Screening, forwarding and blocking are three different things
These get used interchangeably and they do opposite jobs. Getting them mixed up is why people end up with a setup that either interrupts them constantly or silently loses work.
| What it does | What it decides | What it costs you | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blocking | Refuses calls from a list of numbers | Nothing — the list decides in advance | Every unknown number is a coin toss, and new customers are always unknown numbers |
| Forwarding | Sends every call somewhere else | Nothing — all calls are treated identically | You are interrupted exactly as much, just at a different handset |
| Screening | Answers, works out who it is and what they want, then decides | Per call, while the caller is on the line | Nothing, if the judgement is good |
This is the distinction that matters when comparing services. A product that only redirects calls is doing forwarding, whatever the page calls it — our own forwarding page covers that separately, and it is a different job.
Screening is the only one of the three that makes a decision. That is the entire value, and it is also where these services differ from each other — not on voice quality, on judgement.
Four calls, four correct outcomes
Here is a normal Tuesday for a plumber. Four calls arrive between 4pm and 9pm while you are under somebody’s sink. A screening service earns its keep by getting all four right.
“There’s water coming through the kitchen ceiling.”
Interrupt. Flooding is on her built-in emergency list, so she rings your on-call number straight away, whatever the hour.
“Can someone look at a dripping tap this week?”
Take the request. No interruption — she gets the details and the time that suits them, and texts it all to you. You call back and confirm Thursday morning once you are out from under the sink.
“I’m calling about your business listing on Google.”
Taken as a message. If you chose to have her ask what a call is about before ringing you, a pitch like this becomes a message you read when you like, not a ring.
“Do you install tankless water heaters?”
Answered. It is in your knowledge base because you said so during onboarding. If the answer is no, the caller gets an honest no rather than a callback that wastes both of you.
Only one of those four should have made your phone ring. A service that passes all four through has screened nothing; a service that blocks all four has lost you a job and an emergency.
What is built in, and what you choose
Two things decide what reaches you: what counts as urgent, which is built in, and how much screening a caller who asks for you gets, which is your choice.
Your choice is made on the onboarding call. It is a conversation, about 15 minutes, and this is one of the questions in it: if someone just asks for you by name, should she put them straight through, ask what it is about first, or take a message unless it is urgent? We also ask your business hours, which number an urgent call should ring, and what you want done with a caller you do not serve: turned away honestly, or referred.
- Your hours. Outside your business hours, only an emergency rings you. Everything else she answers or takes down for you.
- A built-in emergency list. Gas, flooding, a burst pipe, no heat, sparking, fire, carbon monoxide — or a caller who says it is an emergency or cannot wait.
- One on-call number. Urgent calls ring one number. If your shop rotates, point that number at whoever is on tonight.
- Out-of-scope work. An honest no on the call beats a callback three days later that ends the same way.
- Sales calls. If you chose ask-first or message-first, she doesn’t put them through to you. She offers to take a message instead. A recorded robocall she recognises doesn’t page you at all.
The work you turn away is in her knowledge base: call 1-888-611-9056 from the phone you signed up with, tell her what changed, and she uses it from the next call. To change your screening choice, your hours or the on-call number, email support@claudessa.com.
What screening does not mean
Two honest limits, because a screening service that oversells itself is worse than none — you stop checking.
First, screening is a judgement, and judgement is occasionally wrong. A caller who describes a genuine emergency in unusually calm language can read as routine. That is why each call where the caller talks to her leaves a summary, listed with your recent calls in your dashboard: you can see what the caller said and what she did, and tell us if something should change. A screening service you cannot audit is one you have to take on faith.
Second, screening does not mean fewer answered calls. Every call is answered — that is what makes the decision possible in the first place. What drops is the number that reach you. The caller’s experience is that somebody picked up and dealt with them; yours is that your phone stayed quiet unless it needed not to be.
Try to get past her
The honest test of a screening service is whether it can be fooled. Put your number in, she calls you back in about thirty seconds — then pitch her something. Try the “I’m calling about your Google listing” opener. Then call back and describe a gas smell, and see how differently that goes.
The trial runs 14 days or your first 30 genuine calls, whichever comes first. No card for the organic signup, and you can cancel from the dashboard.
What it costs
Screening is not a separate product or an add-on. It is how she handles every call, on both plans. Flex is $29 a month with 50 calls included; Volume is $79 a month with 200 calls included. Calls past the allowance are $0.49 each on Flex and $0.29 each on Volume, published up front, with notifications as you approach and pass the line.
Worth noting for screening specifically: the sales calls she ends still count as answered calls, because answering them is the work. At 58 cents a call on the Flex allowance ($29 ÷ 50), that is what it costs to never hear from another listing salesman on a work day.
Common questions
It answers every inbound call, works out who is calling and what they want, then decides what happens: ring you about a genuine emergency, take a request for routine work, answer a question, or take a message from a sales caller. With Claudessa you choose how much screening a caller who asks for you gets: put straight through, asked what it is about first, or taken as a message unless it is urgent.
Forwarding sends every call somewhere else and decides nothing — you are interrupted exactly as often, just on a different handset. Screening answers the call first and then decides whether it should reach you at all. They are different jobs and it is worth checking which one a service is actually selling.
It is built in. She treats gas, flooding, a burst pipe, no heat, sparking, fire and carbon monoxide as emergencies, and also any call where the caller says it is an emergency or cannot wait. An emergency rings the one on-call number you give us, at any hour; outside your business hours, nothing else does. For a change to your hours or the on-call number, email support@claudessa.com.
A robocall she recognizes is never put through to you. A sales pitch depends on the screening you chose. If she asks what a call is about first, or takes a message unless it is urgent, a pitch becomes a message instead of a ring. If you chose straight through, a salesperson who asks for you rings your phone like anyone else. Spam does not count toward your monthly call allowance.
Yes, for the calls she handles. Your dashboard lists your recent calls with a short summary of each, including the ones she took a message on instead of putting through. Recognized robocalls are left out. If a call went the wrong way, the summary shows what the caller said, so you can tell us if something should change.
No — every call is answered, which is what makes the decision possible. What drops is the number of calls that reach you personally. From the caller's side, somebody picked up and dealt with them.