How to Manage Your Spruce Phone Number: Settings, Routing, and Configuration

Sending and Receiving Text Messages

When a patient sends a text message to your Spruce number, you can view and respond to their messages by logging into your Spruce account. 

Spruce gives you the flexibility to respond to text messages using your preferred device. You can send text messages through Spruce from your desktop computer or mobile phone. 

Making and Receiving Calls 

Customize your call experience by choosing where incoming calls to your Spruce number ring: your cell phone, Spruce VoIP desk phone, or even multiple devices simultaneously. 

You can also record a personalized voicemail greeting, ensuring patients receive a professional message even when you're unavailable to answer their call.

All voicemails, along with transcriptions (if enabled), are securely stored in Spruce, not on your personal cell phone or desk phone. Voicemails will appear in a conversation associated with the caller’s contact information. 

Automatic Call Handling 

Need automatic call handling like a phone tree (also known as an IVR) that changes how calls are routed depending on the day of the week and time of day? Our Communicator plan offers the ability to have your Spruce numbers managed by a schedule and enables you to specify custom call handling with call flows. Learn more about automated call handling with call flows  

Managing Call Handling for Inbound Calls 

Call handling determines what happens when there’s an inbound call to your Spruce number. 

To view and manage your Spruce number’s call handling go to Settings > Phone System > Phone Numbers and choose the phone number you’d like to configure. 

There are two ways a Spruce number’s call handling can be managed, using a Number to Ring list or a Phone Tree / Call Flow. Read on to learn more about these options and how to configure them or watch the video below.

Numbers to Ring 

Numbers to Ring is a list of teammates, teams, VoIP desk phones, or phone numbers that will ring when there’s an incoming call to your Spruce number. All phones will ring simultaneously and the first to answer will get the call.

If no teammates or phones are listed in your Numbers to Ring list, then inbound calls to your Spruce number will go directly to voicemail. 

Editing a Number to Ring List

In a web browser or the Spruce desktop app:

1. Go to Settings > Go to Settings > Phone System > Phone Numbers and choose the phone number you’d like to configure. 
2. In the Numbers to Ring card, click the Edit button. 
3. Click the “Add to Ring List” button to add more members to the ring list. 
4. Use the dropdown on the left to select the type of member: Teammate or Team, Phone Number, or VoIP desk phone. 
5. Then use the field on the right to select the teammate or team, enter the phone number, or select the desk phone to ring. 

In the Spruce mobile app:

1. Go to Settings > Go to Settings > Phone System > Phone Numbers and choose the phone number you’d like to configure. 
2. Under “Numbers to Ring” tap “Manage Numbers to Ring” 
3. Tap the “Add” button in the upper right to add more members to the ring list. 
4. On the next screen, select the type of member: Teammate or Team, Phone Number, or VoIP desk phone. 
5. Then select the teammate or team, enter the phone number, or select the desk phone to ring. 

Note: If you add a phone number to a Number to Ring list, all voicemails will be captured in Spruce and will not be available on that phone. If you need to forward calls and voicemails to an external number or third party, this must be set up using a Call Flow. 

Managing Availability in Numbers to Ring

Each teammate or phone in the Numbers to Ring list has a toggle displayed next to it to indicate whether or not they are currently receiving calls for that Spruce number. 

• When the toggle is ON, the teammate or phone will receive calls for that Spruce number. Note: The teammate in the list must have “Accept Incoming Calls” turned ON in their My Call Settings (Settings > My Call Settings) to receive incoming calls that are directed to them. 
• When the toggle is OFF, the ring list member will not receive calls for that Spruce number.  

Call Flows (Formerly Phone Trees) 

Call flows (formerly phone trees) are only available to customers on our Communicator Plan.

If your organization does not have call flows enabled, please refer to this article on Phone Trees to learn how to manage your phone tree.

Call flows enable you to create and customize advanced controls for what happens when someone calls your Spruce phone number. For example, a call flow could be used to: 

• Create a phone tree or auto-attendant that presents the caller with a menu of options. 
• Transfer the call to a different Spruce number. 
• Forward the call to an after hours answering service. 
• Set up automation rules on what should happen after the call ends, like tagging the conversation or sending a text back to the caller. 

Please refer to this article on call flows for more information on how to use a call flow with your Spruce number. 

And before setting up your call flows, we recommend reading this article on call flows best practices and call flow examples.

Customize Voicemail Settings 

Custom Voicemail Greeting

One benefit of Spruce is the ability to maintain a separate professional voicemail greeting, distinct from the personal greeting that lives on your cell phone. As a default, before you've recorded your custom greeting, your Spruce account will play an automated voicemail greeting that names your practice (as you've indicated in your Settings):

“You have reached [Practice Name]. Please leave a message after the tone.”

You can customize your voicemail greeting by recording a greeting or uploading one.  

Steps to record your custom greeting

Voicemail playback, transcription, and summarization 

You can listen to any voicemails left for you on Spruce. When a new voicemail is recorded, you will receive a notification of new activity in Spruce. The voicemail will be captured in the conversation associated with the phone number that contacted you. 

