How To Transfer A Call On Your Yealink Phone With 3CX
Your desk phone is a Yealink handset registered to 3CX. Common models such as the SIP-T48U, the SIP-T54W and the SIP-T87W handle a transfer the same way, so once you learn it on one you can transfer a call on any of them. This guide covers the two kinds of transfer, how to transfer a call to voicemail, how to send one to a mobile, and what to do when the transfer does not go through.
If you get stuck, call us on 678-374-4352 and we will walk you through it on your own handset.
In short: to transfer a call on a Yealink handset, press Transfer, dial the extension, then press Transfer again. Attended lets you announce it first, blind sends it straight through, and *4 lets you transfer a call to voicemail.
The three Yealink models behave identically; they just present the controls differently. On the SIP-T48U and the SIP-T87W the screen is a touchscreen, so Transfer appears as an on-screen button along the bottom while a call is connected. On the SIP-T54W the same option sits on one of the physical soft keys under the display, and there is also a dedicated TRAN key on the keypad.
Whichever model is on your desk, the sequence to transfer a call never changes. You press Transfer, you dial the destination, and you press Transfer again to complete it. Nothing is sent anywhere until that second press, which means you can always back out.
It helps to know your own extension and the extensions of the people you transfer to most often. If you do not have a current extension list, ask us and we will send you the directory for your 3CX system.
Program A One Press Key So You Can Transfer A Call Instantly
If you transfer a call to the same two or three people all day, stop dialing their extension every time. Yealink desk phones have programmable line keys, and each one can be set as a busy lamp field key for a colleague.
A busy lamp field key does two things at once. It shows at a glance whether that person is already on a call, so you never transfer a call into a busy line. And while you are connected, pressing Transfer then that key completes the whole thing in two presses instead of eight.
The SIP-T48U and SIP-T87W show these keys on screen and hold several pages of them. The SIP-T54W has physical keys with a label. Either way the keys come from 3CX rather than being set on the handset, so tell us who you want and we will push them out. The phone picks them up on its next check in.
Reception desks benefit most. If one person answers for the whole company, a page of busy lamp field keys turns every transfer into a two press job and removes the guesswork about who is free to take it.
What The Caller Hears While You Transfer A Call
People forget the caller is not muted during a transfer. On an attended transfer they are placed on hold and hear whatever hold treatment your 3CX system uses, usually music or a short message. They cannot hear you talking to your colleague, which is the entire point of an attended transfer.
What they can judge is how long it takes. Thirty seconds of hold feels short. Ninety seconds feels like being forgotten. If your colleague has not answered after a few rings, come back to the caller, say what is happening, and offer to take a message rather than transfer a call into an empty extension.
On a blind transfer the caller hears ringing almost straight away, which is one of the few genuine advantages of that method. No hold, no music, no pause.
If your hold music is missing, wrong, or has been the same eight seconds since 2019, that is a quick change on the 3CX side and worth doing.
Transfer A Call To The Right Place The First Time
Most bad transfers are not technical. Somebody transferred a call to the wrong person because they guessed, and the caller paid for it with another two minutes of hold.
Keep a current extension list where you can see it. If your directory is out of date, ask us for a fresh one rather than working from a printout with three leavers still on it.
Use presence. In the 3CX apps and on busy lamp field keys you can see whether someone is available before you transfer a call to them. A ten second glance beats a thirty second failed transfer.
When you genuinely do not know who owns something, do not transfer a call at random to find out. Take the caller details, tell them you will get the right person to call back, then find that person yourself. It feels slower and it is faster.
Three Habits That Make Every Transfer Smoother
The people who transfer a call well all do the same three things, and none of them cost extra time once they are habit.
They say what is about to happen. Let me put you through to the person who handles that, one moment. The caller now expects hold music instead of wondering whether the line dropped.
They hand over two facts. Who is calling, and what it is about. Ten words from you saves the caller repeating a two minute story, and repeating yourself is the single most complained about experience on any business phone call.
They check before they transfer a call a second time. If the caller has already been passed once, use an attended transfer and confirm a human is there. Passing an already frustrated caller into a ringing extension is how a small problem becomes a complaint.
None of this is about the handset. It is the fifteen seconds either side of the transfer, and it is the part clients actually remember.
Attended Transfer: Announce The Call First
An attended transfer, sometimes called a warm or consultative transfer, lets you speak to the person before you hand the caller over. Use it when the caller has already explained their problem, when you are passing a client to a partner, or any time the receiving person deserves a heads up.
