Setup guide
Send your calls to Scout
Your shop gets its own Scout phone number. Customers keep calling your main number, and your phone provider forwards the calls you choose to Scout: all of them, after hours, when the line is busy, or when nobody picks up.
Scout Help Center · Last updated
Before you start
- Whoever manages your phone system, free for the setup call.
- When Scout should answer: all calls, after hours only, when your lines are busy, or after a few rings.
- Your business hours, what counts as urgent, and who gets urgent calls during business hours.
- A number Scout can put callers through to when a call needs a person, like a cell phone or a direct line that doesn't forward back to Scout.
- A phone that isn't on your business account, for test calls.
Pick when Scout answers
Each option matches a kind of forwarding setting. Scout's team finds the right one on your phone system with you on the setup call; the names differ from one phone system to another.
| When Scout answers | The kind of forwarding Scout's team sets up with you |
|---|---|
| Every call | Forward all calls, sometimes called unconditional forwarding |
| After hours only | A schedule or time-of-day rule, if your phone system has one. Scout's team works out the options with you if it doesn't |
| When your lines are busy | Forward when busy |
| After a few rings | Forward on no answer, with the number of rings set |
Which of these your phone system offers varies, so Scout's team checks the options with you on the setup call.
Steps
Choose when Scout answers
Pick one of the four options above on your intake form, along with your business hours and who gets urgent calls.
Get your Scout number
Scout's team sets up your shop's Scout number. It answers the calls you forward and sends Scout's texts.
Turn on forwarding
On the setup call, Scout's team helps you forward the calls you picked to your Scout number on your phone system. Turn forwarding on when Scout's team says your Scout is ready, not before.
Test every case you set up
From a phone that isn't on your business account, call your main number after hours, while the line is busy, or letting it ring, whichever you set up. Check that Scout answers and that the call shows up in Scout. If a test call books a job in ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro, check it in your software and remove the test job after. On FieldEdge, check the booking request with your new leads and remove it after.
Tell your team
Let the office know which calls now go to Scout, and that Scout's conversations are in Scout's inbox.
What changes for your team
- Customers still call the number they already know.
- Scout answers the calls you forward, books and reschedules jobs directly in ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro, and texts the customer. For FieldEdge shops, it takes the booking request for your office to confirm.
- Urgent calls come to you during business hours, so you decide who covers emergencies after you close.
- When a call needs a person, Scout can put the caller through to someone at your shop.
- Calls you don't forward ring your phones as they do today.
Turn forwarding off
Turn the forwarding off on your phone system, and calls ring your phones as before. Scout's team can help with that. If you want Scout off for good, tell Scout's team too.
Troubleshooting and common questions
Unanswered calls go to voicemail instead of Scout.
Your voicemail picks up before the no-answer forward kicks in. Set the forward to fewer rings than your voicemail waits, or turn voicemail off on that line.
Some test calls reach Scout and some don't.
Note which case each missed call was (after hours, busy or no answer) and check forwarding is on for that case. A second business number or extension needs its own forwarding.
A caller Scout put through came straight back to Scout.
The number Scout transfers to is forwarded to Scout too. Give Scout's team a number that rings a person, like a cell phone or a direct line with no forwarding.
Scout answers calls but doesn't send texts yet.
Your Scout number can't send texts until the phone carriers approve it for business texting. Scout's team starts that registration when you sign up and can tell you where it stands.
Will callers know they're talking to AI?
Scout is an AI phone agent. How it introduces itself is set up with each shop, so settle the greeting with Scout's team before you turn forwarding on.
Still stuck? Talk to us or email [email protected].
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