Ever called into a business only to get passed around from rep to rep like a hot potato? That’s what call transfers can feel like to your customers. In fact, 68% of customers get irritated when reps transfer them to another department. Imagine repeating the same question to multiple reps before finally getting the help you need. Not good.
Call transfers aren’t inherently bad business phone etiquette. They can help your customers and your team. But first, you need to know when to opt for warm vs. cold transfers (and vice versa) to provide a better customer experience. In this post, we break down these two types of call transfers, explain how you can successfully use each, and provide examples of warm transfers. Plus, we offer a solution that makes transferring calls from one rep to another smooth and hassle-free.
What is the difference between warm transfers vs cold transfers?
There are two types of call transfers: cold transfers and warm transfers. While both send calls to another phone number or extension, they impact the customer experience in different ways.
Cold transfers, also known as blind transfers, are the simplest option for inbound call handling. You’ve probably experienced cold transfers when calling a business. They occur when a call is transferred without anyone briefing the rep who will receive the call. For example, if a customer support rep cold transfers a call to their manager, the manager won’t have any context of who’s calling them and the reason for the call when they pick up the phone.
Warm transfers require more collaboration between team members. They happen when a rep briefs a teammate on who is calling and the purpose of their call before making the transfer. With a warm transfer, your teammate will have the necessary relevant information to provide quality support — for example, the caller’s account number and context about the issue. They’ll be able to greet the caller by name and work toward a first call resolution without having to get up to speed on a customer’s issue.
💡Lay the foundation for quality assurance (QA) with this customer service quality assurance checklist.
Are warm transfers better than cold transfers?
Warm transfers generally make for a better customer experience and should be used as often as possible. Research shows 79% of customers want consistent interactions across departments, yet 56% say they frequently have to repeat or re-explain information to different reps.
A warm transfer personalizes the call and makes your company stand out by valuing the customer’s time and providing the most positive experience possible. When a caller doesn’t have to repeat the same information, time to resolution is faster, customers are less likely to abandon calls, and customer satisfaction is higher.
3 warm transfer script examples
A good warm transfer makes customers feel heard, informs them about why they’re being transferred, and sets expectations for how long the transfer will take.
Here are three warm transfer script templates your reps can use:
1. Warm transfer to a sales rep
When a caller is interested in learning more about your product or service, route them to the right rep who can answer their questions and help them make a decision with this example:
“Great! I’d love to help. I’m going to connect you with [sales rep’s name], who can help you find the best option for your business. Let me check if they’re available — one moment.”
2.Warm transfer to technical support
If a customer reaches out with a technical issue, your support rep might not be the best person to solve their problem. Before you transfer them to a technical support rep, set the right expectations with this script:
“I’m sorry to hear you’re experiencing issues. To assist you better, I’d like to connect you with [tech support rep’s name], our technical support specialist. May I connect you now?”
3. Warm transfer to a manager
Sometimes, a customer situation calls for a second set of eyes. Transferring a customer to a manager ensures they understand your team takes their issue seriously.
“I understand this is frustrating, and I want to make sure you’re fully taken care of. I’m going to connect you to my manager, [manager’s name], who can look into this further and address the issue ASAP. I’ll be a few moments.”
Benefits of warm transfers
As you might have guessed, warm transfers can improve your customer experience. What you might not realize is that they help your team collaborate better, too.
Here’s a breakdown of how warm transfers can benefit your business:
- Personalized interactions: Warm transfers allow reps to greet customers by name and show they’re aware of their reason for calling, creating better connections between callers and your business.
- Positive brand perception: When customers receive a cohesive experience from each rep, they see your company as professional and attentive, which can help increase customer lifetime value.
- Help teams collaborate: One of the challenges of every customer service team is to share customer context and prevent information siloes. Warm transfers encourage reps to share context on each call and work as a team to make sure customers’ needs are met.
- Increases customer satisfaction: Warm transfers prevent customers from having to repeat themselves to different reps. This smooth handoff keeps them from feeling irritated, reduces handling time, and decreases customer frustration.
How to transfer calls in OpenPhone
Using a VoIP phone service is an easy way to simplify the call transfer process. OpenPhone offers your team three ways to transfer calls:
- Cold transfers let you transfer the call to a rep without a note or placing the caller on hold.
- Warm transfers let you place a caller on hold, consult a rep over the phone, introduce them to the caller on hold, and drop off the call.
- Transfer with a note lets you put a caller on hold, add a message to a teammate in your OpenPhone workspace you’re transferring the call to, and immediately drop off the call once you’ve clicked the Transfer button.
The call transfer feature can be used by all of our Business plan users. If you’re a current OpenPhone Standard user, learn how to upgrade.
With OpenPhone, call transfers are just one way to keep your business running smoothly. You also get a bunch of business features that make it easier for your team to stay organized, respond faster, and give customers a better experience.
- Split responsibility for incoming calls and texts with shared phone numbers: Your entire team can make and receive calls and texts from the same business number so no customer slips through the cracks. Whether you’re in the office, working remotely, or on the go, a team member should be around to step in and take the call.
- Easily keep track of every customer conversation: No more piecing together past interactions. OpenPhone keeps all your calls, SMS, voicemails, and recordings in one central inbox, so any team member can access the conversation history and respond with the right context.
