FAQs

Simply call 844-311-7829, visit Get Started, or email hello@ruby.com.

That team is available Monday to Friday, 5am to 5pm Pacific / 8am to 8pm Eastern.

Ruby’s Virtual Receptionists are dedicated to creating real, meaningful connections with your callers. Your receptionist team at Ruby can answer and connect calls to you when and where you want, 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, onsite receptionist at a fraction of the cost. Our Receptionists are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year – and we look forward to connecting about which hours will suit you best! (Ruby’s bilingual service and outgoing call assists are available Monday to Friday, 5am to 6pm Pacific / 8am to 9pm Eastern.)

Our Customer Happiness team would be delighted to expand the hours we answer for you! Call 866-611-7829 or email staff@ruby.com. Please note that bilingual service and outbound call assists are only available Monday to Friday, 5am to 6pm Pacific / 8am to 9pm Eastern. Also, while there is no additional charge for 24/7/365 service per se, your usage of receptionist minutes will potentially increase and will count toward your receptionist minute usage. And of course, if you exceed the number of receptionist minutes included in your plan, you’ll be charged according to your plan’s per-minute rate for any additional minutes used.

Absolutely! You may simply forward your existing phone number to us 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 (saving you the expense of that phone line)!

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

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.

Yes! Below is a typical example of how our Virtual Receptionists handle calls:

• The call is answered live by a Virtual Receptionist with your custom greeting.
• If you’ve indicated you’re not taking calls, the Receptionist will let the caller know whatever you’ve asked us to share and take a message.
• If you might be available, the Receptionist will place the caller on hold and contact you to ask if you’d like to take the call.
• If you accept, the caller is transferred immediately.
• If you don’t answer or decline, the Receptionist either connects the call to voicemail or takes a written message, either of which will appear in the Ruby App and my.ruby.com, and may be emailed or texted to you or both. (If you opt-in to HIPAA compliant receptionist service, messages will only be in the Ruby App and my.ruby.com, and notifications will be sent to alert you. See below for more information about HIPAA service.

Please note: We are happy to adapt our call-handling to your unique business, including not screening the calls before transferring, only taking messages, collecting specific information from callers, trying multiple lines, and more. Give us a call to talk about what sounds best for you!

Yes! Our Virtual Receptionists can transfer calls to any phone number you wish (other than the one forwarded to Ruby), whether it’s an office line, home line, or cell phone. (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.

We encourage you to keep us updated as to your status. When you sign up, our expert Onboarding Specialists will talk through how you want your calls handled when you’re available and when you’re not (i.e., your “normal call handling instructions”). And then you can “update your status” whenever you’d like to make a temporary change – think of it as whatever you’d say when you tap your receptionist on the shoulder as you walk out the door or into a meeting. For example: “I’ll be in court until 2pm, so please hold my calls”, “I’m going to work from home, so try me on my cell”, or “Let callers know I’ll be on vacation this week and send my calls to Suzie”. Knowing your status helps us get your calls to you when you want them and provides peace of mind for your callers when you’re not available by letting them know when they might expect to hear from you.

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 both in the Ruby App and at my.ruby.com, and may be emailed and/or texted to you as well. (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.

Yes, Ruby is happy to schedule appointments for your callers! Before getting started, we’ll review your preferred online calendaring system to make sure it fits within our guidelines.  

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. Bilingual service is available Monday to Friday, 5am to 6pm Pacific / 8am to 9pm Eastern. (And if you’d rather not have Spanish service, we can set your account up that way too! Our service is always tailored to your needs.)

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 through to someone or 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 billed according to the overage rate associated with your plan. In the Ruby App, you will see an alert that indicates when you have used 85% of the minutes in your current plan, and another when you have used 100%. To upgrade or downgrade your Ruby Services (in alignment with our Terms of Use), please contact our Customer Happiness team through our Help Center or 866-611-7829.

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.

We certainly can! Our Virtual Receptionists are happy to place calls to gather or relay information or confirm appointments on your behalf Monday to Friday, 5am to 6pm Pacific / 8am to 9pm Eastern.

Absolutely! Multiple companies can pool minutes.

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 and on our online portal at my.ruby.com, both of which provide notifications.
• 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.
• If you have a HIPAA compliant scheduling tool, that our Receptionists can access without a login, they can make appointments for your callers.

Simply call 844-311-7829, visit Get Started, or email hello@ruby.com.

When you connect with a friendly expert member of our team, let them know you’d like to opt-in to our HIPAA compliant service by a signing a Business Associate Agreement (BAA).

That team is available Monday to Friday, 5am to 5pm Pacific / 8am to 8pm Eastern.