Call transfers

When a caller needs a human, OnCore hands the call to your team — straight through, or warm, with a short spoken briefing so whoever picks up already knows who's calling and why.

What it is#

When a caller needs a human — they ask for one, or the conversation reaches something you want people to handle — OnCore forwards the live call to a phone number you choose. A cold transfer connects the caller straight through. A warm transfer first plays your team member a short spoken briefing — who is calling and what they need — before the caller joins, so nobody answers blind and the caller never repeats themselves. Warm transfers can also be set to bring the caller back to OnCore if nobody answers (warm-return). Transfer reasons are the rules that decide when a hand-off happens and where each kind of request goes.

What you can do with it#

• Escalate on request — the moment a caller says "let me speak to a person", OnCore confirms and connects them to your team.
• Route by topic — billing questions go to the billing line, bookings to the front desk, complaints to a manager: each scenario gets its own rule and destination number.
• Brief the person picking up — with warm transfer, your team member hears a short spoken summary of the caller's name and request before the two are connected.
• Recover missed hand-offs — with warm-return enabled, an unanswered transfer brings the caller back to OnCore (with wording you choose) instead of ringing out, and the miss is flagged in your call report.
• Transfer by name — let callers ask for "Alice" or "the service department" and resolve the right number at call time from your own directory, without publishing any numbers.

How to set it up#

Everything is configured through OnCore's REST API. You create a transfer reason for each hand-off scenario — the situation that triggers it, what OnCore says to the caller, and the number (and optional extension) to forward to; the steps are in the Transfer Reasons API reference. Transfers are cold by default; to make escalations warm or warm-return, set the transfer mode on the assistant, where you can also tune the dial timeout and the message callers hear when a warm-return goes unanswered — see the Assistants guide. For directory-style routing by name, add a dynamic transfer tool following the Dynamic transfer guide.

Limits & FAQ#

• Transfers forward to any reachable phone number; an extension can be dialled automatically after the call connects.
• The dial timeout for a transfer attempt is configurable between 1 and 60 seconds.
• Every call reports its transfer outcome — including whether the destination answered — on the end-of-call report, so your systems can follow up on missed hand-offs.

Does the person answering see the caller's number? Yes. Transfers preserve the original caller's phone number, so your team's caller ID shows the customer — not OnCore.

What happens if nobody picks up? With warm-return enabled, the caller comes back to OnCore, hears a message you can customise, and the missed hand-off is flagged on the end-of-call report — use it for any line that isn't always staffed. With a cold transfer, the call has already left OnCore when it starts ringing, so an unanswered call follows your own phone system's normal handling.

What does our team member hear on a warm transfer? A short spoken briefing — who is calling and what they need, drawn from the conversation so far — followed by the live caller. The briefing is spoken in the language of the call.

Can one assistant transfer to different places? Yes. Add as many transfer reasons as you have scenarios, each with its own trigger and destination — or use dynamic transfer to resolve the destination from your directory at call time.