How to set up Admin Contacts for agent transfers

What Admin Contacts are for

Admin Contacts let you build a searchable directory of predefined non-agent phone numbers that agents can transfer calls to. An agent searches by first name, last name, or office number, picks the person, and then chooses one of several numbers tied to that contact. It is geared toward a receptionist or operator who needs to hand a caller off to the right desk without memorizing extensions. Think of it as a phone book wired into the agent screen.

This drives a Warm transfer or a Cold transfer to a fixed destination, the kind of internal handoff where the target is a department, not another dialer Agent.

Turning it on

Three switches need to line up before an agent sees the search box:

1. On the System Settings page, set Enable Contacts to 1. Nothing works until this is on.
2. In the campaign, set Custom Transfer to VIEW_CONTACTS so the campaign exposes the contacts search to agents.
3. Still in the campaign, set Enable Transfer Presets to CONTACTS.

You can switch the feature off for an individual agent by setting Preset Contact Search to DISABLED on that agent, which is handy when only your front-desk reps should have the directory.

From the agent's side the flow is short. With a live caller on the line, the rep opens the contact search, types a name or an office number, and gets back the matching people. Each contact can carry several numbers, so the agent sees the office line, the cell, and any alternates and chooses the one that fits. The transfer then goes to that number directly. Because the directory is shared and predefined, every agent transfers the billing department to the same number instead of each rep keeping a private list of extensions on a sticky note. When the number changes, you update one contact record and the whole floor is correct again.

flowchart TD
  A["Enable Contacts set to 1"] --> B["Custom Transfer set to VIEW CONTACTS"]
  B --> C["Enable Transfer Presets set to CONTACTS"]
  C --> D{"Preset Contact Search disabled for agent?"}
  D -->|Yes| E["Agent has no contact search"]
  D -->|No| F["Agent searches by name or office number"]
  F --> G["Agent picks a contact number"]
  G --> H["Call transfers to that number"]

Building a contact

Use the Add A Contact link and fill in the record: first and last name, an office number, a cell number, two other numbers, plus a business-unit name, department, group, job title, and location. Those extra fields act like a Custom field for organizing a large directory, so a big operation can keep its contacts findable by department or site. Warning: there is also an option to point contacts at a contact table in a separate MySQL database that shares the same schema. That path works but needs solid MySQL knowledge, so most teams should stick with the built-in contacts table.

Admin Contacts are one piece of how you structure transfers across teams. The VICIdial users and groups multi-team guide covers how those pieces fit a multi-team floor.

A contact directory is only half the story; the agent also needs permission to transfer at all. See how the agent transfers permission works so the directory and the permission agree.

Want a dialer where contacts, transfers, and routing are ready to configure? Start a VICIfast trial and your box is online in under 40 seconds.