Supervising a live call
Listen, whisper to the agent, take the line and hand it back.
A person on your team can join any call that is happening: listen to it, whisper to the agent, speak
to the caller in the agent's voice, take the line, and hand it back. You do it from the console, or
from a terminal with pinecall supervise.
What is the desk?#
The desk is the row of controls above a call that has not ended, on the call's page in the console. It joins the call as a hidden, silent participant, so the caller never knows it is there.
The desk is drawn for a key that opens supervise: the supervisor, manager, developer and admin
roles have it, and qa does not (Orgs, people and roles). In production you
also need your production switch on.
From the console#
Find the call#
Open Calls and pick Live, or Wants a person for the calls where the agent asked for someone. The console also pops a window in the corner when an agent asks, wherever you are.
Open it#
The desk sits over the conversation. When the agent asked for a person, the desk opens with the reason it gave and how long the caller has been waiting.
Act#
Press Listen to join, then Hear it. Type into Whisper or Say, or press Take the line. Taking the line answers the agent's request for a person.
Hand it back#
Press Hand back. The agent hears and speaks again, and your microphone stops.
Transfer and End call are on the desk too. Transfer asks for a typed number, and End asks for a second press, because neither can be undone.
In a written conversation (the widget's chat, WhatsApp) there is nothing to hear: the desk asks for no microphone, has no Transfer, and Take the thread means you answer with Say while the agent writes nothing.
The moves#
| move | console | terminal | what happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| whisper | Whisper | w <text> |
the agent reads it; the caller never hears it |
| say | Say | s <text> |
said to the caller in the agent's voice, word for word |
| take the line | Take the line | t |
the agent stops speaking and you are on the call |
| hand back | Hand back | x |
the agent has the line again |
| transfer | Transfer | (console only) | the caller goes to the number you type |
| end | End call | e [reason] |
the call ends |
From a terminal#
pinecall supervise call_9f2c… --prodThe call's transcript prints as it happens, and each line you type is one move. q leaves the
desk and the call goes on. The terminal has no audio: listening is the console's.
A script can drive a call through a pipe, one move per line. No prompt is drawn, and the desk leaves when the lines run out:
printf 't\ns Let me put you through to reception.\nq\n' | pinecall supervise call_9f2c… --prodThe desk opens only on a call that is happening. An ended call, or an id the gateway has no log for, is refused before the prompt; read a finished call with
pinecall sessions show <call>.
What the log records#
Every move lands in the call's own log as a supervisor.* entry: supervisor.whispered,
supervisor.said, supervisor.took_over, supervisor.released, supervisor.transferred and
supervisor.ended. What a person did to a call is read the same way as what the agent did.