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The Transfer Call block lets your agent seamlessly hand off a live call to another person, department, or fallback destination. Phonely’s updated transfer flow dramatically simplifies call routing by replacing large, branching, hard-to-manage flows with a single intelligent block that can handle warm transfers, cold transfers, failover logic, caller triage, and on-hold experiences—all in one place. This guide walks you through everything you can do inside the updated Transfer Call block, how it works, and how to set it up step-by-step.

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Why the New Transfer Flow Matters

Before this update, businesses had to create giant spider-web flows just to transfer a caller to the right person. A typical setup looked like:
  • Ask the caller who they want
  • Route them manually to different branches (Dwight → branch A, Michael → branch B, Pam → branch C…)
  • Add fallback logic for every branch (e.g., voicemail → retry → next agent)
  • Repeat this for every destination.
This resulted in huge, messy workflows. The new transfer block condenses ALL of this into one simple module:
  • Add multiple destiantions.
  • Automatically triage callers with AI.
  • Automatically retry alternative numbers if one doesn’t pick up.
  • Choose warm transfer or cold transfer.
  • Customize the caller’s hold experience.
  • Set advanced rules like tagging, timeout durations, and human-answered outcomes.
Instead of 30+ blocks, you now need one.

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How the Transfer Call Block Works

The Transfer Call block has three main sections:
  1. Setup — Choose warm or cold transfer.
  2. On Transfer — Add destinations, conditions, messages, and failover behavior.
  3. Connection Experience — Customize what happens while the caller waits and after the call connects.
Let’s walk through each part in detail.

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1. Setup — Choose the Type of Transfer

At the Setup step, you decide which transfer style your agent will perform.

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Cold Transfer

The agent transfers the caller immediately with no introduction.
Best for:
  • Quick internal routing.
  • When the person receiving the call does not need context.

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Warm Transfer

The agent briefly introduces the caller and shares context before completing the transfer.
Best for:
  • Customer support escalations.
  • Sales handoffs.
  • Complex or high-value callers.
Selecting the correct transfer type determines how Phonely behaves when initiating the handoff.

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2. On Transfer

This section is the heart of the transfer flow. Here, you can define exactly how Phonely determines who to transfer to and in what order.

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Adding Transfer Destinations

Each destination includes:
  • Condition: keywords such as “support,” “sales,” “billing” that trigger this route. For example if the caller says support or Michael use this destination.
  • Phone Number: the number Phonely will dial.
  • Pre-Transfer Message: the message the agent says before transferring (e.g., “Let me connect you to Pam.”)
  • Failover Toggle: enables automatic retry if the call goes to voicemail or isn’t answered.
Transfer Flow Block Pn You can add as many destinations as you need. For example:
  1. Destination 1 → Lisa
  2. Destination 2 → Michael
  3. Destination 3 → Dwight
  4. Destination 4 → Pam
Phonely’s AI handles the decision-making automatically—no need to build complex “if caller says X” branches manually.

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Failover Routing (Automatic Retry Logic)

Failover is one of the most powerful features. When enabled, Phonely:
  1. Tries the first number.
  2. If no one picks up → moves to the next.
  3. Repeats until someone answers.
  4. If all fail → exits the block, allowing you to play a fallback message.
Failover In Transfer Flow Pn Example:
  • Try Pam
  • If Pam doesn’t pick up → call Michael
  • If Michael doesn’t pick up → call Dwight
  • If Dwight doesn’t pick up → call Jim
  • If nobody picks up → agent returns to flow (e.g., “Sorry, no one is available right now.”)
All this happens automatically with a simple toggle.

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3. While Waiting for Connection — Customize the Caller’s On-Hold Experience

When the agent starts the transfer, the caller may need to wait briefly. Phonely lets you design this experience with three modes: On Hold Chat Phonely continues talking to the customer while completing the transfer. On Hold Music Phonely plays hold music with periodic reminder messages such as:
“Thanks for holding. We’re still connecting you.” You can set:
  • Reminder message
  • Reminder frequency (seconds)
Both (Chat + Music) Phonely mixes live conversation with hold music for a more dynamic waiting experience. Transfer Call On Hold Experience Pn

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4. When Connection Is Established

Once the transfer connects to a human or voicemail, you can define advanced behaviors:

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Warm Transfer Attempt Duration

How long Phonely should attempt the warm introduction before switching to cold transfer. Detect who answered: When enabled, Phonely will detect if a person, voicemail, or IVR answered before proceeding. When disabled, Phonely immediately speaks after detecting any audio. Detection timeout: The maximum time allowed for the other end to speak before being detected as an IVR, voicemail, or a person. Message to caller (inbound): After detecting a person on the line, this message is played to the inbound caller before transferring them to the outbound destination. Message to recipient (outbound): After detecting a person on the line, this message is played to the outbound destination before connecting the inbound caller to them. Post transfer message: After connecting the inbound caller to the outbound destination, this message is played to both parties before the agent disconnects. Warm transfer duration: The maximum duration in seconds that Phonely will attempt to complete the warm transfer.

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Call Outcome Tagging

Automatically tag the call based on:
  • Transfer result
  • Destination
  • Human-answered detection
This is ideal for reporting, analytics, and CRM syncing. Transfer Call Advanced Settings Pn

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Putting It All Together: Example Workflow

Scenario: Caller wants to reach someone in the support team. Setup: Choose Warm Transfer.

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On Transfer

Add destinations:
  1. Pam
    • Number: +1…
    • Pre-transfer message: “Let me connect you to Pam.”
    • Enable failover
  2. Michael: Number: +1…
  3. Dwight: Number: +1…
  4. Jim: Number: +1…
Transfer Call Example Pn

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Hold Experience

Use On Hold Music
  • Reminder message: “Thanks for holding, we’re still connecting you.”
  • Reminder every 20 seconds

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Connection Behavior

  • Warm Transfer Attempt Duration: 45 seconds.
  • Add call outcome tags.

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Why This Is a Game-Changer

The updated transfer experience lets you:
  • Build advanced routing in minutes instead of hours
  • Reduce workflow complexity
  • Simplify maintenance
  • Improve caller experience
  • Use AI triage instead of manual branching
  • Automatically retry fallback numbers
  • Personalize the hold experience
  • Track transfer outcomes more accurately
It’s cleaner, more scalable, more intuitive, and far more powerful.