Freshworks Partner

1. Buy phone numbers: You can make and receive calls only when you have phone numbers in your account.
2. Check phone credits: Check if you have sufficient credits to make and receive calls. If not, recharge your credits.
   Note: Only account admins can buy credits.
3. Set your availability status: Make sure to set your status to Available. You can receive calls only when your status is Available.
4. Test your network connection: Running a network test can help you identify and troubleshoot any network or audio settings issues in your system.
   When you use the phone widget for the first time, Freshcaller prompts you to test the network connection. Click Start Test. For more details, see Testing Your Network Connection.
5. Browser settings: Use the latest version of Chrome or Firefox.
   
   Note: You can access Freshcaller's admin page directly from Freshdesk to view and configure admin settings like phone number, credits, or billing page. For this, go to Admin > Channels > Phone > Manage account.
   
   In this article, you will learn about: 
   1. How to make or receive calls on the phone widget?
   2. How to use the phone widget?
   3. How to use the call actions option?
      • How to make parallel calls?
      • How to make warm and cold transfers?
      • How to make conference calls?
   4. How to forward calls to a queue/IVR?

How to make or receive calls on the phone widget?

Making calls

1. Click on the phone widget at the bottom right corner. Here, you can see the recent 5 calls made or received in your account. 
2. From the top left corner, click on the phone number drop-down to see all the numbers in your account. Choose the phone number from which you want to make calls.
3. Enter the contact name or phone number in the search box on the top to look for a contact. When you type a phone number or name, you will see auto suggestions. Click on the contact from the list to make calls.
4. Alternatively, you can use the dial pad at the bottom to enter the phone number and make calls.

Receiving calls

You can receive calls from customers or another team member can transfer calls to you or add you to conference/parallel calls. When you receive calls, you will see the following incoming call notification:

Here, you can see the caller's name or phone number. You will also see the call queue name from which the call is routed.

Note: You can receive calls only when your status is set to "Available". Choose your status from the drop-down at the top-right corner.

How to use the phone widget?

When you make or receive a call, the following options will be visible on the phone widget:

1. Recent calls/tickets
   When you make/receive calls in Freshdesk, they are automatically converted to tickets by default. Click on the drop-down to view the recent calls or tickets associated with the contact/phone number.
   
2. + icon (create new ticket/add to existing tickets)
   For each incoming/outgoing call, you can choose to:
   
   • Create new ticket: Choose this option to create a new ticket for the call.
   • Add the to existing ticket: Use this option to add the call to an existing ticket. You can search an existing ticket by ticket id, requester name, or ticket subject.

           You can also create a new ticket for all incoming calls by following the steps mentioned here.

1. Link call to a different contact: Use this option to link the caller to a different contact name in your account.
2. Pause/resume call recording: By default, all calls are recorded. Click on this button to pause/resume recording as required.
3. Call duration: Shows the duration of the call.
4. Call notes/tags: Click to add your notes. Additionally, use the Add call tags option to choose the appropriate tag from the list.
    Call notes allow you to quickly jot down a call's summary and tags help you easily categorize/label the calls. The notes and tags will be automatically added to the phone tickets and help anyone in your team to quickly get a summary of the call.
5. Call actions: Use this option to initiate call transfers (warm and cold), conference, and parallel calls. For details, check out the section below.
6. Pause call: Use this option to put your caller on hold.
7. Mute: Use this option to mute yourself
8. Dialpad: Use this option to manually type the contact's phone number to make outgoing calls.
9. Queue Transfer: Use this option to transfer a call to a queue or IVR.

How to use the call actions option?

The call actions option allows you to make:

• Parallel calls
• Warm transfers
• Cold transfers
• Conference calls

How to make parallel calls?

Parallel calls allow you to make a second call and have two different call lines within a single call. You can easily switch between the calls while putting the other caller on hold. 

When you make a parallel call, the primary caller, for example, the customer will be put on hold. You can talk to the second caller (external vendor, another agent, or a phone number), clarify your requests, and switch back to your customer. 

Additionally, you can toggle between the two lines, initiate a conference call, and add a third caller, either with the primary or the second caller. To understand how parallel calls work and to explore some use cases, check out this detailed article on parallel calls.

Note: The parallel call option is available from Growth+ plans.

Making parallel calls

1. During an ongoing call, click on the Call actions icon at the bottom of the phone widget.
2. Enter the agent name, contact, or type any external phone number (with country code) you wish to make a parallel call. When you type the name or number, you will see auto-suggestions, from which you can choose the relevant contact.
3. Click on the three dots next to the contact, and select parallel call. You can also initiate a parallel call to an entire group. In that case, the parallel icon next to the group name.
   
   In the example below, let's assume that customer Regina wants to change her travel dates and so the agent is making a parallel call to the external vendor Holiday Express to check her request.
   