While you are on the call, press Transfer. The caller is placed on hold and you hear a dial tone. Dial the extension you want and press Send or the green key. When your colleague answers, tell them who is holding and why. Then press Transfer once more and the two of them are connected. Your phone returns to idle.
If your colleague says they cannot take it, do not press Transfer. Press Cancel or End Call instead and you are back with the original caller, who never heard the conversation.
Blind Transfer: Send It Straight Through
A blind transfer, which 3CX also calls an unattended transfer, pushes the call to the destination immediately without you speaking to anyone first. It is the right choice for a switchboard, a general inquiry, or any time you already know the call belongs somewhere else.
Press Transfer, dial the extension, then press Transfer again straight away instead of waiting for an answer. On the SIP-T48U and SIP-T87W a B Transfer button appears on screen once you start dialing, and pressing that does the same thing in one step.
The moment a blind transfer completes, the call is out of your hands. If nobody answers at the other end, the call follows that extension’s rules in 3CX, which usually means it lands in their voicemail rather than coming back to you. Use an attended transfer whenever it matters that a human picks up.
Transfer A Call To Voicemail On 3CX
You will often want to drop a caller straight into a colleague’s voicemail, for example when you already know that person is out. 3CX has a dial code for exactly this.
Press Transfer, dial *4 followed immediately by the extension number, then press Transfer again. Dialing *4 and then 100 sends the caller to the voicemail box for extension 100 without ringing the desk phone at all.
That *4 prefix is the 3CX default. Dial codes are configurable per system under Settings and Dial Codes, so if *4 does not behave as described on your phone, the code has been changed. Send us a message and we will confirm the exact prefix for your system rather than have you guess at it.
Your own mailbox works separately from all this. Tap the message key, or dial 999, which 3CX assigns to voicemail out of the box.
Transfer A Call To A Cell Phone Or An Outside Number
The steps are the same. The only difference is what you dial. Press Transfer, dial the full outside number exactly as you would dial it normally, including 1 and the area code, then press Transfer to complete.
Attended works here too and is usually the better choice. Call the cell phone first, wait for a real person, confirm they can take it, then press Transfer. Cell phones go to carrier voicemail quickly, and a blind transfer to a cell phone can strand your caller in a voicemail box they did not ask for.
If an external transfer will not connect, it is almost never the handset. It is usually a permission on the extension or a rule on the trunk that blocks onward transfers to outside numbers. That is a system setting, not something you can fix from the phone, so let us know and we will check it.
Getting The Call Back When A Transfer Fails
On an attended transfer you are never at risk. Until you press Transfer that second time, the caller is simply on hold on your phone. Press Cancel, or End Call to hang up on the person you dialed, and the original caller comes straight back to you.
On a blind transfer there is no undo. Once it completes, the call belongs to the destination extension and to whatever forwarding rules that extension has in 3CX. If it needs to come back, the person you sent it to has to transfer a call back to you.
If the caller drops entirely during a transfer, that is worth reporting. Repeated drops in the same spot usually point at the network or the trunk rather than at anything you did.
Transferring From The 3CX App Instead Of The Handset
If you work from the 3CX Web Client, the desktop app or the mobile app, you can transfer a call there too, and the two methods behave the same way because the call is running on the same 3CX system either way.
In the app, an active call shows Transfer and Att. Transfer side by side. Transfer is the blind version, Att. Transfer is the attended one. Type a name or an extension into the field, pick the person from the directory, and confirm.
People who take a lot of calls tend to prefer the app for transfers because you can search a colleague by name instead of remembering their extension. People at a fixed desk usually prefer the handset. Both are correct. Use whichever is faster for you.
Common Mistakes That Ruin A Transfer
The single most common mistake is pressing Send or the green key instead of Transfer at the end of an attended transfer. That connects you to your colleague but leaves the caller sitting on hold. Always finish with Transfer.
The second is transferring to a number you have not verified. Take a moment to confirm the extension before you send the call, especially on a blind transfer where there is no way back.
The third is treating a transfer as a way to get rid of a difficult caller. If a caller has already been passed around, an attended transfer with a short handover is worth the extra fifteen seconds, and it is the difference between a client who feels handled and one who feels bounced.
If you find yourself needing to transfer a call to the same person constantly, tell us. A blind transfer key or a busy lamp field key can be programmed onto your Yealink so it becomes one button press.
