This guide covers the two halves of getting your phones working with Lexidesk: getting calls to the AI, and getting the AI to pass a call back to a live person when it needs to. Almost every issue comes down to how your own phone system and the numbers you transfer to are set up, so this guide walks through both and how to configure them so callers always reach the right place.

This is written for the person who manages the firm's phones. You don't need to be technical to follow it.

It helps to picture the call moving in two directions, and it's worth naming them, because the rest of this guide uses these terms:

When something goes wrong, it's almost always in one of those two handoffs. The rest of this guide walks through both.

This is how calls reach the AI in the first place. You point your office number at your Lexidesk number using call forwarding, a standard feature in every business phone system.

There are two ways firms run this. Pick the one that matches how you want your phones covered.

Both are valid. The right choice depends on whether you want a person to have first crack at calls during business hours, or you want the AI to handle everything consistently.

Where you do this depends on what kind of number your firm uses. Pick the row that matches you.

If you use a business VoIP system (RingCentral, 3CX, Dialpad, GoTo, Nextiva, Ooma, Vonage, 8x8 and similar). Log in to the admin dashboard in a browser and find the section called Call Forwarding, Call Handling, or Call Rules. Set the rule on your main company number, not on an individual person's extension, so every caller is covered.

If your firm number is a plain cell phone or landline. Forwarding is set with your carrier. Most US carriers turn on forward-all by dialing *72 followed by the full Lexidesk number, and turn it off with *73. Conditional forwarding codes (busy or no answer) vary by carrier, so check your carrier's support page for the exact codes.

Then configure it for the coverage you picked in Step 1:

For full 24/7: Set your main number to forward all calls (sometimes called unconditional forwarding) to your Lexidesk AI number. No schedules, no conditions.

For after-hours and overflow, you need two rules working together:

To confirm the redirect is working, call your normal office number from a cell phone. You should hear the Lexidesk AI greeting within a ring or two. If you hear your old voicemail or your own phones ringing through when they shouldn't, the forwarding rule didn't take, so go back to Step 2.

Most of the time the AI handles the whole call on its own, captures the details, books the consult, and logs everything. Transferring to a live person is useful when a caller genuinely needs someone on your team or you have live transfers for leads set up. When that happens, Lexidesk gives you two ways to make the handoff, and the right one depends on the number you're sending the call to.

Here's the part that surprises most people. The two transfer types behave very differently, and the difference comes down to who is on the call to your office while the handoff happens.

Picture the AI holding two phones.

Blind transfer. The AI says "let me put you through," presses transfer, and hangs up. From that second on, the caller is the one on the call to your office. They hear it ringing. If your line has a phone menu (the recording that says "press 1 for new clients"), they hear it and can press buttons themselves. It is a completely normal phone call to your number, because that is now exactly what it is.

Warm transfer. The AI says "hold on, let me get someone for you," puts the caller on hold with a melody playing, then picks up a second phone and calls your office itself. The AI is the one on that second call, not the caller. It waits for that call to be answered, reads its announcement ("I have a new personal injury lead for you"), and merges the two calls together. If a person answers, they hear the announcement. If the destination answers with a menu, a queue, an answering service, or a voicemail greeting instead, the announcement goes there rather than to a person, because the AI can't tell the difference between a human and a phone system picking up.

Which type to use comes down to how the destination on the other end behaves, which the next sections cover.

Two facts.
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One: the transfer type does not change how long a destination makes a caller wait. If your system queues callers for 50 seconds, they wait about 50 seconds whether you use warm or blind. That wait belongs to the destination, and the only way to shorten it is to transfer somewhere a person is actually free, not to switch the mode.

Two: what the type does change is how the caller is handed over and what they can do while they wait.

With that in mind:

If a caller waits a long time after the AI transfers them, that wait is coming from the destination you send them to, not from the transfer itself. The AI starts the transfer right away, but what the caller experiences next depends on the destination number. If the destination rings for a long time, opens with a menu, or rolls to voicemail, that behavior is controlled by the destination's phone system.
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A long wait almost always means one of these about the destination:

Switching between warm and blind does not shorten any of these, because the wait belongs to the destination. A 50-second queue is 50 seconds on either setting. The only way to cut the wait is to change where you transfer to.

A quick checklist to help you make sure transfers are smooth in both directions.
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☐ Forwarding is set on your main company number, not an individual extension

☐ The Lexidesk number is entered in full, with the country code, exactly as shown in your dashboard

☐ If you use a schedule, its time zone matches your office

☐ For overflow, calls roll to the AI after 3 to 4 rings, and your own voicemail is set to pick up later than that (or is off)

☐ There is no phone menu or recording in front of the AI, unless you've deliberately placed it behind a menu option

☐ You called your office number from a cell phone and heard the AI greeting within a ring or two

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Check each destination on your transfer list against all of these:

☐ It's a direct line to a person or group. Not a main line, not a phone menu and never a number that forwards back to Lexidesk ( e.g you main line )

☐ Call screening is off on that line. This includes "press 1 to accept this call" prompts on your phone system, spam screening from the carrier, Silence Unknown Callers and Live Voicemail on iPhones, and Call Screen on Android. A screening prompt answers the call before a person does, and the handoff stalls there

☐ The line rings for about 20 to 25 seconds, then goes to voicemail. Never set it to ring forever, and make sure the voicemail box is set up and not full, so an unanswered transfer always lands somewhere

☐ The person on that line knows: a transferred call starts with a short AI announcement describing the caller. Don't hang up when you hear the AI voice. Let it finish, and the caller connects right after

☐ When someone is out for the day or unreachable, their number is turned off as a transfer destination in your Lexidesk dashboard instead of ringing into nothing

If a transfer never reaches a person, the number you're sending the call to isn't being answered, it's ringing out, busy, or unstaffed at that moment.

If callers seem to loop, your main number is sending calls to the AI, and the AI is transferring back to that same main number, which sends it to the AI again. Break the loop by transferring to a different number that does not forward back to Lexidesk, such as a direct line or a dedicated number to accept the transfers from Lexidesk.

With a blind transfer, the destination is more likely to see the original caller's number, so this is the better choice when caller ID matters. With a warm transfer, your team knows who's coming through from the AI's spoken announcement, and you can also rely on the caller's details in your CRM or notifications. Note that carriers and destination phone systems can sometimes display caller ID differently regardless of the mode.

You should use warm transfer when a person is expected to pick up quickly and you want the AI to announce the caller, like a direct cell or a staffed direct line. Use blind transfer when the destination isn't a direct line answered quickly.

One thing to know: neither mode shortens a destination's own queue or hold time, so if callers are waiting too long after the transfer, the fix is usually to change the destination number, queue, menu, or routing, not the transfer mode.

Yes, switching to blind transfer removes the spoken announcement, because the AI hands the call off and steps away instead of staying on to introduce the caller. If you need your team to have the caller's details, we can send those to your CRM or by notification instead, so nothing is lost.

No, the AI handles most calls on its own, capturing details, answering questions, and booking consults. A transfer to a person happens only when a caller needs one or they are explicitly configured in certain circumstances.

Yes, you can set up different transfers for different situations/destinations, for example a warm transfer to an on-call attorney's cell and a blind transfer to your main intake line.

If you've checked your transfer type and your forwarding and a caller is still hitting a long hold or not connecting, email [email protected] with your firm name, the number you're transferring to, and roughly when the problem call happened. We can look at exactly how that call was routed and pinpoint where the delay is.