4. When the second caller (Holiday Express) accepts the call, you can see the primary caller (Regina) on hold in the background.
   
5. To resume your customer’s call, click Resume on the customer’s hold screen.
   
   

Adding a third caller

While on parallel calls, you can initiate a conference call from the primary or the secondary caller line. You can use this option when you want to invite another person to your ongoing call. 

1. Choose the screen from where you want to add another caller. In this case, this will be the external vendor's screen.
2. Click on the Call Actions icon and search for the second caller. This could be your supervisor/agent or internal contact, or you could type any external number (with country code).
3. Click on the three dots next to the contact, and choose Conference call.
   
   In the example below, let's assume while talking to the external vendor Holiday Express, the agent wants to talk to the supervisor or manager (Aidan) to check about the company’s external contract policy For this, the agent initiates a conference call directly from the parallel call line.

4. You can see that currently, the call has two lines/screens:

   • Conference call with the agent, second caller (Holiday Express), and the third caller (Aidan).

   • Parallel call with customer (Regina).
     This makes it easy to switch between the two lines any number of times.
     

Merging calls

With the merge call option, you can combine callers from two different parallel lines and have a unified conversation. This means you can merge the primary and the second caller on the parallel line.

Note: You cannot merge calls if you have an ongoing conference call on any parallel line. So make sure the person on the conference call disconnects.

1. Go to any parallel call line and click on the Merge icon.
   
2. On the notification, pop-up, click Merge Call to confirm.
   
3. Once you choose to merge the calls, both callers on different lines will be linked.
   

Few things to note when you make parallel calls:
Ensure that the primary caller is always active on the live parallel call. If the primary caller disconnects for some reason, you cannot initiate a parallel call again. In this case, disconnect the call, and make the call again.
It is not possible to make warm/cold transfers when a parallel call is ongoing.
Call transcriptions for parallel calling may not be accurate. This is because call recordings from two different lines may be inaccurate.

How to make warm and cold transfers?

Call transfers are useful when you think that another team member has better expertise in resolving a customer's query, or sometimes, customers may want to talk to a specific agent. This helps deliver faster resolutions to the customer without making them go around in circles or hold the line for too long.

Note: The warm transfer option is available from Growth+ plans.

Types of call transfers

• Warm Transfer
  Allows you to have a brief conversation with another agent or a contact in your team before transferring the call to the customer. 
• Cold Transfer
  Unlike a warm transfer, this option directly transfers the call to the second agent you selected. The second agent can choose to accept or reject the call.

When you initiate a warm or cold transfer, the customer will be put on hold until the other agent accepts the call.

1. During a live call, click on the Call actions icon to view the list of online agents. You can also search for the agent, group/team, external contact, or type an external phone number.
   
2. To see the active agents within a group/team, click on the drop-down option next to the team name. The number next to the team name indicates the number of active/online agents in that team. In the example above, the US Support team has one available agent.
3. Warm transfer

   To make a warm transfer, click on the three dots next to the contact name or phone number, and select Warm Transfer. Once the second agent accepts the call, you can disconnect that call after giving all the required details to the second agent.
   

4. Cold Transfer

   To make a cold transfer, click on the three dots next to the contact name or phone number, and select Cold transfer. You can also initiate a cold transfer to the entire group. In this case, all available agents in that team will receive the call, and anyone can choose to answer the call.
   
   As soon as the other agent accepts the call, you will be disconnected and the conversation will continue between the customer and the other agent.

How to make conference calls?

In addition to transferring calls, you can invite other agents to join your ongoing conversation. This can be useful during escalations or when you want another agent to help you resolve customer queries.

Note: The conference call option is available from Pro+ plans.

1. During a live call, click on the Call actions icon to view the list of online agents. You can also search for the agent, group/team, external contact, or type an external phone number.
   
2. To see the active agents within a group/team, click on the drop-down option next to the team name. The number next to the team name indicates the number of active/online agents in that team.
3. Click on the three dots next to the contact name or phone number, and choose Conference call.
   
4. The selected agent will now be added to your ongoing call if the agent accepts the call.

How to forward calls to a queue/IVR?

In addition to transferring calls to other agents or contacts, you can also transfer calls to a queue or IVR with the Queue transfer option. To know the difference between call transfer and queue transfer, refer to Forwarding Calls to Queue.

Let's say your team handles queries on ticket booking/cancellations. But your current active customer has queries on holiday packages. As you're from a different team and may be unsure about these questions, you can use the Queue Transfer option to easily transfer the customer to another team who can help with the customer's query. 

1. During a live call, click on the Queue transfer icon at the bottom.
   
2. Search for the queue or IVR name to which you wish to forward the current active caller and click Forward to queue. Your call will be routed to the selected queue.
   

Note: The Queue Transfer option will be disabled on a conference call.