A South East Queensland community club took on a second venue and wanted its phones running on the hosted phone system the club already used. The venue came with its own handsets, its own phone menu and numbers held by a different provider, so the job was part rebuild and part careful handover.
We logged 4.5 hours on it, from the club’s first request in May 2026 to the cutover in July.
What the venue was running
We started by finding out what was actually there. The venue had four desk handsets: one behind the bar, one in the office, one in a second office and one in a shop, which wasn’t plugged in. Staff said they’d had intermittent trouble with them, including a day when callers to the bar phone couldn’t be heard.
Calls came in through a four-option menu, and messages went to a voicemail that also arrived by email. The person we spoke to wasn’t sure where each menu option rang, which is normal when a business has just changed hands. It’s also exactly why we mapped the calls before changing anything.
Copy first, then improve
The club’s plan was to mirror the venue’s existing call flow to begin with, then change it as the venue settled in. We drew up a call flow map, sent it through and worked through it with the club. The version we built had:
- a four-option menu, with function bookings on its own option
- four users: venue manager, office, bar, and a new cordless phone for the bar
- a ring group so the bar’s desk phone and cordless ring together
- an after-hours route from midnight to 7.30am that sends callers to voicemail
- the mobile app set up for three staff
Two of the old handsets were given new jobs. One became the venue manager’s phone and the other stayed in the drawer as a spare.
A decision we left for later
We didn’t replace the handsets. The venue has renovations coming, including a new reception area, so the club agreed to revisit handsets once that’s done. Choosing phones for a front desk that doesn’t exist yet would have been guesswork, and the existing ones could be reused in the meantime.
Moving the numbers
The venue’s numbers sat with its previous provider, and porting them takes a while. We sent the port request off in late May, but the old provider was away until the end of the month, so the work paused until calls could be forwarded somewhere safe. In the meantime we set up a temporary number on the club’s system.
On cutover day I went to the venue. We moved the existing handsets onto the club’s system, worked with the venue’s internet provider to confirm the network was set up correctly, had the numbers forwarded to the temporary numbers while the port was pending, set up the phone system’s connection software on an office PC and tested the call flow. The dedicated device the old provider had supplied for the phones was switched off.
Where they landed
The venue now answers on the club’s phone system, with its own menu, users, bar ring group and after-hours voicemail. Staff can take calls on their mobiles, and a change to hours or staff is one edit in one place.
If you’re taking on a second site, ask whoever answers its phones to walk you through every menu option and where each one rings, before anyone changes a thing. Write it down.
If you’d like help planning the move from there, get in touch.