How to do a cold transfer

A cold transfer is the everyday transfer most people reach for. The caller goes on hold, you and the teammate talk privately, and you decide whether to complete the hand-over or come back to the caller.

This is what older Cradle articles called a "warm transfer." The behaviour hasn't changed — the name has.

Before you start

You're on an inbound or outbound external call.
You want to speak to the teammate before the caller is connected to them.
New to transfers? See Transferring calls — overview to compare blind, cold, and warm.

Steps

While you're on the call, click the Transfer button.
Search for the teammate or pick them from the team list. For example, Rachel Kim (Senior Accountant) on +64 9 555 1001.
Choose Cold as the transfer type.
Click Transfer. Cradle puts the caller on hold and rings the teammate.
When the teammate answers, you have a private conversation. Brief them on who's calling and what they need.
Decide what happens next:
- Click Complete to hand the call over. You leave the call; the caller and teammate are now connected.
- Click Go back to return to the caller. The teammate is hung up on, and you're reconnected to the original caller.

What the caller hears

Hold music while you and the teammate are talking. Once you complete the transfer, they hear the teammate. If you go back, they hear you again.

If the teammate doesn't answer

From v26.3 of the desktop app, Cradle no longer reconnects you to the caller automatically when the teammate doesn't pick up. You decide what happens next:

Go back to the caller — drops the teammate's ring and puts you back on the call with the caller. The caller has been on hold the whole time and doesn't notice anything different.
Try someone else — cancel the current ring and pick another teammate from the team list.

You stay in this state until you choose. The caller stays on hold; the teammate's phone stops ringing when you act.

What you should see

After Complete, your call ends and the transfer appears in your call log.
After Go back, you're back on the original call and can keep talking to the caller.

If it doesn't work

The Transfer button is hidden. You're on an internal team call. Cradle doesn't transfer team-to-team calls.
You want the caller in the conversation too. That's a warm transfer — see Warm transfer. Note that warm transfer is off by default; ask your admin to enable it.
You want to skip the briefing step. That's a blind transfer — see Blind transfer.