Your switchboard,
without the switchboard.
A switchboard has one job: get the caller to the right person. fonea does that without anyone sitting at a console and without making the caller work through a menu. They say what they need, they get connected. From CHF 90 per month, no new hardware.
What is a switchboard?
A switchboard receives all of a company’s incoming calls at a single point and routes them to the right person. It used to be a desk with a console; today it is usually software. An external switchboard moves that job outside the business.
Why the classic switchboard no longer fits
Where an SMB switchboard breaks down today
The switchboard is one person, and that person is sometimes away
In most Swiss SMBs the switchboard is not a system but someone at reception. Holidays, illness, the lunch break: routing stops. Calls end up with whoever is nearest, or nowhere.
Fails during holidays, illness, lunch breaks
Touch-tone menus lose exactly the callers who want to buy
A four-option IVR looks efficient but costs calls. Someone after a quote rarely presses two and waits; they call the next company. Menus were built for large organisations, not for a firm with eight staff.
Drop-off rises with every menu level
Mapping extensions means maintaining extensions
Classic systems require every role to be configured as an extension and updated whenever staff change. In practice the configuration runs months behind the team, and calls land with someone who has left.
Outsourcing to a call centre just moves the problem
An external switchboard staffed by call-centre agents does answer, but knows neither your people nor your subjects. It takes a note and transfers. The moment a question turns technical, the caller is back where they started.
What changes
A switchboard that listens instead of asking for keypresses
Routing by intent, not by menu option
The caller explains in their own words. fonea recognises the intent and connects them to the right person or group. No "press 1", no hold queue.
Never busy, even with ten simultaneous calls
A human switchboard handles one conversation at a time. fonea takes them all in parallel, so nobody hears an engaged tone or waits in a queue.
Off-hours covered, with no shift plan
Evenings, weekends and over lunch the switchboard stays staffed. Anything urgent is transferred; everything else is captured in structured form and delivered next morning.
Changes take minutes, not a support ticket
You change who handles what yourself in the dashboard. No extension configuration, no call to the telco, no waiting period.
Hours, not weeks
How to replace your switchboard
Capture responsibilities
We work through the call reasons with you and who owns each. Usually five to eight categories, not thirty.
Set up call forwarding
Your existing main number stays. You forward on no-answer, on busy or always to fonea, on Swisscom, Sunrise or Salt. No porting, no new system.
Test with real calls
You call in yourself and hear how routing behaves. We adjust wording and ownership together until it is right.
Go live and watch
From go-live every call appears in the dashboard with intent, transfer and summary. Adjust any time, cancel monthly.
Typical conversations
What routing sounds like day to day
Call needs to reach accounts
Caller does not know who is responsible
Call outside office hours
Swiss hosting and data protection
Routing a call does not mean spreading data around
Persistent data stays in Switzerland
Contact details, transcripts and summaries sit on Swiss infrastructure. Transient speech processing runs in Germany, where data is processed and not permanently stored.
Every caller knows they are speaking to an assistant
The disclosure at the start of the call is built in and cannot be switched off. Anyone who wants a human is transferred or gets a prioritised callback.
FADP compliant, with a data processing agreement
Processing under the revised Swiss FADP and GDPR, encrypted storage, deletion schedules to your specification. No voice profiles are created.
Pricing
Transparent pricing
Included
- 120 minutes AI talk time included
- DE, FR, IT, EN, ES + Swiss German
- Calendar integration & appointment booking
- AI answering machine 24/7
- Interactive AI for customer service
- Email & SMS notifications
- Cancel monthly, no commitment
- No setup fees
Included
- 500 minutes AI talk time
- 3 concurrent calls
- 3 phone numbers
- Unlimited assistants
- Unlimited users
Features
- Everything in Basic
- Outbound calls
- No setup fees
Included
- From 2,000 minutes
- Custom concurrent calls
- Custom phone numbers
- Unlimited assistants
- Unlimited users
Features
- Everything in Professional
- Custom voice
- Custom SLA
- No setup fees
Frequently asked
External switchboard — common questions
What is the difference between a switchboard and a phone system?
The phone system is the technology, the switchboard is the job. A system connects handsets, manages extensions and provides lines. The switchboard decides who gets which call. fonea replaces only the switchboard, so you do not need a new phone system.
What does a switchboard cost for a company in Switzerland?
As an in-house role, CHF 6,000 to 7,500 per month fully loaded; as an outsourced service with call-centre staff, typically CHF 200 to 650 per month plus off-hours surcharges. fonea costs CHF 90 per month as a fixed price, regardless of call volume.
Is outsourcing the switchboard worth it for a small business?
From the point where the phone pulls someone away from their actual work, yes. For a firm of five to twenty people, a dedicated switchboard role is rarely fully occupied and still expensive. What matters is less the outsourcing than whether the caller ends up with the right person.
Do I need new hardware or a new phone number?
No. fonea works through standard call forwarding on your existing line with Swisscom, Sunrise or Salt. Your main number stays, no device arrives at your office, and forwarding can be switched off at any time.
Can fonea route to several people or groups?
Yes. You set a target number or group per call reason. fonea recognises the reason from the conversation and transfers accordingly. If nobody is reachable it takes a structured message and emails it, instead of putting the caller in a queue.
Does fonea replace an IVR menu?
Yes, and that is the point. An IVR forces the caller to translate their request into one of four categories. fonea simply asks what it is about and classifies it itself. The step where most people hang up disappears.
Your switchboard is staffed from today.
Live in hours, main number stays, cancel monthly. No minimum term.
Get started