- Automatically record calls and take notes: Keep a record of every customer conversation with automatic call recording. Whether for training, quality assurance, or compliance, you’ll always have a backup of key discussions to reference when needed. Plus, you can use AI call summaries and transcriptions to help you focus on customer conversations instead of taking notes.
- Route customers to the right person instantly: Use OpenPhone’s auto-attendant (also known as IVR systems) to let callers route themselves to the correct department or rep, reducing time spent transferring calls.
- Create a professional custom voicemail greeting: Record a custom voicemail greeting that reassures customers they’ve reached the right business and sets expectations for a callback.
- Set business hours: Protect your work-life balance by ensuring customer calls only come through when you’re available. Outside business hours, calls can go straight to voicemail so you and your team can fully unplug without worrying about missing a customer’s query.
- Integrations that help you stay on top of missed calls and keep your CRM updated automatically. OpenPhone’s Slack integration instantly notifies reps when a call is unanswered so they can follow up faster. Plus, you can automatically log all call activity in your CRM like HubSpot or Salesforce so you don’t have to spend time entering details manually.
How to transfer calls on the desktop or web app
To initiate a call transfer via the OpenPhone web or desktop app, follow the steps below once you’re on an active call.
- Place a caller on hold by clicking the Hold icon. (We recommend placing someone on hold before transferring calls. Otherwise, your contact will hear your phone attempting to reach the other person or phone number you’re dialing.)
- Click on the … button next to the hold option.
- Select Transfer call.
- Type the name or the phone number of the person you want to transfer the call to. You can also add a message when you transfer a call to a teammate in OpenPhone, ensuring a smooth handover and avoiding the need for the customer to repeat themselves. Keep in mind that the message is only visible if you’re transferring a call to someone in your OpenPhone workspace and not an external number.
When you add a note for a teammate, the message appears with the incoming call notification. Here’s how adding a message looks on your teammate’s end:
- Press Transfer. Alternatively, you can provide information over the phone instead of adding a note.
- Click the Hold icon to take the other call participant off hold. Then if you wish to provide a warm introduction, you can do so before dropping off the call by clicking the red phone icon.
How to transfer calls on the mobile app
Doing a call transfer on the OpenPhone mobile app takes five steps. You can do a warm or cold transfer without leaving our platform, downloading a third-party app, or grabbing a different device.
- Place a caller on hold by clicking the Hold icon.
- Swipe up and select Transfer call.
- You have three options:
- Select the team member you’d like to transfer the call to (bonus: you see their status and availability, so you only transfer the call to a colleague who’s available to take it!). You can also add a note from the mobile app to get your teammate up to speed on a call. Keep in mind that a note is only visible if you’re transferring a call to someone in your OpenPhone workspace.
- Search and tap on the contact in your address book who should take the call.
- Type the phone number you’d like to transfer the call to.
- Press Transfer.
- Click the Hold icon to take the other call participant off hold. Then if you wish to provide an introduction, you can do so before dropping off the call by clicking the red phone icon.
Warm transfer best practices
If you want to provide the best warm transfer experience possible, follow these five tips as you transfer your call using your VoIP app:
- Take notes before you transfer: Jot down relevant information your caller provides so you can provide your team member with accurate details. At the minimum, collect their name so you can add them to your CRM and reach back out if the call drops.
- Keep your callers informed: Let your callers know before you put them on hold or transfer their call.
- Hold and consult for smoother handoffs: While the caller is on hold, share essential details about the caller’s issue, steps already taken, and relevant background information with the receiving rep.
- Check back in with a caller if you have a caller on hold for more than three minutes: Long hold times create uncertainty and frustration for your customers – maintaining communication lets customers know their call is a priority.
- Thank your callers for their time: The biggest downside of a warm transfer is the long wait times your callers may experience. Make sure they know you appreciate their patience and reassure them you’ll reach a resolution as soon as possible.
Why you should use a business phone system like OpenPhone
Call transfers don’t have to be a frustrating experience for callers. Rather, they can help your clients get the information they need faster. Cold transfers can help you boost efficiency when you don’t need a specific team member to answer or background information to provide a solution.
Warm transfers can improve the customer experience by limiting transfers, ensuring callers aren’t sent to voicemail, and allowing team members to provide personalized support from the get-go.
Start your free trial of OpenPhone to get started with our call management features.
FAQs
While warm transfers create a more personalized way to handle calls, they’re not always the best solution to meet your caller’s needs. Cold transfers can be effective if they have a question that doesn’t require a specific rep or background information. Warm transfers help when you’re dealing with an issue that’s complex or a rep who’s avoiding calls.
If a team member isn’t available for a warm transfer, set expectations with the customer regarding when and how they can expect to hear back. For example, you can:
– Follow up with a customer over text. You can use internal threads to tag teammates and loop them into conversations when they’re not available. When they’re back online, they can read through the conversation history and message the customer.
– Follow up with a customer with a callback. Customer service reps can use call transcripts and summaries to see the conversation history and call the customer back so they can deliver a higher level of customer care.
A soft transfer, also known as a warm transfer, is when you consult with another rep before transferring the customer. You can put the customer on a brief hold while you fill the other rep in on the customer’s issue.
Yes, a cold transfer is the same as a blind transfer. With a blind transfer, you transfer the customer to another rep without any introduction or passing along context about their issue, forcing the customer to start over from the beginning with the new rep.
