Warm transfer vs. cold transfer

A warm transfer is a call-handling technique in which the agent who receives a customer's inquiry speaks with the next agent or department before handing the customer off, ensuring the receiving party has context before the conversation continues. A cold transfer, by contrast, routes the customer directly to another agent or queue without any introduction or briefing, leaving the customer to re-explain their situation from scratch.

Both transfer types are fundamental to how call centers and contact centers manage routing decisions. Warm transfers require more agent time upfront but deliver a noticeably smoother handoff experience. Cold transfers are faster to execute but risk frustrating customers who must repeat their issue — a friction point that consistently drives down customer satisfaction scores (CSAT).

How warm and cold transfers work

In a warm transfer, the originating agent places the customer on hold, dials the receiving agent or team, provides a brief summary of the customer's issue and any relevant account details, and then bridges the customer into the conversation. Once the introduction is complete, the first agent drops off. In a cold transfer, the originating agent simply routes the call to another extension or queue — no briefing, no context, no overlap.

Most contact center as a service (CCaaS) platforms support both transfer modes, with warm transfers often requiring additional agent availability and system configuration. AI agent handoff builds on the warm transfer concept by equipping the receiving human agent with a full transcript and context summary before the conversation begins.

Why the distinction matters for CX

Customers hate repeating themselves. Research consistently shows that being transferred multiple times — and having to re-explain an issue each time — is one of the top drivers of customer frustration and churn. A cold transfer compounds this problem by stripping away every piece of context the first agent gathered. Warm transfers address this directly: the receiving agent already knows why the customer is calling, what was tried, and what outcome the customer expects.

This context continuity is closely tied to first contact resolution (FCR). When agents receive a proper warm handoff, they can move immediately to resolution rather than re-triage. That reduces average handling time (AHT) on the receiving end and leaves customers feeling heard rather than passed around.

When to use each transfer type

Neither transfer type is universally superior — the right choice depends on urgency, queue load, and the nature of the issue. Consider these guidelines:

• Use warm transfers when the issue is complex, emotionally charged, or has already involved troubleshooting steps that the next agent needs to understand to avoid redundancy.
• Use cold transfers when the inquiry is straightforward, time-sensitive, or when routing to a self-service queue or automated system rather than a live agent.
• Automate context with AI when cold transfers are unavoidable — screen-pop summaries and AI-generated notes can partially replicate the effect of a warm handoff without requiring agent-to-agent coordination. Decagon's approach to agentic AI for customer experience includes automatic context-passing at the moment of handoff.

Warm and cold transfers and customer experience

The type of transfer a customer experiences signals how well an organization has invested in its support infrastructure. A warm transfer communicates that the business values the customer's time and has prepared the next agent to help effectively. A cold transfer, when poorly executed, communicates the opposite. As AI increasingly handles first-line interactions, the handoff moment — whether to a human agent or another AI workflow — becomes one of the highest-stakes points in the entire customer journey, making thoughtful transfer design essential to any CX strategy. Salesforce research on customer service friction consistently identifies being forced to repeat information as one of the top drivers of customer dissatisfaction — a direct indictment of unmanaged cold transfers.