Park A Call On SP1 Or SP2 So Someone Else Can Pick It Up
Your Yealink T54W is programmed with two Shared Parking buttons, SP1 and SP2. Parking is not the same as putting a caller on hold. Hold keeps the caller on your phone. Parking puts the caller in a shared slot that any other handset in the office can pick up, which is what you want when the person who needs to take the call is at a different desk.
To park a caller: while you are speaking to them, press SP1. Then tell your coworker in plain words: “You have a call parked on SP1.” If SP1 is already holding someone, use SP2 for the next caller.
To retrieve a parked caller: press the same button you were told. If the call is on SP1, press SP1 on your own handset and you are connected straight away. If it is on SP2, press SP2.
Two slots means two parked callers at once. If both are in use, take a message rather than parking a third caller somewhere nobody is watching.
Quick Reference For The T54W
Four things, from the handset, while the caller is on the line:
- Blind transfer: Transfer, then the extension, then B Transfer. The caller goes straight through.
- Announced transfer: Transfer, then the extension, then OK or Call. Speak to your colleague, and when they accept, press Transfer again.
- Straight to voicemail: Transfer, then *4 followed by the extension, then B Transfer. Extension 123 is *4123. Their desk phone never rings.
- Park and retrieve: press SP1 or SP2 to park, and press the same button to pick the caller back up.
Your programmed line and BLF labels may sit in a different position on screen from someone else’s handset. The button names are the same.
Related Guides For Your Yealink Handset
Once you can transfer a call confidently, these are the next things worth ten minutes each.
The full set lives in our Phones and VoIP guides.
What To Have Ready If You Need To Call Us
If you cannot transfer a call and the steps above have not helped, these four details get it fixed on the first call rather than the third.
- Your extension number and the handset model printed on the phone
- The extension or number you were trying to transfer a call to
- Whether the transfer was attended or blind
- Whether it failed once or fails every time
Call 678-374-4352, or open a ticket and paste those four lines straight in.
Where These Dial Codes Come From
The codes used above, *4 to transfer a call into a voicemail box and 999 to reach your own, are the 3CX defaults. They are configurable per system under Settings and Dial Codes, which is why we always say confirm rather than assume. If yours behave differently, that is a configuration choice on your system and not a fault.
The full default list is published by the vendor: 3CX PBX dial codes.
A Call Transfer Checklist For The Desk
Pin this by the phone. Every line is something people get wrong when they transfer a call under pressure.
- Press Transfer, dial, press Transfer again. Never finish with Send.
- Use attended when it matters that a human answers.
- Use blind only when you already know the call belongs there.
- To transfer a call to voicemail, press Transfer then *4 then the extension.
- To transfer a call outside, dial the full number including 1 and the area code.
- Cancel returns the caller to you, but only on an attended transfer.
- Verify the extension before you transfer a call blind. There is no undo.
- Tell your colleague who is calling and what it is about.
- Tell the caller what is happening before the hold music starts.
- If you transfer a call to the same person daily, ask us for a BLF key.
Ten lines, and six of them are about the fifteen seconds either side of the transfer rather than the buttons.
What A Clean Transfer Means In Your Industry
How you transfer a call matters differently depending on who is on the other end.
Law firms. A client calling a firm is often calling about something stressful. Being passed around confirms every fear they had about being a small matter. An attended transfer, with a two-sentence handover, is the cheapest reassurance available.
Distribution and logistics. On a busy order desk speed wins, and blind transfers are usually right. The exception is anything involving a claim or a shortage, where an attended transfer stops the customer repeating the story to a third person.
Manufacturing. Calls from the floor are usually urgent and specific. Knowing who is free before you transfer a call, using busy lamp field keys, is worth more here than anywhere else because a call that rings out costs production time.
If you want busy lamp field keys set up for your team, tell us who should be on whose phone. Call 678-374-4352.
Questions About Transferring A Call
An attended transfer lets you speak to the person first and hand the caller over only if they can take it. A blind transfer sends the call immediately with no conversation and no way to pull it back. Use attended when it matters that a real person answers.
Yes. Press Transfer, dial *4 followed by their extension, then press Transfer again. The *4 prefix is the 3CX default and can be changed per system, so contact us if it does not work as described on your phone.
That is usually a permission on your extension or a rule on the trunk rather than a fault with the handset. Call 678-374-4352 and our engineers will review the extension permission and the trunk rule for you.
On a blind transfer the call follows that extension’s rules in 3CX, which normally means it goes to their voicemail. On an attended transfer nothing happens until you complete it, so you can cancel and take the caller back.