Transferring calls by department with your voice agent, and on to the next number if nobody answers

Transferring means your agent passes the call to someone on your team without the caller having to hang up and dial again. By department means each kind of call goes to a different phone.

Picture a boiler repair company. Someone who has just lost their hot water needs the on-call technician, and someone asking for a quote needs the office. Your agent listens to what the call is about and passes it to the right number. If that number doesn’t answer, it tries the next one you gave it.

How each call is passed, straight over or with the case explained to your colleague first, is covered in the article on passing the call to your team. Here we focus on choosing the department and on backup numbers.

In a single prompt agent, the kind that runs on one set of instructions, like the ones you would give a new employee, each department is a transfer. Open your agent in Agents, go to Tools, click Add and choose Transfer call.

Under Name, use one that says where it goes, lowercase with no spaces or accents, such as transfer_to_on_call. Under Description, say when to use it, for example “when they call about a breakdown, a leak or a boiler that won’t start”. Describe the case, not the number.

Under Transfer to, leave Static destination selected and enter the number with its country code. If it is an extension, the short number of a desk on your PBX, tick Extension and enter the digits.

Click Add and do the same for the office, for example transfer_to_office, “when they ask for a quote or about an invoice”. You can have up to ten transfers on one agent, and each one has its own settings and inherits nothing from the others. When you are done, save and publish.

The agent chooses by reading the name and description of each transfer. It works better if you also tell it in its instructions. “If they call about a breakdown, use transfer_to_on_call. If they ask for a quote, use transfer_to_office. If it isn’t clear, ask before transferring.” And keep each description to different cases, so it doesn’t hesitate between two.

There is another way on the same screen, Dynamic routing. Instead of a fixed number, you write a short text saying which number each case goes to, and the agent chooses. It can only dial a number written in that text, so nobody can talk it into calling another one. The catch is that Dynamic routing has no backup numbers.

A backup number is the one dialled when the first doesn’t answer. For the on-call line, for example, the on-call technician’s mobile first, then their colleague’s and finally the supervisor’s.

Below the number, click “+ Add another destination”. You can add up to four more numbers, each with its own extension if it needs one, so it also works for trying another desk on the same PBX.

The agent dials them in order, on its own, without the caller having to say anything. Between attempts it tells the caller with a phrase like “No answer there. Let me try another number, one moment.” You can write your own under “Say something before trying the next one”.

Each number rings for as long as “Ring duration” says, 25 seconds by default, so with three numbers the wait can go past a minute. The panel warns you when it could go past half a minute.

A mobile nobody answers usually goes to voicemail, and as far as the phone network is concerned, voicemail has picked up.

If under “How the call is handed over” you choose Hand it over, the agent passes the call as soon as someone picks up, voicemail included. The caller is left talking to a recording and the next number never rings. The panel warns you as soon as you add backup numbers.

With Brief the person or With a conversation, the agent stays on the call while it dials. With “Check a person picks up”, which is on by default, if voicemail answers it tries the next number. For an on-call line of mobiles, that is the safest choice. For landlines and extensions without voicemail, Hand it over works well.

The call isn’t lost. The caller stays with your agent, which tells them naturally and then does whatever its instructions say for that case. Write it down, for example “if you can’t put a breakdown through, take their name, address and a contact number”. For those details to reach your team, the agent needs a function that saves them in your system.

If your agent has business hours and you are closed, it tells the caller when you open. And if you don’t want a transfer to dial outside business hours, tick “Don’t transfer outside business hours” on it. You can do that for the office and not for the on-call line, which keeps ringing at night.

In Call history, the Events tab of each call tells you whether it was put through, reached voicemail or could not be transferred.

A flow agent follows steps you draw, like a diagram. There, each department is a Transfer step, with its number and backup numbers, and from the step where the agent is talking you draw an arrow to each one, such as “calling about a breakdown” or “asking for a quote”.

The Transfer step has a single outgoing arrow, the one followed when nobody could be reached. It usually leads to a step that takes a name and number so someone can call back.

Passing the call only works over the phone. Calls from your website don’t travel over a line that can be passed on, and the panel test doesn’t transfer either, so to try it you have to call. A trick for backup numbers is to put the mobile you call from first. Since it will be busy, that attempt fails and you hear the agent try the second one.

Don’t pass the call to the same number you forward to your agent, because it would come straight back into it. Use an extension, a mobile or a group on your PBX.

The Administrator and the Editor on your account set it up, and the Viewer can only see it. You can also ask Maite, the panel’s assistant, to do it.

Passing the call has no extra cost, neither on the plans, where it comes with no limit, nor on pay as you go. The agent’s minutes count until it connects the two people. If the call goes out through your own number, your carrier bills you for that second call.

How many departments can I have? Up to ten transfers per agent, each with its own number and up to four backup numbers.

Does the caller have to pick the department on the keypad? No. The agent understands it from what the caller says, and if your instructions tell it to, it asks when it isn’t clear.

What if none of the numbers answers? The agent tells the caller and keeps helping them, following what its instructions say for that case.

Does it work for calls from my website? No. Passing the call only works over the phone.

How much does it cost to try? €20 free credit, no card needed. Create your agent with two transfers and call to hear how it sends each case to its number.