused by all of this.
Yes you can configure incoming calls to be routed directly to a voicemail that can send the audio message to an email address. Transcription is also an option at an additional cost of 0.05$ per minute of voice message. Be aware that transcription is in a single language of your choice on each voicemail. So if you plan on receiving calls in multiple languages, you may have to set up an IVR that can dispatch callers speaking different languages to their respective voicemail, each with their own transcription language. I have not tried the transcription service myself, so I cannot say how reliable it is.
You can certainly set up an IVR that give the caller different interactive options to select whom they want to reach and then route each choice to a different voicemail. Each voicemail can be sent to one or many different email addresses. VoIP.ms does not offer SMS notifications on voicemail. This is a feature that you may request for future development. At this time, if you need SMS notification, you will have to subscribe to an external Email-to-SMS gateway service. You voicemail will send its notification email to the SMS gateway that will convert it to SMS. This Email-to-SMS service has an additional cost which varies depending on the provider you will be choosing, typically a few cents per message. For the second number, you can definitely setup outgoing calls that will show that secondary number if you also port it to VoIP.ms. The incoming calls on that number may also go directly to its own voicemail.
All of this can be done with the native VoIP.ms features. You will just need time to configure the DIDs, recordings, voicemails, IVRs, subaccounts and the routing. If you are familiar with those concepts and how to use them to build the call process you would like, you should not have any problem as the web UI is pretty intuitive. Their technical support is also very helpful and quick to respond if you need assistance for configuring something.
If you are unsure what you need to do to build those two cases, I would suggest you to get a temporary phone number (DID) that you will use to test everything before porting your real number. Once you are satisfied with the configuration (every incoming and outgoing call ends up where you want), you may port your real number and configure its incoming route exactly as the temporary number is. You may then finish by releasing the temporary number. Just don’t forget to configure e911 on the DID that can get outgoing calls from.
Probably a minor note, but if the text is going to someone and you know their cell carrier, you may be able send an email to the ten digit phone number@the carrier’s domain. (f.e.: 1234567890@txt.att.net for text and 1234567890@mms.att.net for multimedia)
This is a good point. Unfortunately, not all mobile phone providers have an email to SMS gateway for their client. Mine sadly doesn’t.
The only downside with this approach is that you have to know the mobile provider of each of your recipients. It is usually easy if they use phones provided by their business. If they use their personal phones, it may be difficult to collect the name of the providers and make sure to keep track if a user decides to change their provider and port their mobile number.
A third party email to SMS provider will transparently reach the SMS recipient no matter what is their mobile provider. This is partially what you pay for with a service like that.
