Consult, transfer, and collaborate during conversations
When a customer issue needs another person's expertise, you decide whether to keep the conversation or hand it off. For example, a billing representative might need a product specialist's advice without making the customer repeat the issue. Here, you compare consult and transfer, examine their effects, and apply the choice to a customer conversation.
| Decision factor | Consult | Transfer |
|---|---|---|
| Primary ownership | You remain the primary representative. | Another representative or queue receives primary ownership. |
| Your participation | You continue serving the customer and use another representative's expertise. | You stop participating after the transfer completes. |
| Best fit | You need advice or short-term collaboration. | Another representative or queue needs to continue the work. |
| Operational effect | The consult experience depends on configured capacity settings. | Capacity and presence update to reflect the ownership change. |
Keep primary ownership with a consult
A consult connects you with another representative or supervisor while you remain responsible for the customer conversation. This option fits situations where you need expertise, approval, or a second opinion but still have the context and ability to resolve the issue. Because ownership stays with you, you remain the customer's primary point of contact throughout the consult.
After the other representative accepts the consult request, a separate consult pane opens beside your communication panel. The consulted representative receives a consultation window and sees customer messages in read-only form. This view supplies context without automatically placing that representative into the customer chat.
You control whether the collaboration expands to include the customer. The consulted representative can join the customer chat only after you add them to the conversation. This distinction lets you first discuss an issue privately, then include the specialist when direct clarification benefits the customer.
The consult follows a simple collaboration sequence:
- You invite an available representative or supervisor and continue as the primary representative.
- The invited representative accepts, and the separate consult experience opens for both participants.
- You exchange guidance while the consulted representative reviews customer messages as read-only context.
- You add the consulted representative to the customer chat when direct participation is useful.
- You end the consult, or the consulted representative leaves, when the collaboration is complete.
After either side ends or leaves the consult, the consulted representative no longer sees the interaction between you and the customer. You retain ownership and continue the conversation.
Hand off ownership with a transfer
A transfer moves responsibility for the conversation instead of adding temporary expertise. Choose this option when another representative or operational queue is better suited to complete the work. A completed transfer changes the primary representative or queue, and you no longer participate in the conversation.
The destination determines how the handoff proceeds at a high level. A direct representative transfer targets a specific available person who can continue the work. A queue transfer sends the work item to a suitable operational queue, where the assignment process identifies an appropriate representative. Available choices depend on your organization's configuration and on destinations that are compatible with the conversation's channel and queue requirements.
Transfer also changes workload accounting. After a successful representative transfer, capacity is released for the original representative and blocked for the receiving representative. Each representative's presence updates according to their resulting capacity use. These changes align routing availability with the person who now owns the work.
| Transfer destination | Use it when | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Specific representative | You know the available person who needs to continue the conversation. | That representative becomes the primary owner after completion. |
| Queue | A team or work category should receive the conversation. | The queue's assignment process identifies a suitable representative. |
Apply the decision during a conversation
Consider a customer who contacts support because an invoice includes an unfamiliar usage charge. You own the active conversation and understand the account history, but interpreting the charge requires product-metering expertise.
First, choose a consult because you still have the customer context and can resolve the billing question after receiving specialist guidance. The product specialist accepts, reviews the customer's messages as read-only context, and explains the metering rule in the consult pane. You then answer the customer without changing ownership.
Next, suppose the specialist discovers that the product team must investigate telemetry and contact the customer later. The work now belongs with that team, so a transfer fits better than an extended consult. You transfer the conversation to the compatible product-support queue. When the transfer completes, the new destination owns the conversation, your participation ends, and capacity and presence reflect the handoff.
Consult or transfer summaries can bridge context during either type of handoff when that capability is available. Treat the summary as supporting context rather than a substitute for reviewing the conversation and confirming important details. The next unit examines how you use Copilot during conversations, including its role in creating and reviewing summaries.