Why Use Zovio Alongside RingCentral?
If your business already runs on RingCentral, you probably don't want to change your phone number, reprint business cards, or migrate your team to a new platform. You just want to stop losing leads when nobody picks up.
That's exactly what Zovio does. You keep your RingCentral number. You keep your RingCentral app. You keep everything that works. Zovio steps in only when a call goes unanswered — which, for most service businesses, is 25-35% of all inbound calls.
Here's the setup in one sentence: RingCentral rings your team first, and any call that isn't answered gets forwarded to Zovio, where an AI receptionist books the appointment automatically.
No hardware. No number change. No long migration. Five minutes, start to finish.
How the RingCentral + Zovio Flow Works
Imagine a customer calls your business at 2:47 PM while you're already on another call:
Step 1. The call hits your RingCentral number (the one you've had for years).
Step 2. RingCentral rings your desk phone and mobile app for 3-4 rings, following your normal ring order.
Step 3. You don't pick up because you're busy on the other call.
Step 4. Instead of dumping the caller into voicemail (where 85% hang up without leaving a message), RingCentral automatically forwards the call to your Zovio number.
Step 5. Zovio's AI answers within 2 seconds with your business name: "Thanks for calling Mike's Plumbing — I'm Sarah, how can I help?"
Step 6. The AI qualifies the caller, checks your calendar, books the appointment, validates the service address, and confirms everything with the customer.
Step 7. You get a text and email with the full booking details the moment the call ends.
From the customer's side, there's no weird transfer, no "please hold," no second system. They called one number, talked to one person, got one answer. From your side, you never got interrupted — and the job is on your calendar when you're free to check.
What You'll Need Before You Start
Before configuring anything, make sure you have:
1. A RingCentral account — with admin access or at least permission to edit Call Handling & Forwarding (ask your account owner if you're not sure).
2. A Zovio account — signing up at zovio.ai/register gets you a dedicated Zovio number and a 14-day free trial. No credit card required.
3. 5 minutes — the actual setup is short. Most contractors finish before their coffee gets cold.
Step 1: Get Your Zovio Number
After you register, Zovio assigns you a dedicated phone number. You'll find it in your Zovio dashboard under Settings → Phone Number. It looks like a normal US number (for example, +1 813-555-0199).
This is the number RingCentral will forward to. Copy it — you'll need it in the next step.
While you're in the dashboard, take 2 minutes to set up the basics so the AI represents your business correctly:
Business Name — exactly how you want the AI to greet callers.
Services — so the AI knows what you do (or use the [Link: /]Website Auto-Import[/Link] to fill this instantly from your site).
Service Area — zip codes or cities you cover.
Working Hours — when to book appointments.
Don't overthink this on day one. You can refine everything later. What matters is that the AI has enough context to sound like your business, not a generic robot.
Step 2: Choose Your Forwarding Strategy
RingCentral supports three forwarding modes. For Zovio, there's really only one that makes sense, but here's the full picture so you can make an informed choice:
Conditional forwarding (recommended). Your RingCentral devices ring first. If nobody picks up within a set number of rings, the call forwards to Zovio. This is the sweet spot — your team still gets first shot at every call, and Zovio catches anything that would've gone to voicemail.
Unconditional forwarding. Every single call goes straight to Zovio, no ringing on your end. Useful if you're on vacation, in surgery, or running a pure AI-first setup. Not typical for a contractor who still wants to talk to clients live.
Simultaneous ringing. Your phones and Zovio ring at the same time. Whoever answers first wins. This sounds clever but creates chaos — you might pick up halfway through the AI's greeting. Skip this.
For 95% of service businesses, conditional forwarding is the right answer. Let's set it up.
Step 3: Set Up Conditional Call Forwarding in RingCentral
Here's the exact click-through based on the current RingCentral Admin Portal (updated April 2026).
1. Log in to the RingCentral Admin Portal at service.ringcentral.com. You'll need admin access — if you're not the account owner, ask them to grant you permission to edit call handling rules. Once logged in, make sure "Admin Portal" is selected in the top-right corner.
2. In the top navigation menu, click Users.
3. In the left sidebar, click Users with Extensions. You'll see a list of everyone on your account — each person has their own extension number (Ext. 101, Ext. 102, etc.).
