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Call Routing transfers a live call to a phone number when a phrase you choose is spoken. You write the phrase, you pick who has to say it, and you pick where the call goes.

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Set it up

On the agent’s Basic Information tab, click Call Routing under Choose Skills. The Configure Call Routing dialog opens.
The Configure Call Routing dialog with the Transfer type dropdown open showing Direct transfer and Warm transfer, above the optional From and Until transfer window
Each rule reads as a sentence. When the bot says <phrase>, Transfer to <name> at <number>. All fields are required except the transfer window. + Add more conditions adds another rule, and the small x on the right removes one.

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Transfer windows

From and Until set a daily window per route. Leave both empty and transfers happen at any hour. Set them, and a transfer attempted outside the window is blocked. This is what stops an agent handing a caller to an empty office at nine in the evening. It is set per route, so a sales line and a support line on the same agent can keep different hours. The window is evaluated in the agent’s Timezone, which you set on Advanced Settings. Set the timezone first, then the window, or you will be reasoning about the wrong clock.
The dialog currently prints (Pacific Time) next to this setting while its own tooltip says the agent’s timezone. The tooltip is the accurate one. If your agent is not on Pacific time, verify with a test transfer before you rely on the window.

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Direct and warm transfers

Direct transfer connects the call immediately. The agent says the phrase, the caller is passed to the number, and the agent drops off. Warm transfer explains the call to the recipient first, then connects the caller. Direct is the default. Warm costs a few extra seconds but means the person picking up is not starting cold.

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How the phrase is matched

This is the part that surprises people, so it is worth being precise. The phrase is matched case insensitively, and it matches anywhere inside what was said, as long as it sits on whole word boundaries. That means: The last row is the trap. A short phrase will fire in conversations you did not intend, because it only has to appear somewhere in the sentence.
bot and human rules match identically. Neither one is stricter than the other. If you have read otherwise, that was wrong.

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Choosing a good phrase

Because matching is containment, the phrase does the work of a switch, so treat it like one.
  • Make it long enough to be deliberate. “Connecting you to billing now” will not come up by accident. “Billing” will.
  • Make it something the agent will actually say. For a bot rule, write the same phrase into the agent prompt and tell the agent when to use it. If the agent never says it, the rule never fires.
  • Avoid words that appear in the surrounding conversation. If the agent discusses billing all call, do not use billing as the trigger.
For human rules, remember you are matching what the caller says, and callers do not read your prompt. Short and common is more likely to catch the request, which is the opposite tradeoff from bot rules and is exactly why false fires happen.

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Test before you rely on it

Open Test Agent and place a browser or phone call. Say the phrase, or steer the agent into saying it, and confirm the transfer fires and rings the right number.
Transfers only work on phone calls. A browser test call cannot transfer, so test routing with Start Phone Call.

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Where to go next

  • Everything else on the agent: Agents
  • Build a repeatable test for each route: Testing an agent
  • Check whether a transfer actually happened on a call: Calls