Note: This article provides an overview of a "Preview" feature.
The consult transfers (also known as warm transfers) to queues using the Consult option provides agents with the ability to transfer the call to another queue while providing relevant context about the contact person’s inquiry to the agent of the consulted queue.
Consulting with an agent from a different department prior to transferring a call is crucial in some critical businesses, like healthcare, to guarantee that everyone involved in the conversation is aware of the contact person’s problem, without the need to repeat information or explain the issue multiple times, in order to provide a more secure and effective resolution.
Before the routing assignment enhancement for consult transfers, when a consult transfer to a queue was initiated during a voice call, the consult was only successful if an agent in the consulted queue was immediately available. If no agents were available, the consultation was canceled, requiring a manual retry. Additionally, the agents' idle time was not being reset when a voice transfer was successfully completed, which negatively impacted the call distribution fairness in the contact center.
With an in-queue experience in consult transfer to queue scenarios:
- Agents requesting consult transfers to queues will benefit from a customized in-queue experience. In addition, agents will be prioritized based on idle time, boosting efficiency and fairness in call distribution.
- Administrators will gain control over Transfer preferences, which will become available under Admin > Routing section > Queues menu > Preferences tab.
The admin can select a queue and configure the settings that will impact the consult transfers to a queue experience under “Preferences”.
The “Queues” menu allows contact center administrators to manage queues (create, assign users, and define the preferences).
In each queue’s “Preferences” tab, it is possible to configure the settings that will impact the consult transfers to a queue experience.
Once an existing queue is selected, the following transfer settings are available:
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Maximum waiting time: Time threshold for the system to find, at least, one agent who can be consulted. When this limit is reached, the consultation request will be canceled and the agent will resume the conversation with the contact person that was on hold during this time.
All matching agents in the consulted queue, independently of their status (all statuses are being considered), will be exhausted until the maximum waiting time is reached.- Default value: 1 second for existing ring groups/queues in order to maintain the behavior with no waiting experience and 1800 seconds for new queues. These values can be adjusted for a specific queue or in bulk for all queues of a single page.
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Offering timeout: Maximum time each agent on the consulted queue has to answer a consultation request. When this limit is reached, the call will stop ringing one of the available agents on the consulted queue and it will ring the next available agent, if any.
Agents are sorted by idle time and the number of agents to ring at a time is 1.- Default value: 35 seconds.
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Waiting music to play: Music played when one of the call participants is put in the waiting queue. For consult transfers to queue scenarios, the waiting music will be played to the agent requesting the consult.
- Default waiting music: the same “default music” available for the “Assignment and Dial” Studio component.
Notes:
- New ring groups created in the scope of an account will always have 1 second as the default value for the “Maximum waiting time” setting.
- From the moment the consult to a queue is requested (and the agent that requested the consult enters the waiting queue) until the moment the contact person is transferred to an agent, the maximum waiting time limit is reached or the consultations ends/is canceled, the contact person remains on hold. The hold music being played is the one configured at the account level if enabled. If no hold music is available, the contact person will hear silence during this period.
- Talkdesk’s voice provider always adds a 5-second timeout buffer to calls, so a value of 10 would result in an actual timeout closer to 15 seconds.
Edit Mode
Change Preferences for a Queue
In edit mode, the admin can update the “Maximum waiting time”, the “Offering timeout” and the “Waiting music to play” preferences for a queue.
- Select the “Maximum waiting time” field and change it accordingly to a value between 1 and 10800 seconds.
- Select the “Offering timeout” field and adjust it as needed to a value between 1 and 600 seconds.
- For the “Waiting music to play” field, select the “Use prompts” option and choose a prompt from the list of active prompts available in the account to define a customized waiting music.
Bulk Changes for Queues’ Preferences
In the Queues’ list, the admin can select one or more queues of one page (all queues of one page can be selected at the same time) and bulk change their preferences by clicking the “Change preferences” button.
In the “Change values for preferences” side panel, it is possible to select and update the settings that the admin wants to apply to the selected queues.
If only one setting is selected and adjusted, the ones that were not selected will remain the same for all the chosen queues.
After the settings update, the admin can select “Change settings” to apply the changes made.
The admin will then be presented with a success message stating that the settings changes were applied to the selected queues and can be double-checked in the queue’s “Preferences” tab.
Managing Prompts' Usage
Under Prompts, the information on prompts being used in queues can be consulted.
In case a prompt is being used in one or more queues, the admin can select the “Used in X place(s)” information to see where (prompts can be used in both Studio flows and queues).
The “Prompt usage” side panel will show information on the flows and queues using the selected prompt.
When clicking “View” for a specific queue, the admin will be redirected to that queue’s “Details” tab.
Notes:
- Prompts in use cannot be deleted.
- At this moment, prompts can still be archived directly in Studio components. Admins need to take care while archiving prompts in Studio since they can be in use in a queue.
Agent Experience
The Agent experience for consult transfers to a queue remains the same.
While on a voice call with a contact person, an agent can decide to perform a consultation, by selecting the “Consult” button.
The agent can then search and choose the most appropriate queue in the “Queues” tab of the “Consultation” panel.
At this point, the consultation request will be initiated.
If an agent is available in the consulted queue, the call will ring that agent during the time defined in the "Offering timeout” field for the consulted queue. After that time, the next available agent will be called for the same amount of time. The consultation request can reach the same agent several times as all eligible agents will be exhaust rang until the maximum waiting time configured at the consulted queue level is reached.
If no agent is available in the queue to be consulted, the system will wait until an agent becomes available or until the maximum waiting time is reached.
Following a consultation, the agent can decide to end the consultation or to transfer the call to the consulted agent.
For more information on all the actions that can be performed following a consultation, please refer to the Using the Consult option Conversations feature documentation.
Note: For customers using legacy Routing Settings: With the new enhancement for consult transfers to queues, the legacy Routing Settings, “Number of Agents to Ring (higher than 1)” and “Agent IVR”, will no longer be applied on consultations. If customers prefer to maintain the legacy settings rather than the new enhancement, they must fill out this opt-out form.