Phone Masking & Extensions

What it is

Phone masking keeps two phone numbers apart: your customer never learns your field worker's personal number, and your field worker never sees the customer's real number. Joby sits in the middle and connects the two.

You turn it on one person at a time with the Call masking switch on a field worker's record. Once it is on, three things change for that person:

Masking is separate from your normal phone system. Turning it on for one person changes nothing for everybody else.

When to use it

• You use outside subcontractors and you do not want them keeping your customer list.
• Your workers use their own mobiles and want to keep their personal numbers private.
• You want repeat business and referrals coming back to your company, not to the worker who did the job.
• You want every job call recorded and attached to the lead, instead of happening off the books.
• A customer calling back should still reach the person who did their job, without you playing switchboard.

You would not normally turn it on for your own in-house staff, and it has no effect at all on the account owner or on admin accounts.

Before you start

• You have the right access. Settings›Channels›Phone Masking is admin-only. Settings›People›Team Members needs the Manage Office Agents permission on your Team Role. Without them, Joby sends you to another page instead.
• A masking number is set for your company. Open Settings›Channels›Phone Masking and look at the Masking Number box. If it shows a number, you are ready. If it shows a dash, ask Joby support to set one — the box is read-only for company admins because that number is wired to its own call handling, and repointing it would break every masked call.
• The lead has a phone number saved. With no customer number there is nobody to connect to, so Joby does not hand out a code.
• Your default text template shows the customer's phone. In Settings›Pipeline›Communication Templates, the default SMS template should include the customer phone field. Joby swaps in the masking number and code automatically for masked workers — if the template never shows a phone number at all, they have nothing to dial.

There is nothing to buy or set up per worker beyond the switch. You have one masking phone number for the whole company; the 4-digit codes behind it are created and recycled for you.

Step-by-step

Turn masking on for one field worker

1. Go to Settings›People›Team Members.
2. Click the Field Workers or External Subcontractors tab to narrow the list.
3. Click the edit (pencil) button on that person's row.
4. Scroll to Call masking — it reads “Hide the customer's real number on calls” — and switch it on.
5. Click Save.

Send a job to a masked field worker

1. Open the lead and assign that field worker to it.
2. Click Send Lead.
3. The Send Lead Notification window opens. If it briefly says “Generating extension...”, wait — Joby is reserving the code.
4. Check the worker's card. It shows a Call Masking tag, and an Ext: 1234 tag once the code is ready.
5. Read the Message Preview. It should show your masking number and the code, not the customer's real number. You can edit the wording here.
6. Click Send to Assigned Field Worker.

Choose which number the customer sees

1. Go to Settings›Channels›Phone Masking.
2. Scroll to Service Type Display Numbers. Every active service type from Settings›Pipeline›Service Types has its own box.
3. Type the number you want that kind of job to show, in the +1234567890 style. It saves as you type — there is no Save button on this card.
4. Leave a box empty to fall back to your masking number for that service type.

How to check it worked

• On the person: reopen them in Settings›People›Team Members. Call masking is still switched on.
• On the send window: their card in Send Lead Notification shows a Call Masking tag and an Ext: tag with 4 digits.
• On the message: the Message Preview shows your masking number and the code — not the customer's number. Ask the worker to confirm the text they received matches.
• On the code list: that same 4-digit code shows as in use against the lead in Settings›Channels›Extension Pool.
• End to end: have the worker call the masking number, type the 4 digits, and reach the customer. The call then appears on the lead's Calls tab with its recording.

Common mistakes

• Expecting a Save button on the masking number. Company admins see the Masking Number box greyed out on purpose. Only Joby can set or change it. If it shows a dash, open a support request rather than hunting for a setting.
• Sending a job before a masking number exists. If a selected worker has masking on and your company has no masking number, Joby blocks the send and says so in red under the message preview. Nothing goes out until the number is in place — which is deliberate, so the customer's real digits are never texted out by accident.
• Sending a lead with no customer phone number. No customer number means no code, so the worker gets a message with nothing to dial. Fill in the lead's phone first.
• Clicking Send while it still says “Generating extension...” Give it a moment. If you see a warning that the code is taking longer than expected, close the window and send again rather than sending a message with no code in it.
• Thinking masking hides the field worker from the customer's screen. It hides the worker's number. If the worker rings the customer directly from their own phone instead of going through the masking number, none of this applies.
• Mixing up numbers and codes. You have one masking phone number for the whole company and thousands of 4-digit codes behind it. Turning masking on for more people does not mean buying more numbers.
• Testing on your own admin account and concluding it is broken. Owners and admins are exempt from the in-app hiding. Test with a field worker account.
• Leaving finished jobs open. Codes are held until a job is closed out. Marking work Done or Canceled hands the code back for the next job.