How to Make Consultations and Transfers
During an active call, you can consult with other agents, add participants to a conference call, or transfer the call to another party using the Consult, Conference, Blind Transfer feature.
Consult, Conference, Blind Transfer Panel
Consult, Conference, Blind Transfer is the panel that pops open after clicking on the Consult, Conference, or Blind Transfer 
button during an active call.
From this panel, you may do the following:
- Scroll down and select a recipient from the list of available agents.
- Use the search bar to enter the name or number of the agent you want to transfer the call to.
- In the Dial Number field, enter the phone number or extension of the party you are transferring the call to.
Transferring to Office 365 Contacts
When an Office 365 contact is selected to transfer a call to, a dropdown will display multiple phone numbers if the contact has more than one. Clicking a number will insert it into the number input field. The agent can then select whether to blind transfer, consult transfer, or conference.
Consultation Calls
A consultation call is a call you make to another agent or manager with respect to an active customer call on your desktop. Making consultations allows you to ask others questions while keeping your caller on hold.
To make a consultation call, open the Consult, Conference, Blind Transfer panel and click the Consult icon 
next to the desired contact. Alternatively, enter an extension or phone number into the Dial Number field and click Consult. The original call remains active and is not transferred.
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Please note that you can complete a transfer after making a consultation call on either consultation call, or the original call. If a consultation call is transferred while the original call remains active, reporting continues under the original call’s service. | |
Conference Calls
A conference call is a call where more than one party is actively on a call; conference calls can be useful if your caller wants to speak with a manager.
To make a conference call, open the Consult, Conference, Blind Transfer panel and click the Conference icon 
next to the desired contact. Alternatively, enter an extension or phone number in the Dial Number field and select Conference from the drop-down menu next to the Consult button. From here, all parties will be active on the call.
Recent conference calls appear in the Recents list, marked with the Conference icon; when you click the listing, the contact information of all parties on the call is displayed.
Blind Transfers
A blind transfer is when an agent passes a call to another phone number or extension without knowing if the call will be actively received. Blind transfers are useful when callers need to speak with specific agents or departments.
To initiate a blind transfer, open the Consult, Conference, Blind Transfer panel and click the Blind transfer icon 
. Alternatively, enter an extension or phone number into the Dial Number field and select Blind transfer from the drop-down menu next to the Consult button. The phone call will transfer and the interaction will be completed.
For blind transfers, the name and phone number of the caller will be displayed and stored in the Recents list.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Note that conference calls, consultations, and blind transfers can be made using keyboard shortcuts, also known as hot keys or hotkeys.
The keyboard shortcuts are as follows:
- First, to initiate a transfer or conference, select Alt-Shift-T/I
- To make a blind transfer, select Alt-Shift-B
- To make a consultation call, select Alt-Shift-D
- To make a conference call, select Alt-Shift-C
How to Consult a Fellow Agent's State Before Transferring an Interaction to Them
If real-time state icons are enabled for your contact center, they are viewable in your directory as well as in the following:
- The Consult, Conference, and Blind Transfer panel
- The Chat Invite modal
- The Transfer Email and Assign Email modals
If you are processing an interaction and need to transfer it to another agent, you can use the icons to determine who is available to transfer the interaction to.
Note: If real-time state icons are not enabled for your contact center, the same process may be used with presence icons.
General Rule
Agents in the Ready state are generally the best transfer targets. This state means an agent is ready and waiting to process interactions (i.e. they are not actively working on anything else).
Check the Directory
The directory is one of the places to view agent real-time states. You can access the directory by clicking the Directory icon at the bottom of the communication panel. To view agents, click on the Internal sub-tab, then expand the relevant team names (e.g. Support).
In the following image, three out of four of the displayed agents are busy or logged out. If you needed to transfer an interaction to one of these agents, Elan Voss would be the best choice because he is Ready.
In the following image, all three agents online are busy (i.e. two are Not Ready and one is finishing After Call Work). If you needed to transfer an interaction to one of these agents, you could inform the customer they will need to wait for the next available agent, send an internal message to the desired agent, and then transfer the customer when the agent is ready.
Check the Transfer Panel
If you are actively processing an interaction, the transfer panel displays real-time states too. In the following image, a support agent wants to see which of their teammates are available to transfer a customer call to.
When the Consult, Conference, or Blind Transfer button is clicked, the Consult, Conference, Blind Transfer panel opens, showing that agent Elan Voss from the Support team is available.