Collaborative scenarios for voice calls

Information in this article is also available in the Buzzeasy Academy videos below.

Consult

Consultation is the act of talking with two parties in the same call, but not at the same time. A typical use case is when you need to consult with another agent or en external consultant for information, keeping a customer in the call but not having them listen in to your consultation.

You accomplish this by designating which of the two parties you wish to talk to at any one time – the other one is put on hold for you.

You can switch back and forth between the call parties as per your liking.

Accessing the Directory

During a call, select the Directory button. The directory is now displayed to you.

Scroll, search or filter the directory to find the agent, channel or internal contact you need.
Select the proper section of the directory by clicking the tab at the top.
Click the target agent, channel or internal contact. The collaboration buttons show up.
Alternatively, click the Dial out tab in the directory panel, and type in the target phone number. The collaboration buttons show up.
Click the Consult button to call the selected party. The customer is put on hold and a secondary call control is displayed.

Active consult call

While you are consulting with the selected party, the customer is on hold. Calls placed on hold change their color from blue to orange. In this case, the consultation call has a blue background. You may resume the call with your customer at any time.

Additionally, you may collapse the call control you don't currently use to allow more screen for the current controls.

Tip

The agent application is aware of the screen size and automatically collapses the unused call control panels during a consultation if there isn't enough space to display both call controls at the same time.

Consultative transfer

While engaging with a consult party, and the customer is on hold, you can decide to transfer the customer call to this consult party.

Click Transfer while talking to the consult party. You are removed from the consultation call, and the consult party is connected to the customer directly.

Upgrade to conference

In a conference call, all participants can hear and speak with one another. You achieve a conference call via a consultation. As soon as you establish a conference, you are no longer in control of who hears whom and you leaving the conference does not automatically drop the others.

To upgrade a consultation call to a conference, follow these steps:

Explain your plan to all participants regarding the change to conference call.
Click the Add to call button in the call controls with the consulted party, to upgrade the conversation to a Conference call.
The two call controls merge in the work area, all parties are now joined in a three-way call.

The conference call panel presents a single set of call control buttons, but shows two participants.

Use the Mute button to turn your microphone off or on.

Click the Drop call button to disconnect from the conference. The customer and the consultant party are now connected in a two-party call, without you.

You may perform a blind transfer of a voice conversation to another agent, a channel, a contact from your corporate or Buzzeasy directories or you can type in a target phone number.

During a call, select the Directory button.
Scroll, search or filter the directory to find the agent, channel, or internal or Buzzeasy directory contact you need and click the entry of choice, or type a number to dial. The collaboration buttons show up.
Click the Transfer button. The call is transferred to the selected party.

A blind transfer differs from the consultative transfer in that you don't initially discuss anything with the party you transfer the conversation to. This makes it a relatively fast handover process, however in some cases when the target contact fails to actively accept/take your transfer, the conversation might get lost.