Definition
A warm transfer (also called an attended transfer) is a call handoff where the person transferring the call first speaks with the recipient to introduce the caller and provide context before connecting the two parties. This contrasts with a cold transfer (blind transfer) where the caller is simply routed without introduction.
How It Works
When an SDR qualifies a prospect on a cold call and determines they should speak with an account executive, they can perform a warm transfer. The SDR places the prospect on hold, calls the AE, explains the context ('I have Jane from Acme Corp on the line — she's interested in our enterprise plan and has a budget approved for Q2'), and then bridges the two parties together.
The prospect feels valued (they weren't just dumped into someone's voicemail) and the AE has context to have a productive conversation immediately. Switchboard supports warm transfers natively between team members..