Spruce also offers automated, HIPAA-compliant AI transcription and summarization for voicemails. 

Note: AI transcription and summarization must be enabled for your organization in order to use this feature. When enabled, transcription and summarization can be individually managed on each phone number. 

To turn this feature on for a phone number:

• Navigate to Settings > Phone System > Phone Numbers and select a phone number
• Go to the “Voicemail” section 
• Press Edit next to “AI Transcription and Summarization” to turn the feature on or off for that phone number.

Learn more about AI Transcription and Summarization

Send Calls Directly to Voicemail 

For periods when you are unavailable or prefer not to be disturbed by incoming calls, the 'Send Calls Directly to Voicemail' feature enables you to temporarily disable calls ringing through while still allowing callers to leave a voicemail message.

How “Send Calls Directly to Voicemail” works, depends on whether your phone number is configured to use a Numbers to Ring list or a Call Flow. 

Send Calls to Voicemail with a Numbers to Ring list 

When "Send Calls to Voicemail" is ON (blue): 

• Inbound calls will not ring through to any phone in the Numbers to Ring list. Callers will be sent directly to voicemail and will not hear any ringing and will immediately be prompted to leave a voicemail. 
• None of the phone(s) listed in your numbers to ring list or ring groups will receive inbound calls. 
• This setting is most commonly used to manually send after-hours calls to voicemail once your practice has closed for the day.

When "Send Calls to Voicemail" is OFF (gray): 

• Inbound calls will ring to the phones listed in the "Numbers to Ring." 
• If calls are set to ring through to you and you silence the call from your phone, the caller will still hear ringing for the 15 seconds that all calls are set to ring. If the ring list has other members, they’ll still have the opportunity to answer the call. 

Send Calls to Voicemail with a Call Flow / Phone Tree

When "Send Calls to Voicemail" is ON (blue) AND a Call Flow (Phone Tree) is ON:

• If your call flow has a menu, callers will still hear your menu options and be able to choose from the menu. 
• Any menu option that typically rings phones will not ring through and instead the caller will be immediately prompted to leave a voicemail. No phones will ring.

When "Send Calls to Voicemail" is OFF (gray) AND a Call Flow (Phone Tree) is ON:

• If your call flow has a menu, callers will hear your menu options and be able to choose from the menu. 
• Any menu options that are set to ring through will ring phones as normal. 

How to Manage “Send Calls Directly to Voicemail” 

To manage “Send Calls to Voicemail” on a specific phone number:

1. Go to Settings > Go to Settings > Phone System > Phone Numbers and choose the phone number you’d like to configure. 
2. Scroll down to the  “Voicemail Settings” card and control the “Send Calls Directly to Voicemail” feature by turning the toggle ON (blue) or OFF (gray).

Call Recording

Call recording allows you to manage whether or not inbound and/or outbound calls are recorded on a per phone number basis. Learn more about call recording 

Advanced Call Handling

Hold Music

This Spruce feature allows you to change the music callers hear when they are placed on hold. Learn more about hold music

Unknown Caller Handling

Unknown Caller Handling allows you to silence and/or screen calls from unsaved contacts on a per-phone-number basis, which can be extremely valuable in reducing the number of spam calls that ring through to your phones. Learn more about unknown caller handling

Additional Spruce phone numbers 

Spruce allows you to have multiple phone numbers associated with your organization. Multiple numbers can be useful for many purposes, such as enabling some or all of your teammates to have personal lines, while continuing to share a main practice number for general use. Multiple numbers can also be used to create direct lines for specific purposes, such as a phone number for billing issues or a new-patient line.

When you have multiple numbers, Spruce makes it simple to control the privacy and behavior of each line independently. Your numbers can operate on their own separate schedules, with different voicemail greetings and call flows. They can ring distinct groups of people and physical phones. Advanced features, such as automatic text-backs and welcome messages, are also configurable on a per-line basis, as are all conversation privacy and visibility settings.

The exact number of phone lines that Spruce allows for your organization will depend on your Spruce plan, the number of teammates in your organization, and whether you entered a business registration number during your organization's phone registration. 

If you entered a business registration number during phone registration: 

• On Spruce's Basic plan, your organization can have one number per teammate, plus one additional number. So if you have 3 teammates, you can have 4 total phone numbers, as 3+1=4.
• On Spruce's Communicator plan, your organization can have two numbers per teammate, plus one additional number. So if you have 3 teammates, you can have 7 total phone numbers, as 3*2+1=7.

If you did NOT enter a business registration number during phone registration: 

• Your organization can only have one total phone number. This is a limitation that has been set by the telecom carriers and that Spruce cannot control. If you require more than one phone number, you must obtain a business registration number, such as an EIN (or BN, if you are in Canada).

Pro Tip: we recommend you save your Spruce number(s) to your mobile device contact book to ensure the smoothest inbound call experience (when using the 'cellular network' ring type). The easiest way to do this is by opening the Spruce app on your phone, navigating to Settings > Phone System > Phone Numbers, then click into the phone number you want to save and click the 'share' icon in the top right. Then, select the 'share' button in the 'preview vCard' box, then choose 'Contacts' and select 'Create New Contact'. 

