Consult Call
A Consult Call in Salesforce is a feature in Service Cloud Voice (and many third-party CTI adapters) that lets an agent step away from an active customer call to consult a colleague before deciding what to do next.
Definition
A Consult Call in Salesforce is a feature in Service Cloud Voice (and many third-party CTI adapters) that lets an agent step away from an active customer call to consult a colleague before deciding what to do next. The customer is parked on hold while the agent dials the consult party (a supervisor, a subject expert, an external number), discusses the issue, and then returns to the customer, transfers them, or merges both into a three-way conference.
The Consult Call workflow exists because cold transfers are bad customer experience. Without the consult, an agent would either guess at the right person to send the customer to, or transfer blind and hope the receiving party answers prepared. With Consult Call, the agent confirms availability and briefs the recipient before the customer ever hears them. The mechanic is standard across modern contact center platforms, and Salesforce surfaces it natively in Service Cloud Voice and through Open CTI adapters.
How Consult Call fits into Service Cloud Voice
The three call states
A consult workflow moves through three states. State one is the customer call only: customer on the line, agent on the line. State two is the consult state: customer on hold, agent on a second call with the consult party. State three is optional, the three-way conference: customer and consult party both unmuted with the agent. Transitions between states are explicit agent actions (Consult, Hold, Merge, Transfer, Hang Up).
The decision points after a consult
After the consult call connects, the agent has three choices. They can return to the customer alone, releasing the consult party. They can merge into a three-way conference, where the consult party and customer can hear each other. Or they can complete a warm transfer, releasing themselves from the call and leaving the customer with the consult party. Each path generates different downstream records (one call vs two vs a conference).
How consults are logged in Salesforce
Service Cloud Voice captures each leg of the consult as related Voice Call records. The original customer call is the parent record. The consult call to the colleague is a child record linked through the conference ID. If the agent merges to a conference, the conference itself gets a Voice Call record. Reports on Voice Call show consult frequency, average consult duration, and conversion to warm transfer vs return-to-customer.
Internal consult vs external consult
Most consult calls go to another internal agent (a supervisor, a senior support tier, a subject expert). Service Cloud Voice and most Open CTI adapters dial through the same telephony platform, which means low latency and full call control. External consults go to a phone number outside the contact center (a partner, a vendor support line, a regulator). These cost outbound telephony charges and may lose some call-control features depending on the provider.
Supervisor consult and whisper coaching
Supervisors can join an active call in a few different modes. Consult mode is exactly the workflow above. Whisper mode lets the supervisor speak to the agent privately without the customer hearing, useful for coaching mid-call. Listen mode lets the supervisor hear without speaking. Barge-in mode brings the supervisor fully into the call, visible to the customer. All four are available in Service Cloud Voice; third-party adapters vary.
Recording behavior during consults
Call recording is configured per call leg. The customer leg recording stops during the consult (the customer hears hold music, and there is nothing to record). The consult leg may or may not be recorded depending on regional law and the org configuration. If the legs merge into a conference, the conference is recorded as a single track. Many compliance regimes (HIPAA, PCI) require disclosure if the consult is recorded, especially for external consult parties.
Common automation patterns
Service Cloud Voice supports Flow automation triggered on consult events. Examples: when a consult call to a supervisor starts, automatically open the customer Case detail in a subtab in the supervisor console; when the agent merges into conference, set the Case Status to Escalated; when the consult ends, log the outcome (returned, transferred, conferenced) to the Voice Call record without the agent typing it.
How to use Consult Call in Service Cloud Voice
The agent workflow takes a few clicks inside the softphone. Underneath, Service Cloud Voice tracks each leg as a Voice Call record so the call log is complete.
- Receive or place a customer call
With Service Cloud Voice active, accept an incoming call or place an outbound. The customer call leg is now active in the softphone.
- Open the Consult panel
In the softphone, click Consult. A directory of internal agents and queues appears, plus a dialer for external numbers.
- Pick the consult party
Search for a colleague, pick a queue, or type an external number. Click Dial. The customer is automatically placed on hold and hears hold music; the agent is now on the consult leg.
- Brief the consult party
Explain the customer issue, share context, and decide jointly what to do next. The agent can also share the Case record through the workspace (the consult party sees it in their own console).
- Decide on the outcome
Three choices in the softphone: Return hangs up the consult and returns the agent to the customer alone, Conference merges both calls into a three-way, Transfer releases the agent and leaves the customer with the consult party.
- Confirm the call log
After the call ends, verify the Voice Call records and their parent/child links captured the consult correctly. If your org runs reports on consult duration or warm transfer rate, this is the data source.
- Consult Call is a Service Cloud Voice feature in its native form. Third-party Open CTI adapters may use a different name and slightly different mechanics.
- External consults often use outbound telephony charges. Review your contract before promoting external consult as a regular pattern.
- Call recording during the consult is configurable per leg. Make sure the org-wide configuration matches the regulatory regime you operate under.
- Conference-mode consults sometimes drop the customer when the agent transfers control. Test the specific telephony platform behavior before training agents on a workflow that relies on conferencing.
- If the consult party is on a different telephony provider (e.g., consulting an external partner), latency and audio quality may degrade. This is a known SCV/Amazon Connect characteristic, not a Salesforce bug.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Consult and Transfer in Service Cloud VoiceSalesforce Help
- Service Cloud Voice OverviewSalesforce Help
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Consult Call.
- Voice Call Record FieldsSalesforce Help
- Supervisor Features in Service Cloud VoiceSalesforce Help
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
Test your knowledge
Q1. What is a Consult Call?
Q2. What are the agent's options after a Consult Call?
Q3. Why is a warm transfer better than a cold transfer?
Discussion
Loading discussion…