This guide covers the area codes that serve Tampa Bay and what the 656 overlay changed, what Florida's recording law means for a greeting on recorded calls, the main ways to cover the phone when you cannot answer, and what staff coverage costs at the Tampa area's published receptionist wage. Each fact links to its primary source, and each estimate is labeled as one.
In 1998 the 813 area code was split in two. The numbering plan administrator's planning letter that year kept 813 for Hillsborough and East Pasco counties and gave the new 727 to Pinellas and West Pasco counties, with mandatory dialing of the new code from February 1, 1999.
When the 813 area later needed relief, the Florida Public Service Commission approved an all-services overlay on March 31, 2020. NANPA's planning letter PL-552 describes 656 as serving the same geographic area as 813, which it says covers the greater Tampa metropolitan area, including Oldsmar, Temple Terrace, Plant City and Zephyrhills, and mainly Hillsborough and Pasco counties. Ten-digit dialing became mandatory in the overlay on January 22, 2022, and the earliest date for new 656 numbers to go into service was February 22, 2022.
Two things follow from the overlay. Local calls inside 813 and 656 need all ten digits, so any sign, truck, card or recorded greeting that gives your number as seven digits is out of date. And a new line in the same area can come with either code, because PL-552 says 656 numbers are assigned once the assignable 813 prefixes are used up. A 656 number is as local as an 813 one.
If you already have a number customers know, keep it. Forwarding sends its calls to another line, such as an answering service or a receptionist, without moving the number, and the call forwarding guide lists the codes each major provider publishes and how to undo them. Chleb's published position is that the receptionist keeps your existing business number.
Florida is an all-party consent state for recorded calls. Section 934.03 of the Florida Statutes prohibits intentionally intercepting a wire, oral or electronic communication except as the chapter allows, and one of the exceptions reads: "It is lawful under this section and ss. 934.04-934.09 for a person to intercept a wire, oral, or electronic communication when all of the parties to the communication have given prior consent to such interception." The same section makes a violation of the main prohibition a third degree felony, with lesser penalties for certain radio cases.
For a business that records calls, the practical reading is that callers should know about the recording before they say anything that matters, and the start of the greeting is where that happens. Keep it short so it is heard before anything else, for example: this call is recorded so we get your details right. If a caller objects, decide in advance what the person or system answering should offer instead, such as a callback from a line that is not recorded, and only offer what you can do.
This applies whoever answers, whether it is your staff, an answering service or an AI receptionist. Chleb supports recordings and transcripts when enabled and subject to applicable notice or consent. Configure the greeting and the response to a caller who objects during onboarding, then test both paths. Do not assume every call produces a recording or transcript. This is not legal advice. Ask your attorney whether your wording and your practice are enough for your business.
The options below can be mixed, and each covers different hours and fails in a different way. The useful question is which calls each one would miss in your business.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that receptionists and information clerks in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area held 10,290 jobs in May 2025, with a mean hourly wage of $18.15. That is the published local figure; the numbers below are estimates built on it.
Estimate: one full-time receptionist working 40 hours a week for 52 weeks is 2,080 paid hours, or about $37,752 a year in wages at that mean. Covering every hour of the week with one person on the phone at a time takes 168 hours a week, which is 8,736 paid hours and about $158,558 a year in wages alone, before overtime, shift differentials and the extra people needed to cover breaks and time off.
Estimate: wages are not the whole cost of an employee. BLS reports that in June 2026, wages and salaries made up 70.0 percent of private-industry employers' compensation costs and benefits the remaining 30.0 percent, nationally. If your costs follow that national split, the full-time receptionist above costs about $53,931 a year, and round-the-clock staffing about $226,512. Those two totals are Chleb's arithmetic combining two BLS series, not a BLS figure, and your own payroll will differ.
For comparison, Chleb's published prices are $899 a month for AI Receptionist + Chatbot, or $9,170 a year paid annually, and $997 a month for the Front Office Bundle with the CRM. Call minutes and emails are billed separately at carrier cost with no Chleb markup. A person at a front desk also does work no phone system does, so compare on the calls you need answered, not on job titles.
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, according to the National Hurricane Center. Ready.gov tells people to save phone calls for emergencies after a disaster, because phone systems are often down or busy, and to text instead, so plan both what your line says and how you text customers.
The storm communications kit builds that plan and sizes it to print on one page: closed, limited service and reopening greetings, your provider's forwarding codes, who takes urgent calls, and customer messages, with the Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco alert and evacuation zone links. The hurricane season guide on our blog covers how storm calls arrive in waves and what Florida law says about pricing during a declared emergency.
Six checks worth doing before storm season, whoever answers your phone:
Yes. NANPA's planning letter PL-552 describes 656 as an all-services overlay serving the same area as 813. Ten-digit dialing became mandatory there on January 22, 2022, and the earliest date for 656 numbers to go into service was February 22, 2022.
Florida Statutes section 934.03 makes intercepting a call lawful when all parties have given prior consent, which is why businesses that record put a notice at the very start of the greeting. This is not legal advice; ask your attorney whether your wording is enough.
BLS reports a mean hourly wage of $18.15 for receptionists and information clerks in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area in May 2025. At 2,080 hours a year that is about $37,752 in wages, an estimate before benefits and payroll costs.
Yes. Forwarding points your existing number at another line without moving it, and turning it off returns the calls to you. Chleb's published position is that the receptionist keeps your existing business number.