Divergence between Call Transfer and Call Screening

As most of us are aware, the telecommunication technology has grown rapidly in recent times and a consumer today has a variety of options when buying a telephone system. There are advanced systems available with highly useful features both standard as well as optional features.

Modern telephony has several amazing features like Call Forwarding (Selective and Variable), Call-on-Hold, Call Waiting, Three-way Conferencing, Fine me Follow me, Speed Dialing, Selective Ringing, Call Block, Caller ID, Music-on-Hold, Auto Attendant, Simultaneous Ringing amongst others.

Amongst the many sophisticated features, Call Transfer and Call Screening are two valuable features for any business house in the sense they will contribute towards greater employee efficiency and improve overall productivity.

Call Transfer:

A call transfer is a telephone feature that enables a user to redirect an existing or incoming telephone call to another phone or attendant console, using a switch hook flash and dialing the required location. The transferred call is either announced or unannounced.

If the transferred call is announced, the desired party/extension is obviously informed of the impending call transfer. This is typically done by putting the caller on hold and dialing the desired party/extension and, if he/she chooses to accept the call, it is transferred over to that person.

On the other hand, an unannounced transfer is a call is transferred without notifying the desired party/extension of the impending call. It is simply transferred to their line by way of a "transfer" key on the operator's phone or by keying in a string of digits which achieves the same function.

Once you receive the incoming call, press and release the switch-hook to get a dial tone, then dial the second number. You can even inform the third party that he/she has a call, or you can just hang up and they directly speak. Please note long distance call charges will apply if you transfer to a toll number.

Call Screening:

Call screening is the process of evaluating the characteristics of a telephone call before deciding how or whether to answer it. Call screening can be achieved in a variety of ways - listening to the message being recorded on an answering machine / voice mail, checking a caller ID display, phone-fax email, etc. Call Screening may even help a caller when you create a list of numbers that will instantly receive an automatic message indicating that the call is not being accepted.

The most amazing part of Call Screening is you can listen to voicemails as they are being received. If you suddenly decide you want to respond to the call after hearing what the caller has to say, then you can pick up your phone and be automatically connected.

Thus, Call Screening feature does not straightaway mean you indiscriminately send all unwanted incoming calls to voice mail without weighing the merits of the call. If you choose to pick up the phone while the caller is still leaving his/her message, then the call will be connected and the voicemail recording will instantly cease.

You can transfer your calls to a local phone/pager/mobile phone only. Courtesy demands you explain to the caller why his/her call is being transferred. Reasons may include - the caller reached the wrong department, the caller has questions that only another department can answer, or you do not have authority to provide information the caller is seeking.