Phone service option for my business needs

[livinzlife]

I am starting a small business with 2 other people.
We are opposed to having a phone service that answers with a recorded greeting.
We will not always be in the office.

Here is our ideal thoughts on a phone service:

1) Customer calls the ONLY number for the business, lets say it is 111-222-3333
2) All three of us have ringing cell phones
3) When one of us (Jane) picks up, the other two cell phones(Adam and Joe) stop ringing.
4) Customer says "I was looking for Adam, could you put me through to him?"
5) Jane says "Sure, one second" and transfers the call specifically to Adams phone
6) If adam doesnt pick up, it goes to his voicemail


Google voice is SOOOO close to fulfilling these needs. The problem is that google voice cannot transfer the call directly to another phone, it can only transfer the call to ALL other registered phones to the account. So, in the scenario above, Jane would hit * to transfer, and both Adam and Joe would start ringing again, but the customer SPECIFICALLY asked for Adam. The customer will be annoyed if Joe answers.


Long story short, does anything exist out there that fulfills this need?

[MyITGuy]

Long story short, does anything exist out there that fulfills this need?

Any recent Asterisk PBX should be able to accommodate this...but it might be a bit overkill for your needs. If you don't want to host it yourself, check out rentpbx.com

If your only going to have 1 number, then you might want to consider your position on a pre-recorded announcement to allow your users to enter a virtual extension in order to reach Adam.

[livinzlife]

Any recent Asterisk PBX should be able to accommodate this...but it might be a bit overkill for your needs. If you don't want to host it yourself, check out rentpbx.com

If your only going to have 1 number, then you might want to consider your position on a pre-recorded announcement to allow your users to enter a virtual extension in order to reach Adam.

Yea, the PBX solution seems a bit complex.
We would probably be more likely to drop the 1 number all together before opting for a pre-recorded announcement. We are a service-based business, and having a real person answer the call is absolutely essential for our customers.

I still am just a bit surprised how few phone options are available. All of the "use your cell phone for business" services seem to be the same thing. Customer calls company, gets pre-recorded message, types extension or waits for an annoyingly long list of people/departments. I can not find a service that allows a person to answer instead of a recording.

Perhaps I should be going into the "non-pre-recorded use your cell phones for business" business instead!

[Harold Mansfield]

Check out Virtual Phone System: Grasshopper | Manage Your Calls Online (http://grasshopper.com/)

[Gabe]

I second Harold's suggestion, Check out Grasshopper. I've been using them for a while and couldn't be happier.