4. Click on the name of the user whose calls you want to forward to Zovio. This is usually the main person who answers calls — the business owner, office manager, or lead receptionist. If you have multiple team members, you'll repeat this process for each one later.
5. On the user's settings page, scroll down and click Phone to expand the phone settings section. You'll see several subsections: User Details, Devices & Numbers, and Phone.
6. Under Phone, you'll see Incoming call rules — click the arrow to open it. This is the control center for what happens when someone calls this extension.
7. You'll notice two important toggles at the top: Forward all calls and Do not disturb. Leave both OFF for now — we want conditional forwarding (only when unanswered), not unconditional.
8. Below the toggles, find the Work hours section and click to expand it. You'll see two key settings here:
The first line shows how your devices ring — typically "Apps and devices ring sequentially." This means RingCentral tries your desk phone first, then your mobile app, then your desktop app, in order. Leave this as is — it's your first line of defense.
The second line is the one that matters: "If no one answers, calls are sent to..." — by default, this points to voicemail. That's exactly what we're replacing with Zovio.
9. Click on the forwarding number field and paste your Zovio AI number. This is the dedicated number from your Zovio dashboard (Settings → Phone Number). It looks like a standard US number — for example, +1 (813) 993-0421.
10. Save your changes.
That's it for work hours. Now when a call comes in during business hours and nobody picks up after 3-4 rings, instead of dumping the caller into voicemail where they'll almost certainly hang up, RingCentral forwards the call straight to your Zovio AI receptionist. The caller hears your business name, talks to the AI, and gets their appointment booked — all without knowing anything changed on your end.
Step 4: Configure After-Hours Forwarding
Here's something most setup guides skip — and it's arguably the most important part of the entire configuration. RingCentral treats Work Hours and After Hours as completely separate rule sets. If you only configured Work Hours in Step 3, your after-hours calls will still hit voicemail. Every single one.
That's a big problem, because after-hours is where the high-value calls live. Emergency plumbing at 11 PM. A broken AC unit on a Saturday afternoon. A lockout at 2 AM. These are the jobs that pay premium rates — and they disappear the moment a caller hears a voicemail greeting.
Here's how to fix that:
1. On the same user page where you just configured Work Hours, scroll down to the After hours section and click to expand it.
2. You'll see "All calls are sent to..." — this controls where every single call goes outside your defined business hours. Unlike the Work Hours rule (which tries your devices first and only forwards if nobody picks up), the After Hours rule sends calls directly to the forwarding number without ringing your phones at all.
3. Enter your Zovio number here — the same number you used in Step 3.
4. Save your changes.
5. Double-check the schedule shown next to After Hours — you'll see the days and times listed (for example, "Sun, Sat all day, +1 more"). Make sure these actually match when your business is closed. If you're closed on weekends, Sundays and Saturdays should appear under After Hours, not Work Hours. If the hours are wrong, click the edit icon to adjust your work schedule.
Important: If your business operates 24/7 and you don't see an After Hours section at all, you'll need to define custom Work Hours first. RingCentral's interface requires a work schedule to be set before it exposes the after-hours rules. Go to Work Hours, edit the schedule, and set your actual operating hours (for example, Mon-Fri 8 AM to 6 PM). Once saved, the After Hours section will appear with rules for everything outside those defined hours.
Multiple team members? If you have more than one person on your RingCentral account — say, a second receptionist, office manager, or technician with their own extension — go back to Users with Extensions and repeat Steps 3 and 4 for each user whose calls should be covered by Zovio. Each extension has its own independent forwarding rules, so configuring one doesn't affect the others. You choose exactly who gets AI backup and who doesn't.
Pro tip: Remember the "Forward all calls" toggle from Step 3? That's your instant vacation switch. When you're heading out for a week, flip it ON — every call, work hours and after hours, goes straight to Zovio without ringing your phones at all. When you're back, flip it OFF and everything returns to normal conditional forwarding. Takes 2 seconds, no reconfiguring needed, and your customers never notice a thing.
Step 5: Test Before You Trust It
Don't assume the forwarding works — verify it. Here's a 3-minute test that catches 90% of setup mistakes:
Test 1: During work hours. Have a friend or family member call your RingCentral number. Don't pick up. After the rings finish, they should hear Zovio's AI, not your voicemail greeting. If they hear voicemail, go back and check that the "If no one answers" field is set to your Zovio number, not voicemail.
