Multi-party Conference

Note:

This feature is applicable only for untethered architecture.

You can enable Amazon Connect to allow up to six parties on a call. They are the Agent, the caller, and four more participants. (By default, Amazon Connect allows agents to have up to three parties on a call - the agent, and caller, and another participant.) You can add up to four additional participants to an ongoing customer service call, for a total of six participants.

New Behavior with Multi-party Calls

• All agents see all of the connections in a call.

• All agents have exactly the same capabilities as any other agent on the call. This takes effect the moment an agent accepts the invitation to join the call.

• Before a Warm Transfer is complete, an agent can start talking to the caller and also disconnect from any other agent on the call.

Comparison - Three-party and Multi-party Calls

The following table summarizes the differences between the agent experience with three-party calls and multi-party calls.

• Primary agent: the first agent on the call.

• Secondary agent: any agent other than the first agent on the call.

  Three-party Calls	Multi-party Calls
  Agent can control hold, resume, and disconnect only the parties they added.	All agents have the same call control capabilities
  Agent can add one other participant to an existing call, for a total of three participants (the agent, the caller, and another participant).	Any agent on the call can add additional participants, as long as the total number of participants on the call, includingthe primary agent, does not exceed six.
  Agent can put only the party they added on hold.	Any agent on the call can put any party on hold.
  When a primary agent places a secondary agent on hold, the secondary agent cannot come out off hold.	Any agent does not have option to come out off hold.
  Secondary agent can talk to the primary agent during hold.	Secondary agents cannot talk to each other until they are taken off hold.
  No agent on the call can mute any other participant on the call.	Any agent on the call can mute any other participant on the call.
  When an agent disconnects (leaves or is disconnected), call control continues to be available to the remaining agent(s) on the call.	When an agent disconnects, control of the call is transferred to the remaining agents.
  The primary agent can see two connections (caller and another party), whereas a secondary agent sees only the transfer connection.	All agents can see all connections.
  An agent only sees internal transfer for another agent on the call.	An agent sees the quick connect ID for other agents (including external agents or third parties) instead of just internal agents.
  Not applicable.	When a party is being dialed, an agent on a multi-party call cannot add another party until the prior dial operation is completed (party added or call leg terminated).

How to add Participants to a Multi-party Call

Once the agent is connected to a contact, the agent dials to another agent or Queue or external number using the quick connect or dial pad. The agent can add up to four other participants, making it a maximum of six persons on the call.

For example, if you want to make a call using Dial-pad option, provide the number and click Dial.

When you add the third participant to the call, you can greet and talk to the third participant before adding them to the call (for example, tell them why you are adding them to the call).

The contact is on hold, and you are talking to the third party. Choose Swap to toggle between the parties on hold and the party you just called. Swap is only available when there are three parties on a call (for example, primary agent, the caller, and another agent or external party in a call). It is not available when there are more than three parties on the call.

Every time the primary or secondary agent adds a new participant to the call, the agent chooses the consult option, greet, and talks to the connected person before adding them to the call. Select Conference to take all parties off hold.

When there are multiple agents on the call (for example, two agents and two parties), all agents on the call can view all parties and have the option to put any participant or another agent on hold, mute, and disconnect any participant from the call.

The primary or the secondary agent put themselves on hold or retrieved from hold using a button in the common controls. The primary agent can transfer a multi-party call to another agent or disconnect from the ongoing call.

How to Manage Participants

Every agent on the call has access to the controls next to each participant's number. The controls allow the agent to mute, hold, or disconnect individual participants.

You can transfer a multi-party call to another agent or disconnect yourself from the ongoing call.

When do Multi-party Calls End?

A multi-party call stays up as long as the caller (customer) or the agent is on the call. For example, when the agent adds an external party to a call and disconnects, the caller and external party continue the call. The agent can choose to disconnect and allow only the caller and the third-party participants to remain on the call (only for inbound calls). If only the third parties are left on the call, the call is terminated (only agent-initiated outbound calls).

Multi-party Conference

This section is applicable for multi-party conference of Inbound calls, Manual Outbound calls, and Untethered Outbound (Acqueon Dialer-based) calls.

Note:

Agents must be enabled with multi-party transfer capability to be added by another agent to a multi-party call.