Overview
When your Lexidesk AI receptionist ( Emma in this article ) transfers a call to your team, the caller's experience when nobody answers depends on which transfer type you've chosen: warm or blind. This article explains what happens in each case, what the caller hears, and how to decide which one is right for your firm.
How warm transfers work when no one answers
A warm transfer is when Emma stays on the line, announces the caller, and plays a short summary of the call to whoever picks up before connecting them. This is the default because it gives your team context before they start speaking with the caller.
The tradeoff: Emma has no way to detect whether a human picked up or a voicemail picked up. When the line connects, she plays the summary either way.
What happens when voicemail picks up on a warm transfer:
Your voicemail greeting starts playing.
At the same time, Emma starts playing the call summary.
The two audio streams overlap, so the caller only hears the tail end of your greeting (often just the last line and the beep).
The caller is then connected to the voicemail and can leave a message.
If your voicemail greeting is short and Emma's summary is long, your greeting can be completely covered. There is no way on our side to prevent this, because Emma cannot tell the difference between a live person saying "Hello?" and a voicemail playing a greeting.
Note: To help with this, Emma tells callers upfront that if they hear nothing after the transfer, they can go ahead and leave a voicemail. This is built into the default Emma settings.
How blind transfers work when no one answers
A blind transfer is when Emma connects the caller directly to your line without staying on the call or playing a summary. It's a cleaner handoff.
When nobody picks up on a blind transfer:
The caller hears your voicemail greeting in full, from the start.
They leave a message normally, just like any other call that rings out to your office.
There is no audio overlap and no greeting truncation. The caller's experience is identical to someone who called your office directly and got your voicemail.
Important: The tradeoff with blind transfers is that your team doesn't hear a summary before answering. They walk into the call without context on who's calling or why.
Warm vs blind: which one is right for your firm?
Use warm transfers if:
Your team wants context before they start speaking with a caller
You'd rather have call summaries and accept that voicemail greetings may get truncated
Use blind transfers if:
Most of your transfers end up in voicemail anyway (after-hours, small team)
You want callers to hear your full voicemail greeting every time
Your team is comfortable answering calls cold
You can change this setting per transfer destination in your Lexidesk dashboard. If you're unsure, start with warm transfers and switch specific destinations to blind if you're seeing voicemail truncation complaints, more about transfer settings here.
Troubleshooting
My callers say they only hear the last line of my voicemail, then the beep
This is the warm transfer behavior described above. Emma plays her summary while your voicemail greeting is playing, and the two overlap. You have two options:
Switch that transfer destination to blind transfer in your Lexidesk settings, so Emma doesn't play a summary and your greeting plays in full.
Keep the warm transfer and shorten your voicemail greeting so it's closer to the length of Emma's summary. This only partially helps because the two still overlap.
Can Emma wait until the voicemail greeting finishes before playing her summary?
No, this isn't possible. Emma has no way to detect when a voicemail greeting ends versus when a human has just started speaking. Making her wait would also add a delay to every warm transfer that goes to a live human, which would be a worse experience overall. If voicemail truncation is the main issue for you, switch that destination to blind transfer.
FAQs
Does this affect all transfers or just warm ones?
Voicemail truncation only happens on warm transfers, because warm transfers involve Emma playing a summary. Blind transfers don't have this issue because Emma hands the call over without playing anything.
Can I set different transfer types for different people on my team?
Yes, you can configure transfer type per destination in your Lexidesk settings. For example, you can run warm transfers for your intake coordinator and blind transfers for lawyers' direct lines.
Does Emma tell the caller anything before transferring?
Yes. By default, Emma lets the caller know she's transferring them and that if they hear nothing after the handoff, they can leave a voicemail. You can adjust this wording by asking the support team.
Still stuck?
If you've read through this and something still isn't adding up, email [email protected] and we will help!