Transfer, hold and park a call

Three ways to move a call somewhere else, and how to choose between them so the caller does not suffer for it.

Three ways to move a call somewhere else, and how to choose between them so the caller does not suffer for it.

Hold

Pauses the call and plays hold music. The caller cannot hear you, which is the point: use it before asking a colleague a question rather than covering the microphone and hoping.

Come back within thirty seconds or say something. Silence with music is fine briefly and unnerving after a minute.

Attended transfer

You call the colleague first, explain who is waiting and why, then connect them.

Slower for you, much better for the caller. They do not repeat themselves, and your colleague is not ambushed. Use this by default.

Blind transfer

The call goes straight through with no introduction. Right for a switchboard where the destination is obvious and someone is definitely there.

Wrong for a customer who has just spent two minutes explaining a problem, because they will explain it again to a colleague who has no context.

From a desk phone

Without a screen to click, transfers run on feature codes. Dial the code during the call, wait for the system to confirm, then dial the extension or number.

That last one is worth remembering. If your colleague turns out to be unavailable, you have not lost the caller.

Park

Puts the call in a numbered slot that any phone can retrieve. Useful when the right person is somewhere in the building rather than at their desk: park it, announce the slot, and they pick it up from wherever they are.

Parked calls do not wait forever. If nobody collects it, the call comes back rather than sitting silently.

Choosing quickly

• Need to ask something? Hold.
• Passing to a specific person? Attended transfer.
• Obvious destination, someone definitely there? Blind transfer.
• Person is in the building but not at a desk? Park and announce it.

See also

• Make and receive calls
• Use function keys on your desk phone