Transferring a caller to your team is known as patching in call center language. Virtual receptionists, switchboard operators, and emergency dispatchers working after hours commonly employ patching. Callers can be patched in two main ways in the telephone answering service industry: warm and cold.
Warm Patching: When an agent answers a call, puts the caller on wait, and then tries your line, it’s known as warm patching or a live warm transfer. The caller will identify themselves and ask if you’re available to be connected if you answer. The caller will be connected by the agent. Verify that you were connected. The agent will then cut off. You and the caller have now been “patched,” so you can use the line for as long as you want to. As an alternative, the agent can simply take a message from the caller and forward it to you if you’re not available.
Cold Patching: A blind transfer, also known as cold patching, occurs when an agent connects a call without verifying. The caller is connected to your line without being introduced in this case. The caller may just be put on your regular voicemail or you may answer and greet them.
Pro Tip: Find out from your staff if they prefer warm or cold patches throughout the onboarding process.
What else is possible with call masking?
Phone number masking can also be used to protect privacy. You can return a call without disclosing your own cell phone number by using patching. You would contact the answering service in this situation. While the agent answers the first caller, they will put you on hold. When the first caller becomes available, the agent will wrap up the introductions and hang up. All the while, calls from the answering service, not from your cell phone, will appear on the Caller ID.
Pro Tip: Ask your team members to record a formal voicemail greeting if they are receiving calls on their personal cell phones.
What are patch minutes?
What are patch minutes, if patching includes transfer? The amount of time a caller stays connected to you over the answering service’s line is what determines their patch minutes. Similar to a traditional phone cost. Patch minutes start as soon as the agent disconnects and are paid in one-minute increments. Patch minutes don’t end until the caller and you both disconnect.
How are patch minutes billed?
You may be asking yourself why this is relevant. Money, of course, is the answer. Your monthly subscription includes work time, which is what an agent works on until they disconnect from the line. You are charged for “patch time” when the agent ends up and you start talking to a caller.
Answering services have several ways of charging for calls that are patched together.
- Low per minute rate: patched calls have a separate, minutely rate that is usually $0.12 or less.
- Patched calls are billed in accordance with your plan’s minute allowance; they are not subject to a different cost.
- Featured in your plan: A few businesses incorporate the patch time within the monthly package. However, the cost of your work time minutes per minute is two or three times less than what an answering service typically charges. Therefore, when it comes to patch time, there really isn’t such a thing as a free lunch.
Pro Tip: Have you ever received a phone message and complained, “I usually stay up until 10 pm?” It’s only 8:30 p.m.; if the answering service had just called my cell phone, I could have answered it. You could benefit from phone masking.
Why are patch minutes billed?
Because phone lines are a limited resource in call centers, patch time is billed. There are two lines in use for the duration of the phone call when the answering service operator connects the caller to you. Therefore, patch time is paid as used to ensure there are enough phone lines to serve you and all of your clients.
Patch time is invoiced in arrears and is use based. The amount of patch time used in a particular month will appear on the subsequent monthly billing as an individual item. Boost your business communication to the next level with our innovative Call Patching Service which comes with user friendly UI, easy API Integration & more. Register here to get more information about Msgclub phone number masking Pricing.