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The Call Transfer tool lets your agent hand an active call over to a person. The agent decides when to transfer based on the conversation, dials the destination, and steps out of the way once the two humans are connected. There are two ways the handover can happen, and either can be translated in real time.

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Cold and warm transfer

Cold transfer connects the caller straight through. The agent dials the destination and hands the caller over as soon as it answers. The recipient picks up and is talking to the caller immediately, with no context from the agent. Cold transfer works on any supported number, standard or Advanced. Warm transfer briefs the recipient first. The caller stays on hold while the agent dials the destination, and when the recipient answers, the agent speaks a short summary of who is calling and what they need. Only the recipient hears this. The caller is then bridged in and the agent drops out. Warm transfer is what you want when the recipient benefits from context: a support escalation, a qualified sales handoff, or anything where making the caller repeat themselves is a bad experience.

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The briefing

The summary is generated from the conversation so far. By default the agent gives a two to three sentence description of the caller and their reason for calling, spoken directly to the recipient. You can replace this with your own instructions in the tool’s Summary prompt field. Write it as a direction to the agent, not as a script:

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What the caller hears

If you set a pre-transfer message, the agent speaks it before the transfer begins. On a standard number, a cold transfer hands the call to your telephony provider, which redirects it to the destination. On an Advanced number, the caller is held (muted and unable to hear) while the destination is dialed, then bridged in once it answers. Either way the caller ends up connected and the agent leaves. On an Advanced number, a failed transfer returns the caller to the agent and the conversation continues. The call is not dropped. The agent is told what went wrong and can explain it, try a different destination, or carry on helping.
The recovery behaviour above applies to transfers placed from an Advanced number. On a standard number the call is handed to your provider, so what happens on a failed transfer is determined by that provider rather than by SentiVue Talk.

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Translated transfer

Turn on Translation and the caller and recipient each hear the other in their own language, live, for the rest of the call. Pick the caller’s language and the recipient’s language when you configure the tool. The agent announces that a translator is joining, holds both parties for a few seconds while the translation service starts, then plays a short tone when it is live. From that point the two humans speak normally and hear each other translated. If translation fails to start, the call is not lost. The caller and recipient are connected with untranslated audio and the conversation continues.
Once translation goes live, the remainder of the call is billed at your plan’s Translate rate, which is higher than the Talk rate. See Plans and usage.
Translation requires the SentiVue Translation integration to be connected for your organization. See Live translation.

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What each mode requires

Transfer capability depends on the telephony provider and, for the advanced modes, on the specific number the transfer dials out from. Warm and translated transfers dial the recipient over a SIP trunk that is created when you switch a number to Advanced, which is why they are tied to a specific number rather than just an account. Cold transfer needs none of that and works as soon as a supported provider is configured.
Warm and translated transfer are Twilio-only today. Support for the other telephony providers is in progress. Cold transfer already works on Twilio and Asterisk.

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Transfers from web calls

Web and embedded widget calls can transfer, but only from an Advanced number. Bind the transfer tool to one and it works — there is nothing else to configure. A transfer tool that is not bound to an Advanced number will not transfer on a web call.

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Setting up a transfer tool

  1. Go to Tools and create a tool of type Transfer Call.
  2. Enter the destination — an E.164 phone number (+14155550100) or, on Asterisk, a SIP endpoint (PJSIP/sales-queue).
  3. Choose the telephony configuration the transfer dials out from.
  4. Choose the from number. This is the caller ID the recipient sees, and for warm or translated transfers it must be an Advanced number.
  5. Pick cold or warm. For warm, optionally write a summary prompt.
  6. To translate, enable Translation and select the caller and recipient languages.
  7. Save, then attach the tool to the agent nodes where a transfer should be possible.
Settings are validated when you save. If a combination is not allowed — warm transfer on a standard number, translation without a connected integration — the save is rejected with the reason.

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Troubleshooting

Warm transfer requires an Advanced Twilio number. Confirm the number you selected under from number is set to Advanced in your telephony configuration, and that its setup completed successfully.
Translation needs three things: a connected Translation integration, an Advanced Twilio number as the from number, and both languages selected. The error message names whichever one is missing.
The tool must be attached to the node the conversation is on when the transfer should happen. Check the node’s tool list, and make sure the tool description tells the agent when to use it.
Verify the destination can receive calls from your Twilio caller ID. For Asterisk, confirm the SIP endpoint exists on your server; external numbers from Asterisk need a PSTN trunk.
The call falls back to untranslated audio when the translation service does not come up in time. Check that the Translation integration still shows as connected, and that the selected languages are ones your account supports.