Transfers (call forwarding)
Transfer rules decide when the assistant hands a call to a real person: the emergency line for an urgent job, the office for an invoice query, or simply you when you're available. This article explains how to create a rule, how a transfer works and how voicemail works.
Create a transfer rule
Transfer rules are set per assistant on the Tasks tab, under Transfer calls of the assistant editor.
- Open the assistant and go to the Tasks tab, under Transfer calls.
- Click ⊕ Add transfer. A side panel opens.
- Fill in the fields from the table below.
- Test the rule straight away with a real call to your number.
There is no save button. As soon as the name, the destination and the condition are valid, the rule saves itself when you leave a field or change a choice. A rule that is still missing something is not kept. Close closes the panel.
Existing rules are listed as rows under Transfer calls, with the name, the condition and the destination, plus the availability when it isn't Always. Click a row to open the panel. Duplicate copies the rule; Delete is at the bottom of the panel.
| Field | Meaning | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Activity | When the rule may be used: Always, Within opening hours or Outside opening hours. The opening hours themselves are set at business level under Settings → Business; the Edit opening hours link takes you there. | Always |
| Who does this number belong to? | The name of the destination, such as "Christian" or "Emergency line". The assistant recognises the destination by this name, and the standard sentence says it, so the caller knows who they are put through to. | — |
| Destination | Where the call goes: Phone number with a country picker (the number is stored in international format, e.g. +447700900123), SIP address for your company phone system (such as sip:name@pbx.example.com), or Team member. For a team member, the phone number and availability from Settings → Team apply: if that user has no phone number or is set to unavailable, the rule is skipped. | Phone number |
| In which cases should this transfer be performed? | The condition in plain language, as an if/then sentence. For example: "If the caller reports a leak that cannot be stopped, transfer to the emergency line." | — |
| Advanced options: Hand-off sentence | Spoken right before the transfer, for example "One moment, I'll put you through to Christian." Up to 300 characters. If you leave it empty, the assistant says in its own language who it puts the caller through to, for example "I am putting you through to the emergency line now, one moment." For a team member it says that team member's name. | Empty |
| Advanced options: Take the call with 1 | Whoever answers first hears briefly what it is about and where the call comes from, for example "Emergency, water leaking through the ceiling. A call via [your business]. Press 1 to take it." Only after the 1 are caller and destination connected. A voicemail never presses 1, so the caller never ends up on one, not even on a voicemail that sounds like a person. If nobody presses 1 after three times, or within 20 seconds, it counts as a voicemail and the assistant helps the caller on. | Off |
Under Transfer calls you also see the Notification phone and Notification email; an admin changes them through Change under Team.
Two rules for day and night
Feel free to create two rules for the same situation with different availability: to the office during the day ("Within opening hours"), to the on-call engineer at night ("Outside opening hours"). The assistant automatically picks the rule that applies at that moment.
How a transfer works
The assistant stays with the caller until someone really answers. There is no briefing first: whoever answers talks to the caller straight away. In practice it goes like this:
- The assistant recognises that a condition applies and that the rule is available right now, and says the hand-off sentence, followed by how long the transfer can take: up to half a minute, or up to a minute with Take the call with 1 (longer if the destination rings longer).
- Then we call the destination. Meanwhile the caller stays with the assistant and hears the phone ringing, the way it rings in their own country. If that tone cannot be played, the assistant first says it may be completely silent on the line for a while.
- If a person answers, we connect caller and destination and the assistant leaves the call. Whoever answers hears a second or two of silence after saying hello: that is how long it takes to recognise that a person answered.
- If a voicemail answers (also one that only hisses or beeps, and a line on which nothing is said after answering; with Take the call with 1 such a silent line is first asked to press 1), nobody answers within half a minute, the destination is busy or the call is rejected, we hang up on the destination. The caller does not hear that voicemail. The assistant says it could not put them through and asks whether to try once more or to note their name and number so someone calls back. You get a notification at the Notification email and Notification phone.