Test 2: After hours. If your business hours are set, have someone call outside those hours. Same expectation — they should reach Zovio, not voicemail. If they hear voicemail, go back to Step 4 and make sure the After Hours forwarding is configured.
Test 3: Phone turned off. Turn off your mobile app and desk phone, then have someone call. The call should forward to Zovio after RingCentral's default timeout (usually 15-20 seconds).
After each test call, check your Zovio dashboard. You should see the call logged with a full transcript, caller number, and any appointment that was booked.
Common Issues and Quick Fixes
Calls still hit voicemail. The most common mistake — the "If no one answers" field still points to voicemail instead of your Zovio number. Go to Users → Users with Extensions → select the user → Phone → Incoming call rules → Work hours → check the forwarding number.
Calls forward too quickly. Your ring count is set too low. Most RingCentral users set it to 4-5 rings (roughly 20-25 seconds). If you're forwarding at 2 rings, you barely have time to pick up.
Calls forward too slowly. Opposite problem — callers are giving up before the forward kicks in. Reduce rings to 3-4.
After-hours calls disappear. You only configured Work Hours. Go back to Step 4 and set up After Hours forwarding separately — RingCentral treats these as independent rule sets.
Zovio AI doesn't know your business. You skipped the dashboard setup. Go to Zovio → Settings and fill in Business Name, Services, Service Area, and Working Hours. The AI is only as good as the context you give it.
Voicemail competes with forwarding. Some RingCentral accounts have legacy voicemail rules that fire before forwarding. If you see both happening, contact RingCentral support and ask them to disable the voicemail trigger for your extension.
Only one extension forwards. Each user extension has its own forwarding rules. If you have multiple team members, you need to configure forwarding for each one individually under Users with Extensions.
Does Call Forwarding Cost Extra on RingCentral?
No. Forwarding to US numbers is included in every RingCentral plan. The forwarded minutes count against your plan's total, the same as any other call — but there's no per-forward fee, no setup cost, no new line item on your bill.
You pay your normal RingCentral subscription ($20-45 per user/month depending on plan) and your Zovio subscription (starting at $179/mo). That's the full cost. No surprises.
Compared to hiring a human answering service, which typically runs $300-1,000+/month for 24/7 coverage, the RingCentral + Zovio combo usually comes out ahead by a wide margin — and you get instant appointment booking that most answering services don't offer.
Can I Switch Off Zovio Temporarily?
Yes, and it takes 2 seconds. Go to Users → Users with Extensions → select the user → Phone → Incoming call rules. You have two options:
Option 1: Change the forwarding back to voicemail. Under Work Hours, change "If no one answers, calls are sent to..." back to voicemail. Do the same under After Hours. When you're ready to re-enable Zovio, switch it back to your Zovio number.
Option 2: Use the "Forward all calls" toggle. This is the faster option if you want to temporarily send ALL calls to Zovio (not just unanswered ones). Flip it ON when you want full AI coverage, OFF when you want to go back to normal.
Either way, your customers never know the difference. Same number, same experience.
When Does This Setup Make Sense (and When Doesn't It)?
Great fit: Contractors, home service businesses, clinics, salons, small legal offices — anyone with a team of 1-10 people using RingCentral who's losing calls when busy.
Not the best fit: Large call centers with dedicated receptionists, businesses that need live human conversations for compliance reasons (some medical intake, sensitive legal matters), or businesses where 100% of calls must be answered by a specific team member.
For everyone else, it's the fastest way to close the missed-call gap without changing a single thing about how your business already operates.
The Bottom Line
RingCentral is great at what it does — giving your team a professional phone system. But RingCentral wasn't built to answer calls when nobody's around. Zovio was. Together, they're a complete solution: your team on the front line, AI on the back line, nothing lost in between.
Setup is 5 minutes. The trial is 14 days free. If you're already paying for RingCentral, you've done the hard part — the rest is just pointing unanswered calls somewhere better than voicemail.
Ready to stop losing leads? Sign up for Zovio, grab your number, and forward your first unanswered call today.