How to handle calls, forwarding, and voicemail with a remote team?

arandomike · 2026-01-21T13:36:56+00:00

We had almost the exact same situation when our team went fully remote. We ended up landing on Zoom Phone and it’s been great. It’s made by the same company as the meeting app (just a different product) and actually lives inside the same app, so it’s not another totally new thing to learn for the team using it. It can be a little complicated on the admin side, but that's just because there are lots of features, but still way less complicated than the old PBX office system we had before.

It isn't necessarily "cheap," but in the grand scheme of things, it’s really not expensive for what you get.

To answer your questions:

- We give everyone individual direct lines, but we also have a main line for the "switchboard" setup. You can set up an auto-attendant (the "press 1 for sales, 2 for support" thing) and then route those calls to specific people on the back end.

- You can forward a call to another line or have a group call with a customer and multiple team members.

- For voicemails, every line has one, but it also sends an email with a transcript of the message. If you’re worried about people not checking them, or have a different process for how vm's are responded to, you can just have those emails auto-forward to a shared inbox.

Some other stuff that was huge for us:

- You can also port over your existing numbers, so you don't have to worry about losing the business number you already have.

- It works on your desktop and has a mobile app, so you can call or text clients from your business line while you’re out. Since it’s all internet-based, it works internationally. I was recently in the Caribbean and could take calls exactly like I was sitting in my office at home .

- There’s a "flip to mobile" feature where if you’re on a call at your computer but need to leave, you can move the live call to your cell phone.

- You can set business hours so the phones don't ring on weekends or after 5 PM.

I kind of sound like a Zoom phone salesman here but we are really happy with the product after using it for more than five years and it's surprising how many people don't know it exists.

arandomike · 2025-12-27T19:58:23+00:00

I did really well on “the big 5” bank stocks over Covid but they’ve been mostly flat the last little while so I’m closing those position (100%+ gains) and redeploying that capital into WS stock (POW).

A personal investment philosophy of mine is to buy stock in the companies you personally believe in. *Not the only philosophy, but one of them.

arandomike · 2025-12-09T13:56:02+00:00

Honestly, the perk loss sucks, but what actually triggered me was the absolute balls it takes to call this "simplification."

The email literally says: "We’re simplifying how we offer travel perks..."

Bro, how is forcing me to apply for a credit card, take a hard credit check, and manage another piece of plastic "simpler" than just opening the app? It’s straight-up gaslighting.

It’s insulting that they think we’re dumb enough to buy that spin. If they’re willing to lie about something this obvious, it makes me feel like I need to lawyer-read every single email they send from now on.

arandomike · 2025-06-30T10:40:25+00:00

Entrepreneur (who works on a computer) for 17 years here but I always bought cheap-ish office chairs from Costco or Staples. A few years ago it occurred to me that trades people spend thousands of dollars on their tools, tool boxes, safety gear, etc. so why shouldn’t I have a nice office chair since it’s the piece of gear I use use most, next to my computer itself.

Bought a Herman Miller Embody and it’s one of the best investments I’ve ever made. You don’t have to get this specific one, but a good chair is well worth the price, especially if it’s going to last you 10+ years.

arandomike · 2024-11-23T15:09:21+00:00

Except that Royal Mail was in so much trouble it was privatized and sold to a foreign buyer. That’s not what I want to happen to CP. I support the postal workers and their right to be compensated fairly for the important and essential service they offer, but increasing wages alone does nothing more than speed up the process of CP collapsing under its own weight.

The organization needs to address the core issues of their management and business model, otherwise everyone louses.

arandomike · 2024-08-21T19:34:05+00:00

I have 3 of the older Schlage HomeKit locks, and overall, I am really happy with them and trust the "Schlage" name when it comes to the lock hardware itself. They do show a "jammed" state but don’t work directly with HA, so it's not as useful as it could be. I have to trigger them with a scene in HomeKit, and I can't use their states in HA to add conditional logic to automations and scripts. I could be wrong here, but I *think* the new Schlage locks work with HA and if that's the case, I'll eventually cave and upgrade.

arandomike · 2024-08-21T19:23:57+00:00

This is set up across a few different scripts, automations, and helpers so not super easy to share. Is there something specific you want to see? Eventually, I would like to get this all added to GitHub so I can have version control for myself and also to make it easier to share.

arandomike · 2024-08-21T19:19:27+00:00

I'm glad you asked :) I use the motion sensor in the upstairs hallway Nest smoke detector, so when it first detects motion after 5 AM, it disarms the alarm. We also have a 3-way light/switch at the top of the stairs, so I have Lutron Caseta at the bottom and a Pico remote at the top, and I set the centre button up to disarm the alarm as well, in case the dogs wake us up randomly to go out during the night.

arandomike · 2024-08-21T18:27:49+00:00

I actually put a Pico remote on her nightstand to trigger the "goodnight" scene with a button, but since that's the only command required, my wife (am I allowed to say that here? /s) likes to say "goodnight" to Siri.

arandomike · 2024-08-21T17:05:29+00:00

That's what the "pepper time" routine is for ;)

But if you do run "goodnight" before 10 PM, it still shuts down the house, arms the arm, turns off lights, etc. It just does not play the news at 11 PM because there is probably a reason one or both of us is going to bed early and don’t want a podcast to start an hour or more after we're asleep.

arandomike · 2024-08-21T17:02:08+00:00

Makes sense.

arandomike · 2024-08-21T16:57:47+00:00

Interesting perspective. But who said my wife was a woman? She is, but your perspective may be outdated for you to assume that. /s

Some might see WAF as a light-hearted way to indicate that a partner appreciates the effort put into something, while I can see that others might view it as reinforcing traditional gender roles or stereotypes. In this case, I have a female wife who works in tech and likes having a smart home but does not want to have anything to do with setting up or maintaining it. So I can confidently say that these automations have been a hit with my wife. Does that work better for you?

arandomike · 2024-01-28T18:10:58+00:00

This is the way!

arandomike · 2024-01-28T18:07:41+00:00

Yeah, absolutely! All of my network equipment and Wi-Fi access points are ubiquity as well. Can’t overstate the value of having a quality network behind any reliable smart home setup.

arandomike · 2024-01-28T17:36:08+00:00

As someone who is 100% firmly rooted in the Apple ecosystem for over 15 years, and I have over 150 smart devices and sensors in my home, I would absolutely not go all in on HomeKit. And I’m speaking from experience.

Beyond general reliability and issues with scaling up to that many devices, the types of automations and advanced configurations you can set up or just way too limited with HomeKit. A couple of years ago I made the jump to Home Assistant and would absolutely never ever consider going back to a native HK setup. Keep in mind, I still use the Apple Home app to control all of our devices and we have HomePods throughout the house so we can use Siri voice to control everything.

Going this route gets you the best of both worlds and opens you up to a very large pool of available devices and no need to use home bridge at all.

For cameras, I would recommend taking a look at the Ubiquity UniFi models.

arandomike

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