Call Hold & Retrieve

overview call hold and retrieve is a fundamental telephony feature that allows an agent to temporarily pause a live conversation without disconnecting the call this gives the agent time to perform parallel tasks—such as finding information or consulting a colleague—before returning to the customer how it works when an agent is on an active call and needs a moment to step away from the conversation the agent clicks the hold button (present on the telephony panel) on their agent console the customer is placed on hold and typically hears hold music or a waiting message the agent's console updates to indicate the call is currently on hold to resume the conversation, the agent clicks the retrieve (or un hold) button (note time spent on hold is tracked as an agent activity for reporting and analytics ) common use cases information lookup an agent places a customer on hold to search for account details in the crm, check inventory, or consult a knowledge base internal consultation an agent pauses the call to ask a supervisor or a peer for assistance with a complex or escalated query, ensuring the customer does not hear the internal discussion key benefits professional call handling prevents "dead air" (awkward silence) on the line while the agent seeks information, maintaining a professional customer experience increased first call resolution (fcr) gives agents the necessary time to find accurate information or collaborate with experts, resolving the issue on the first try improved agent efficiency enables agents to multitask effectively during a live interaction, such as creating or updating a support ticket in the background using the feature prerequisites the agent must be logged into the agent console and actively connected to a live call instructions (agent console) navigate to the call control panel within the agent console during an active call click the hold button to suspend the call click the retrieve button to bring the customer off hold and resume speaking (note this is a standard, out of the box feature and requires no prior backend configuration by an administrator ) limitations while a call is on hold, the audio channel is suspended; the agent cannot speak with or hear the customer until the call is successfully retrieved