What "Dial With Customer" does: 3-way calling with the customer on the line

When you click Dial With Customer in the transfer-conf frame, VICIdial does not drop your live call. It keeps the customer in the conference, rings whoever you typed into the Number to Dial field, and joins all three parties together. That is the whole point of the button: a true Three-way call where the customer hears the third party connect.

What the button actually triggers

Under the hood this maps to the DIAL_WITH_CUSTOMER value of the transfer_conference function. You pass either a phone_number or an ingroup_choices value, and VICIdial bridges the new leg into the customer's call. If you point it at an Ingroup, the call rings into a closing queue; if you point it at a number, it dials straight out. The reserved DEFAULTINGROUP value selects the default in-group for the in-group or campaign the call originated from, so you do not have to remember the exact name.

Because the customer stays live, this is the natural setup for a Warm transfer. You introduce the customer, the third party gets context, and nobody hears dead air. That is the opposite of a Cold transfer, where you would shove the call somewhere and disappear immediately.

Caller ID, prefixes, and recording

The 3-Way Call Outbound CallerID campaign setting decides what number the third party sees. CAMPAIGN sends the campaign caller ID, CUSTOMER sends the active customer's number, AGENT_PHONE uses the caller ID of the phone the agent logged in on, and AGENT_CHOOSE lets the agent pick from a list. There is also a 3-Way Call Dial Prefix; leaving it empty uses the campaign dial prefix, while setting it to 88 lets you hear ringing on the way out.

One thing to watch: if the 3-Way Recording Stop option is turned on, the session Call recording stops the moment an agent clicks Dial With Customer or Park Customer Dial. That can be exactly what you want for compliance, or exactly what you do not want if you need the whole conversation captured. Know which way your campaign is set before you build a process around the button.

How the call flows

sequenceDiagram
  participant A as Agent
  participant C as Customer
  participant T as Third Party
  A->>C: Live call in progress
  A->>T: Click Dial With Customer
  T-->>A: Third party answers
  A->>C: All three now in conference
  A->>C: Introduce and warm hand
  A->>A: Choose to leave or hang up xfer

Caller ID overrides and the active-call check

If you drive transfers through the API rather than clicking, the transfer_conference function exposes a few extra knobs for DIAL_WITH_CUSTOMER. The group_alias option defines which caller ID number to send, and cid_choice is an alternate way to do the same thing with the values CAMPAIGN, AGENT_PHONE, CUSTOMER, or CUSTOM_CID. There is also dial_override, which dials exactly the number you specify with no campaign-defined phone code or prefix attached.

One safety option is worth turning on: tw_check. When set to YES it checks for still-active previous 3-way calls and shows an error if any are found, which stops an agent from accidentally stacking a second conference on top of a live one. If you ever see the message that an agent has previous active 3-way calls, that is exactly this guard doing its job.

When to reach for it

Use Dial With Customer any time the customer should hear the introduction and the third party needs context before they take over. The Agent stays in control of the Disposition until they decide what to do next, which keeps your data clean. Pointing the dial at a closing Ingroup instead of a raw number also means the call follows your normal queue routing, so it lands with whichever closer is free rather than one fixed extension.

Avoid it when the customer should not hear what you are about to say. If you need a private word with the third party first, park the customer instead so the conversation stays off their ears until you are ready to bring them back.

If you would rather get the third party on the line privately first, the Park Customer Dial button does the same dial with the customer parked. For the bigger picture on every handoff path, the VICIdial transfers and closers guide ties these buttons together.

If you want a dialer where the transfer-conf frame, recording rules, and closer routing are configured for you instead of hand-tuned across a dozen campaign fields, take a look at our pricing and we will get you running.