FAQs

Answering services are often easily recognizable as a “service.” They typically perform only the simplest tasks, such as forwarding messages, and tend to be impersonal. Virtual Receptionists, on the other hand, sound as if they’re right in your office, transferring calls live and relaying vital information to callers.

The receptionists and chat specialists at Ruby are the best in the business. We hire exceptional service professionals who delight in making others happy, then give them training and technology tools to handle your calls and website chats with the perfect mix of friendliness and professionalism.

All of our bright virtual receptionists and chat specialists work in our offices in Portland, Oregon and Kansas City, Missouri.

Ruby’s Virtual Receptionist service is dedicated to creating real, meaningful connections with your callers. Your Receptionist team at Ruby can answer and connect calls to you, take messages, answer common caller questions, schedule appointments, delight callers in English and Spanish, return calls on your behalf, screen for solicitors, and more. It’s like having a full-time, on-site Receptionist at a fraction of the cost.

Yes, during our business hours. Our cheerful Receptionists can cover basic business hours, as well as extended evening and weekend hours. The full range of our live answering capabilities is Monday thru Friday 5am–9pm Pacific Time (8am–midnight Eastern Time) and 6am–6pm Pacific Time on weekends (9am–9pm Eastern Time).

Live Virtual Receptionist service is unavailable outside of those hours and during the following U.S. holidays: New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. We also close at 3pm Pacific Time on Christmas Eve. Outside of our live answering hours, we provide a number of automated options, at no additional charge.

Absolutely! You can simply forward your existing phone number to Ruby whenever you need coverage: all the time, part of the time, or on a delayed basis. Oftentimes you can even port your number to Ruby, and we can host it for you.

Certainly! We assign each customer a number that you are free to publish and take with you at the end of service. You can select a number in the area code of your choice (depending on availability). Please refer to our Terms of Use for more details.

A: Below is a typical example of call-handling for our Virtual Receptionists:

• The call is answered live by a Virtual Receptionist with your custom greeting.
• After asking the caller’s name, the Receptionist briefly places the caller on hold.
• The Receptionist contacts you and asks whether you wish to accept the call.
• If accepted, the call is transferred immediately.
• If declined, the receptionist either connects the call to voicemail or takes a written message, either of which appears in the Ruby App and my.ruby.com, and may be emailed or texted to you or both.

*Please note: We are happy to adapt our call-handling to your unique business, including only taking messages, collecting specific information from callers, trying multiple lines, and more.

Our virtual receptionists can transfer calls to any phone number you wish, whether it’s an office line, home line, or cell phone (other than the one forwarded to Ruby). Additional fees may apply for numbers outside of North America. Many customers give us multiple phone numbers so that we have a variety of ways to reach them. 

You can update your status as frequently as you like! For example, you can request to have calls transferred to your cell phone, calls held for an allotted amount of time, or detailed information relayed to your callers. Update your status with our mobile app or my.ruby.com—or just email us or give us a ring!

When you’re unavailable, our Virtual Receptionists can take a message, transfer to voicemail, or offer the caller the choice between the two—whichever you prefer. They can even transfer the call to someone else if you’d like.

Your messages will be available in the Ruby App and at my.ruby.com, and may be emailed or texted to you, or both. (If you opt to have us use the voicemail at your office or on your mobile phone, those messages will be found there.)  For HIPAA compliant receptionist service, please see HIPAA specific information below.

We certainly do! Spanish bilingual service is included with every receptionist service account at no additional cost. Whether Spanish-speaking callers are common or occasional to your business, we provide customizable options to ensure exceptional experiences for your Spanish and English-speaking callers. (And if you’d rather not have Spanish service, we can set your account up that way instead.  Our service is always tailored to your needs.)

No problem. We’ll set up your account the way you want it. Our service is always tailored to your needs.

A: Receptionist minutes are billed in 30-second increments, and calls are rounded up to the nearest 30-second mark. As an example, if a call is ten-seconds long, it will be billed as 30-seconds (or half of a receptionist minute).

For inbound calls, receptionist time is calculated starting from the time the receptionist receives the call and ends when a receptionist transfers the call (either to someone, to voicemail, or otherwise disconnects because the call is over). We include hold time, and exclude the talk time once a call is transferred to you or your voicemail box.

For outbound calls, receptionist minutes are calculated by counting the time the Outbound Call Specialist is on the call, as well as the time they spend sending a follow-up email to fill you in on the results of the call.

Additional minutes are simply prorated, and you’re welcome to change your plan at any time.

Absolutely! The Ruby App and my.ruby.com both feature an up-to-the-minute record of your monthly usage, so you can easily track your receptionist minutes.

Our Customer Happiness team is always available to adjust your billing plan for the current billing cycle —just give us a call or send us an email.

For most businesses, it’s as simple as dialing a code from your office phone. Our Customer Happiness team will gladly walk you through the process.

We certainly can! Our virtual receptionists are happy to place calls to gather or relay information, or to confirm appointments on your behalf.

Absolutely. Two companies can pool minutes. If you’d like to learn more, give us a call at (866) 611-7829.

Anywhere in the United States, Canada, and the US Caribbean.

Absolutely! With Experience Ruby, you can hear what it’s like to have our talented Receptionists answer a live call for your business. Click here to give it a whirl!

Absolutely! With Experience Ruby, you can hear what it’s like to have our talented Receptionists answer a live call for your business.Click here to give it a whirl!

Simply complete the online service agreement to get started. A friendly member of our team will contact you to get up and running!

You can get started with our 24×7 live website chat service by calling 866-611-7829 or emailing hello@ruby.com.

Yes! You may now opt-in to our HIPAA compliant receptionist and chat services.  See the following FAQ questions for more details about this.

HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that includes US laws providing privacy protections. For more information about HIPAA in general, click here. For details about HIPAA for Professionals, click here.

You may opt-in to our HIPAA compliant service by signing a Business Associate Agreement (BAA).  Please see below for how the service will differ from our non-HIPAA compliant service.

No way!  There are no additional charges for customers who need HIPAA compliant service. Regular charges apply.

The primary difference is that with HIPAA compliant service, messages and caller information will not be emailed and/or texted to you, but rather will be available via a secure method.  More specifically: 

• Your messages, voicemails, and call details will be available in the Ruby App (which sends notifications) and on our online portal at my.ruby.com. 
• Outbound call assist requests will be placed through the Ruby App – and the confirmation messages from our outbound call team will be available in the Ruby App and on my.ruby.com.  
• While we have other options for helping schedule appointments for you, we are unable to do so with the third-party scheduling software Calendly, as it is not HIPAA compliant.  We’d love to connect about how else we can help with your appointment scheduling!

With our HIPAA compliant chat service, your chat transcripts will only be available on the online dashboard (which sends email notifications).  To keep the sensitive information collected from your website visitors secure, it will not be emailed to you.

You will access your messages, voicemails, and call details via our online portal at my.ruby.com and/or the Ruby App (which can provide push notifications). This allows the sensitive information collected from your callers to remain secure.

You may submit an outbound call assist request securely through the Ruby app. The confirmation messages from our team after the outbound call is complete are available in the call assist logs in the Ruby app and on my.ruby.com.

Ruby is currently only able to schedule appointments via a third-party scheduling platform called Calendly, which unfortunately does not offer HIPAA compliant service at this time. We do have some other options for scheduling that may work for you and we’re happy to discuss them to find a good solution!