Consultative transfers in VICIdial: talking to the closer before you hand off

A consultative transfer is the polite version of a handoff. Instead of throwing the customer at another agent cold, you talk to that agent first, explain the situation, and only then bring the customer in. VICIdial builds this right into the transfer-conf frame.

The CONSULTATIVE checkbox

You no longer need the old CXFER prefix to do this. There is a CONSULTATIVE checkbox on the agent screen, and ticking it changes how your dial behaves. At the API level, the consultative option is valid only with DIAL_WITH_CUSTOMER or PARK_CUSTOMER_DIAL, and it requires an ingroup_choices value pointing at a single active Ingroup. You can also use the reserved DEFAULTINGROUP value to grab the default in-group for the campaign the call came from.

Pairing consultative with Park Customer Dial is the textbook setup. The customer goes to Call park, you reach a Closer privately, you hand over the context, and then you bring the customer back. That is a clean Warm transfer with zero awkwardness on the customer's end.

Why not just blind transfer

A blind or Cold transfer is faster, but the receiving agent starts with nothing. They have to re-ask everything you already covered, which wastes the customer's patience. Consultative trades a few seconds of your time for a much smoother experience and a better close rate for the Fronter and closer pairing.

Live or parked, your choice

You can run a consultative transfer two ways. With DIAL_WITH_CUSTOMER the customer stays live in the conference while you bring the closer in, so the introduction happens out loud. With PARK_CUSTOMER_DIAL the customer drops to hold first, giving you a fully private channel with the closer before anyone is reunited. Most teams prefer the parked version for consultative work, since the entire point is to brief the closer where the customer cannot hear.

Whichever you pick, the ingroup_choices value has to be a single active in-group. You cannot fan a consultative transfer out to several groups at once; it goes to one closing queue and waits for an available closer. If the group name is wrong you will get an error that the ingroup is not valid, so double-check the spelling or lean on DEFAULTINGROUP to avoid the typo entirely.

The flow

sequenceDiagram
  participant A as Agent
  participant C as Customer
  participant L as Closer
  A->>C: Park the customer
  A->>L: Dial in-group with consultative on
  L-->>A: Closer answers privately
  A->>L: Brief on the deal
  A->>C: Pull customer off park
  A->>A: Leave and disposition

A note on the channel fix

On some setups there is a small AGI helper, agi-VDADfixCXFER, that runs when a consultative transfer is released by the fronter. It updates the live agents record so the system stays accurate as the call lands on the new channel. You will not touch it day to day, but if a release ever looks inconsistent in reporting, that is the piece your administrator checks.

Once you have briefed the closer and the customer is back, you finish exactly like any 3-way: step out and let them close. The Agent keeps the Disposition until that moment. See what Leave 3-Way Call does for the exit, and the transfers and closers guide for the whole picture.

Want consultative transfers and in-group routing configured for your team without the AGI guesswork? Our pricing page is the place to start.