Moving a word number to your firm's phones
Published
What happens after you buy a legal word number: the transfer details, moving the number onto the firm's phone system, and keeping calls flowing while it moves.
What you get after checkout
Portable to Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and all major US carriers. After checkout you receive the account number and transfer PIN the carrier asks for. The carrier controls how long the transfer takes and may charge its own service or transfer fees.
How the transfer starts
The phone company the firm wants the number on starts the transfer. The firm gives it the number, the account number and the transfer PIN, and that company asks for the number to be moved. Under FCC rules, simple transfers are meant to be completed within one business day.
Law firms often run their phones on a cloud phone system or a desk phone service. The number can go onto the same system as the firm's other lines, so the firm answers it the same way.
Source: FCC: porting, keeping your phone number when you change providers
Routing the calls
Once the number is on the firm's system, decide where its calls ring. An advertising number can ring the intake team, a bail line can ring whoever is on call after hours, and a number for one office can ring that office. Set the greeting to repeat the word, so callers know they reached the right place.
Before the first ad runs
- Wait until the number is on the firm's system and ringing where it should.
- Call it from a mobile phone and from a landline.
- Check the greeting and the after-hours route.
- Then send the ads to print and air.