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Course

Answering calls and handing them over

For the people who pick up: the phone on your computer, holding and handing over a call without losing the caller, and the voicemail and texts that arrive between calls.

  • 3 lessons
  • About 3 min of reading
  • For the people who answer calls

Written by John, Owner and CEO. Last reviewed September 15, 2026.

Screen and button names are quoted as the portal shows them.

Lesson 1

The phone on your computer

1 min read

By the end, you can

  • Choose between the browser tab and the Windows app.
  • Set your status so calls reach you only when you are ready.
  • Pick your microphone, speaker and ringtone.

Steps

  1. Answer from a browser tab by opening Phone in the portal, or install the Windows desktop app. Both have the same call controls.
  2. Set your status to Available when you are ready to take calls, and to Busy or Offline when you are not.
  3. In the audio settings, choose your microphone, your speaker and your ringtone, and whether to hear the incoming ring, the outgoing ringback and the call ended tone.
  4. To call out, type a number or an extension in “Number to dial” and place the call.

Only the Windows app can write a note while the call is going. In the browser tab, add the note to the call record once the call has ended.

Read more

Check what you learned

Your answers are checked in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

  1. You are stepping away for lunch. What keeps calls from being offered to you?
  2. Where can you write a note while the call is still going?

Show the answers
  1. Setting your status to Busy or Offline Calls are offered to people who are Available.
  2. In the Windows app The Windows app has a Notes window during a call. In the browser, add the note to the call record afterwards.

Lesson 2

Hold, transfer and hand over

1 min read

By the end, you can

  • Put a caller on hold and bring them back.
  • Pass a call straight through to a colleague.
  • Check with a colleague first, then hand the caller over with an introduction.

Steps

  1. Press Hold. The caller waits; press Resume to bring them back.
  2. To pass the call straight through, press Transfer and pick a colleague. The call moves without you introducing it.
  3. To check first, start a consult. The caller is on hold while you speak privately with your colleague.
  4. When your colleague is ready, press “Hand over”. If all three of you should stay on the call, merge it into a three-way call instead.
  5. Use the participant list to mute, hold or remove one person without affecting the others.

Holds and transfers are written to the call record, so whoever opens the call later can see how it was handed along.

Read more

Check what you learned

Your answers are checked in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

  1. A caller needs billing, and you want to explain the problem before your colleague picks up. Which do you use?
  2. During a three-way call, one person has a noisy line. What can you do?

Show the answers
  1. A consult, then Hand over A consult keeps the caller on hold while you speak privately, and Hand over connects them once your colleague knows the story.
  2. Mute that one person from the participant list Each participant has their own mute, hold and remove controls.

Lesson 3

Voicemail and text messages

1 min read

By the end, you can

  • Listen to a voicemail and read its transcript.
  • Send and answer text messages from your organization's numbers.
  • Recognise a number that has asked not to be texted.

Steps

  1. Open Voicemail. The Inbox lists your messages; open one to listen. A transcript appears when it is ready, and the message says so when none could be made.
  2. Open SMS to see conversations by the other person's number. Reply in the Message box, or press “New message” and pick a contact or type a phone number.
  3. When someone replies STOP or ARRÊT, their number goes on your organization's list of numbers that cannot be texted, and a message to it is refused.
  4. Before texting someone who has not written to you first, open their contact: it shows whether consent was recorded, whether they asked you to stop, or whether nobody has asked yet.

A reply that asks you to stop in its own words, such as “please take me off your list”, arrives as an ordinary message. Read your replies and act on those yourself.

Read more

Check what you learned

Your answers are checked in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

  1. A customer texts “ARRET SVP”. What happens?
  2. A contact shows “Not asked”. Does that stop a text from being sent?

Show the answers
  1. Their number goes on the list of numbers that cannot be texted, and later messages to it are refused Opt-out words are recognised with or without accents, including in a short message, for your whole organization.
  2. No: only a number on the opt-out list is refused, and consent is still yours to obtain A missing consent record does not block a send. Obtaining and recording consent stays your job.

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