AI Receptionist Transfer to a Human: How Handover Works

Yes, an AI receptionist can transfer a call to a human, and the best ones do it the way a great receptionist would. Frontly answers the routine calls itself: questions, availability, bookings and messages. When a call needs a person, it works out who, checks they are free, puts the call through and tells them in a sentence or two what the caller needs. The caller never repeats themselves, and your experts only take the calls that need them.

Here is how each part works.

Can an AI receptionist transfer a call to a human?

Yes. Frontly does a warm transfer, not a cold one.

A cold transfer puts the caller through and walks away. Whoever answers starts from zero: who is this, and what is it about? The caller tells their story twice, and plenty hang up before they get the chance.

A warm transfer briefs the person first. Frontly connects your team member, speaks a short summary of who is calling and what they want, then steps out of the call. Your person picks up already knowing the context.

Which calls should the AI handle, and which should go to your people?

Think of it as two tiers, the way the best front desks already run.

Frontly handles the first tier. The questions anyone on your team could answer from your own information: business hours, services, availability, directions, booking and rescheduling, taking a message. Frontly answers these from your knowledge base, around the clock, with no limit on how many callers it handles at once.

Your people handle the second tier. The calls that need judgment, authority or expertise: the legal question, the complex fault, the unhappy customer, the sale that needs a human to close it.

You set the split. In the visual workflow builder you decide what each type of call should do, and each type can go somewhere different: billing questions to accounts, new clients to the partner who handles intake, urgent problems to whoever is on call. One number, the right destination for every caller, and no press-1 menu. Frontly can also hand a caller to another AI agent, such as a dedicated Spanish-speaking agent, with the context carried across.

Transfers only ever go to the people and numbers you approve, so a caller cannot talk the AI into putting them through somewhere it should not.

What happens if the person does not pick up?

Frontly tries the next number. Each transfer can have a preferred number and a backup, landline or cell: the desk phone first, then the cell phone.

We recommend no more than two. Every extra number is more time the caller spends listening to a phone ring, and a short, reliable path beats a long one.

If nobody answers, the call does not drift into voicemail. The workflow takes a message, or does whatever you have set for that situation, and the details reach your team right away.

Can it check with your team in Microsoft Teams or Slack first?

Yes, and this is where it starts to feel like a real receptionist.

Before putting a call through, Frontly can message the right person in Microsoft Teams or Slack: who is calling, what they need, and whether they would like to take the call. Then it waits for a reply, about 30 seconds by default and adjustable for each workflow.

While it waits, the caller is not left in silence. Frontly keeps them company with a line like "let me just check whether Sarah is free", or plays hold music, whichever suits your business. You choose the words.

Then it acts on the reply:

• "Put them through." Frontly transfers the call to that person's phone and briefs them as it connects.
• "I'm with a client, take a message." Frontly lets the caller know, takes the message and sends it on.

Your expert decides in a few seconds, from their desk or their phone, without being pulled into a call they are not ready for.

Will the caller have to repeat themselves?

No. That is the whole point of the handover.

• A spoken briefing. As the call connects, Frontly tells your team member in a sentence or two who is calling and why.
• A written summary. The Teams or Slack message follows a structure you choose, so every handover shows the same details in the same order: the caller's name, why they are calling, and anything already collected.
• A follow-up by email or text message. After the call, Frontly can send the details on, for transfers, messages and bookings alike. Text messages may carry additional charges, listed on the pricing page.

How do you know every handover worked?

Every call ends with an outcome recorded against it. Frontly's end-of-call analysis labels what happened, such as transferred to a human. Frontly comes with default labels, and you can set your own for each workflow, so the reporting matches how your business measures its calls. Every call also lands in your Frontly dashboard with a full transcript, and the outcomes roll up in analytics.

What does this look like in practice?

Five examples of the same pattern: Frontly takes the first tier, your people take the second.

A hotel. Frontly answers availability, check-in times, parking and directions instantly, day and night. When a guest needs a person to confirm something, such as a group booking or an event, the call goes to reservations with the dates and numbers already captured.

A law firm. Frontly takes the new inquiry: the caller's details, the type of matter and how urgent it is. It messages the right attorney in Teams. If they are free, the caller is put through with a briefing. If not, Frontly books a consultation or takes a message for the attorney to return.

An accounting firm. In tax season, Frontly answers the routine calls, such as what to bring to an appointment and when the office is open, and passes clients who need advice to their own accountant, or takes a message when that accountant is with someone.

An IT support provider. Frontly runs first-line triage: who is affected, what is broken and how urgent it is. Routine issues are captured for a ticket. A critical outage goes straight to the engineer on call, who picks up already knowing the details.

A bank's card inquiries. A caller says "I have a problem with my credit card." Frontly understands the request in the caller's own words and routes it to the cards team with the summary in hand, instead of sending the customer through a menu.

How do you set it up?

Handover is designed in the same workflow builder as everything else: who handles what, the preferred and backup numbers, whether to check in on Teams or Slack first, what the caller hears while they wait, and what happens if nobody is free. The Frontly team sets it up with you during onboarding, and a standard setup is live in about an hour.

See the detail on the Routing and Transfer page, or hear it for yourself with a free test call.