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The Call Transfer function allow your Telzino AI phone agents to redirect calls to specific phone numbers based on predefined criteria. This enables seamless handling of complex queries by transferring calls to the appropriate personnel or department.
Looking for a transfer where the agent briefs a human first and the human accepts with a keypress before the caller is connected? See Warm Transfer.

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Adding a Call Transfer Action

To add a call transfer action to your agent:
  1. Log into your account and navigate to the agent editor.
  2. Click the (+) button in the Functions section and select the “Call Transfer” action.
Call Transfer function

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Configuring the Call Transfer Action

Once added, you need to provide instructions to the agent on how and when to use the call transfer function. You will specify:
  • Conditions: Describe under what conditions the agent should transfer the call.
  • Destination: Provide the phone numbers to which the calls should be transferred. If no specific destination is configured, your agent will transfer to calls to you via the Telzino mobile app if you have it installed.

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Action Settings

By clicking the gear icon, you are presented with more options for Call Transfer:
  • Use Agent Number For Call Transfers: If set to Yes, when your agent forwards a call to your destination, the caller ID would be set to your agent’s phone number. If set to No (default), the caller ID will be of the original person calling your agent.

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Confirm Transfers

Enable Confirm Transfers (the toggle appears once Call Transfer is turned on for the agent) to make sure a transfer is actually answered by a person before the caller is connected — so transfers don’t silently drop into voicemail. When enabled, before connecting the caller the agent dials the destination and plays a short prompt asking them to press 1 to accept. If the destination presses 1, the caller is bridged through. If the destination doesn’t answer or doesn’t press 1, the caller stays on the line with the agent, which lets the caller know the person is unavailable and continues following your transfer rules (for example, trying the next extension or taking a message).
BLF for registered SIP extensions. When the inbound call arrived over your agent’s registered SIP (NetSapiens) and the destination is an internal extension, the agent confirms availability using BLF presence — a live registration/busy check via the NetSapiens API — instead of dialing for a press-1 keypress. If presence can’t be determined, it falls back to the press-1 confirmation. All other transfers (PSTN numbers, or calls that didn’t arrive over registered SIP) use the press-1 keypress.

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Transfer Announcement

Right before a call is transferred, the platform speaks a fixed line to the caller: “I am now transferring your call. Please stay on the line while I connect you.” The Transfer Announcement setting (shown once Call Transfer is turned on for the agent) lets you change that.
  • Custom text (recommended) — type your own short sentence (up to 97 characters, the default line’s length plus 20), for example “Of course, transferring you to our customer service team now.” The platform speaks it on every transfer, so the caller always hears your wording. Leave the box blank to keep the default line.
  • Turn it off — the platform says nothing before a transfer. Choose this only if you want the agent itself to decide what to say, and you accept that some transfers will happen without a word.
If your agent’s prompt also announces the transfer, the caller hears that line followed by the platform’s. Removing the line from your prompt and putting your wording in Custom text gives you one announcement, spoken every time.
Turning the announcement off can leave callers in silence. You can instruct the agent in its prompt to announce the transfer, but that is a request, not a guarantee — in live testing a model given an explicit “say this exact line, then transfer” instruction spoke it on only one transfer in five and went straight to the transfer on the rest. If you want your own wording spoken on every call, leave the announcement on and set Custom text instead.
Via the API these are the config.transfer_announcement and config.transfer_announcement_enabled fields on Create Agent and Update Agent.

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Transfers from the web-embedded agent

A caller talking to the agent through the web embed can be transferred too. The Allow Call Transfer from Web Embedded Agent setting (webTransferEnabled) is on by default for new agents and turns on whenever Call Transfer is switched on; existing agents keep whatever they had.

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Supported destinations

Valid US phone numbers are supported, as well as usernames of other Telzino AI agents. Post answer extention dialing is also supported via wait commas like `+15125551234,,,,,12”. PSTN calling is only supported on paid accounts. You can also tell your agent to route a call to you, and by default it will route to the Telzino mobile app if no other destination is provided.

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Special Features

You can tell your agent to speak information after a Transferred call successfully connects. This is useful if you are transfering to a customer support live agent and you want to summarize the information collected on the call with the Agent. You can simply ask your agent to use the transferNotification attribute to speak whatever information it has to the transferred caller.

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Transferring calls via a SIP Registration

Your agent can use your SIP Registration via the transfer function to send calls out via your SIP registration so it can dial extensions and other internal destinations. You simply need to prepend pbx: or ext: to your transfer destination. Example instructions for having your agent transfer to an extension via the Registration:

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Example Instructions

Here is an example of how you might configure a call transfer action:

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Keypad (DTMF) Triggered Transfers

The Keypad (DTMF) Input toggle in the agent’s Transfers section (config.dtmf_transfer_enabled in the API) lets a caller reach a transfer destination by keying it: with it on, a rule such as “If the caller asks for Eric, transfer to pbx:100” also fires when the caller presses 100, with no change to the rule. It applies to call transfer and warm transfer rules alike. The toggle does not decide whether the agent listens for keypresses at all — that stays driven by your instructions, as described below. Callers can trigger transfers with their phone keypad, not just with their voice. Write the rule in plain language in your agent’s Instructions or Transfer Rules, and keypad handling turns on automatically:
Single keys and multi-digit extensions both work — the agent waits briefly so a caller can enter a full extension before acting. See Keypad (DTMF) Rules for details and best practices.

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Use Cases

Call Transfer actions can be used in various scenarios:
  • Sales Inquiries: Direct sales-related calls to the sales team or specific sales personnel.
  • Support Escalations: Transfer support-related calls to the appropriate support team members or departments.
  • General Inquiries: Route general inquiries to the main office or a designated contact person.