If the destination hangs up within 15 seconds of being connected, the assistant takes the call back. It says, for example, "Sorry, I saw that the call I put you through to was very short. Were you helped?" and still knows what was said before. If the caller was not helped, the assistant asks whether to try once more or to note their details. If it happens a second time, it asks "Sorry, I saw that this call was very short again. Were you helped this time?" Under What the assistant did it then reads "Took the call back". If the call lasted longer, it ends for the caller when the destination hangs up.
If transferring fails twice in one call (nobody or a voicemail answers, or the call is over within 15 seconds), the assistant does not try again, not even when the caller asks. It offers to note their name, number and question so someone calls back as soon as possible.
So the destination does not need a voicemail: the assistant takes care of a missed transfer itself. A voicemail that sounds like a person is sometimes not recognised. Then turn on Take the call with 1.
With the call in the Inbox you see who it was transferred to: the outcome reads, for example, Transferred to Emergency line, also in the list. Under What the assistant did every attempt is a step, with the destination's name and the reason the assistant had. An attempt that did not work reads, for example, "Could not transfer the call to Emergency line: a voicemail answered", marked Didn't work. The call then does not get the outcome Transferred.
If the destination cannot be called at all, it goes the same way: the caller stays with the assistant, who says the transfer did not work and offers to note their details. A transferred call does not end at Max call duration (s); it is only ended a little over an hour later.
If a rule isn't available at that moment, for example outside opening hours, the assistant doesn't transfer. It apologises briefly, notes the name, number and reason and promises a callback. If you want this done your own way, add a fallback to the prompt, on the Instructions tab under Important rules (in Advanced mode, under Full prompt):
If a transfer fails, say that the colleague is not reachable right now and offer to take a callback request or a message. Ask for the caller's name, phone number and a short description.A few practical points:
- Caller ID. Yarla does not pass on the caller's number as caller ID, so don't count on seeing it on your phone. You can find it with the call in the Inbox.
- International destinations. Which countries you can transfer to depends on the outbound voice profile at our carrier. If a transfer to another country doesn't work, contact us via Report a problem and we'll enable it for you.
- Team members and availability. Switch Available for transfers off under My account → Profile when you don't want to be disturbed (on a job, on holiday). An admin can do this for any team member under Settings → Team. Rules pointing to you as a team member are then skipped and the assistant moves on to another matching rule or the fallback. See Team & roles for setting up your team.
Team member as destination
Voicemail
Turn voicemail on or off on the Tasks tab under Voicemail; it is on by default. That's also where you set the Max voicemail length (s), from 15 to 300 seconds (120 by default). At that length the recording stops and the call is hung up. See also Technical settings.
With voicemail on, the assistant can offer to take a message when a caller wants to leave one or when a transfer isn't available.
The assistant asks the caller to leave a message with their name and phone number after the tone and then hang up. ChatGPT then leaves the call, and the caller stays on the line and hears the tone. The message is:
- recorded and automatically written out as text;
- sent as text by email and/or SMS to the Notification email and Notification phone;
- stored in the Inbox with the outcome Voicemail, so you can listen back and read it.
If no text comes out of the message, for example because the caller said nothing, you get no notification. The conversation is still in the Inbox with the outcome Voicemail.
Voicemail doesn't replace a callback request: have the assistant always ask for a name and phone number too, so you have something to call back on if the recording is hard to understand.
Tips
- Make conditions specific. Rules stay in the order you created them and you can't change that order; the assistant chooses by condition. So describe an emergency precisely ("a leak that cannot be stopped") and don't let a general rule ("wants to speak to a person") overlap with it. That way an emergency isn't accidentally caught by the general rule.
- Test every destination. After creating a rule, call your own number, get transferred and check the right phone rings. Also test what happens when you don't pick up.
- Keep names recognisable. The assistant partly goes by the rule name when it chooses a rule. "Emergency line" works well; "EL-2nd-line-ext.204" does not.
- Check your opening hours. If Use opening hours is off under Settings → Business, your business counts as always open: a rule with Within opening hours is then always active and a rule with Outside opening hours never is. If it's on, only the weekly schedule counts; holidays can't be set separately.
Transfer not behaving as expected? See Troubleshooting: transfers.