Managing ownership and membership for teams 

We've created a few tools that will help you and your team manage your Spruce numbers for additional privacy and efficiency. Read on to learn about the tools at your disposal. 

Managing "ownership" 

If you decide to move forward with additional Spruce numbers, because you have a team, you can determine who is the owner of a specific phone number and restrict who can view conversations using specific phone numbers. If someone is an owner, this means that they will be able to see all communication related to this phone number. They'll be able to initiate phone calls and text messages from this phone number and will see any incoming calls, voicemails, and text messages to this phone number. Non-owners or non-members will not have access to correspondence regarding this phone number. They will not be able to see incoming call, voicemails, or text messages to this number. This is helpful if patient data needs to remain private and between the patient and a specific member of your team. 

To define the owner of a specific phone number: 

1. Visit your settings 
2. Select Phone and SMS 
3. Click into any of your Spruce Numbers
4. Choose the owner under "Owned By" on mobile or "Owner" on web. Please note that you will need to select "Edit" on web before you can change or choose an owner.

The owner can be an individual or a "Team" that you created within Spruce. If you choose a Team, then all members of that team will have access to the phone number. Read more about Teams here.

If you choose to change the owner later on, the new owner will be updated on all conversations in the system and will now be able to view all of those conversations. Please note: if someone is listed as an owner in the settings for a phone number, you will not be able to remove them from any specific conversations. 

Managing "additional members" 

You'll notice when defining the owner of a phone number that there is a field for "Additional Members" if the whole organization isn't the owner. An additional member is also an owner of the phone number. They will have access to incoming calls, texts, and voicemails to that number the same way the owner does and they'll be able to initiate new communication from this number. Add additional members when you need someone to cover for you or if you're sharing a phone number.

To add additional members: 

1. Visit your settings 
2. Select Phone and SMS 
3. Click into any of your Spruce Numbers
4. Choose additional members under "Additional Members" on mobile or "Additional Internal Members" on web. Please note that you will need to select "Edit" on web before you can change or choose members.

You can edit the owner and additional members at any time as long as you are an admin. Read more about who is an  admin here. 

If you choose to change the additional members later on, the new members will be updated on all conversations in the system and will now be able to view all of those conversations. Please note: if someone is listed as an additional member in the settings for a phone number, you will not be able to remove them from any specific conversations. 

Adding contact and conversation tags 

You'll notice when editing the owner and additional members that you also have the option to add contact and conversation tags. You can learn more about contact and conversation tags here. To summarize, any conversation tags you add to the phone number will get applied to every patient conversation initiated with that phone number. They'll also get applied when someone reaches out to that phone number. If you remove the tag, the tag will no longer be applied to these conversations.

Adding a contact tag will add that tag to any contacts that are created by interacting with that phone number.

Tagging is helpful when you'd like to categorize patients or indicate that particular conversations belong to a specific provider. You can also create new inbox filters that show you conversations with a specific tag. Learn more about conversation filters here. 

To add tags: 

1. Visit your settings 
2. Select Phone and SMS 
3. Click into any of your Spruce Numbers
4. Scroll down to apply tags, and choose which tags you'd like to apply where.

Using automatic assignment for phone numbers 

If you choose a specific teammate or Team to be the owner of a phone number, you'll also have the option of turning on "Auto-Assign." This means that anytime someone calls, texts, or leaves a voicemail for that specific number, the conversation will automatically get assigned to the owner of that phone number . This means that the conversation will fall in their "Mine" or "Assigned to Me" inbox filter if the owner is an individual and the "Assigned to X Team" if the owner is a team. These conversations will not land in the main inbox. This is helpful if only particular teammates need to see incoming communication to that phone number. You can learn more about Conversation Assignment here. 

To turn on auto-assignment for specific phone numbers: 

On the web, go to Settings:

1. Select Phone and SMS
2. Select Phone Numbers
3. Click on the Spruce Number you want to edit
4. Select the Number Settings tab
5. Select Edit next to Conversation Membership
6. Enter the Teammate or Team under Owner
7. Then select and toggle on "Auto-Assign Conversation." If it's blue, then it is turned on.

On mobile, go to Settings:

1. Select Phone and SMS
2. Click on the Spruce Number you want to edit
3. Scroll down and select Owner under Conversation Membership
4. Select the Teammate or Team
5. Then select Auto-Assignment and toggle on "Auto-Assign Conversations." If it's blue, then it is turned on.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many phone lines does my Spruce plan include?

Basic plans include one line per user plus one additional line. Communicator plans include two lines per user plus one additional line.

Can different Spruce phone numbers have different routing rules?

Yes. Each phone number can have its own inbox, call flow, schedule, and auto-reply configuration. 

How do I request an additional phone line in Spruce?

Contact Spruce support via the in-app Team Spruce Support conversation. Additional line requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis.