What is call barging?

So, what is a barge call? Put simply, call barging is a highly useful feature found in professional contact center or call center solutions. It allows a supervisor to jump onto any ongoing call, turning it into a three-way conversation between them, the customer, and the agent.

There’s obviously potential for micromanaging with call barging, meaning it’s a good idea to set strict protocols for supervisors to follow before they decide to barge a call.

But in general, live call barging can be an excellent way of improving the quality of customer service being delivered, while giving support to your agents. Let’s take a closer look at how it works.

How does a barge call work?

Barging calls is a straightforward process that your supervisors will be able to pick up quickly, even if they haven’t used it before. It’s one of the options generally available in call monitoring software, alongside simple listening in and so-called “whispering” (when a supervisor can talk to the agent on the call without the customer hearing them). Here’s how to do it.

1.  Log into the system: The first step in a barge phone call is signing in to your communications platform dashboard to access the call barging software.

2.  Select the call you want to monitor: You won’t be jumping in right away. Before barging a call, you’ll be listening first to determine whether intervention is needed. Select a call to listen to.

3.  Barge calls if required: If you decide you need to intervene, choose the “barge phone call” option from the interface and join the call.

When is the right time for a call barge?

As previously mentioned, when making the decision to barge in, call and contact center supervisors should be careful only to do so when it’s clearly necessary. Call monitoring is as much an art as a science, and judgment comes into play. In other words, it’s best to only use a call barge in these specific circumstances.

1.  A customer asks to speak to a manager: If a customer directly asks to be put through to a supervisor, call barge functionality is one of the easiest ways to achieve this. Yes, the agent could simply transfer the call, but on the whole, it’s faster for the supervisor to simply join the call in progress.

2.  An agent is in error: If the supervisor realizes that an agent is about to make a mistake, say by giving a customer incorrect information or forgetting some key part of the script, they should barge into the call to put things right. It’s much easier and quicker than trying to resolve problems arising from the mistake later on.

3.  A customer becomes abusive: Unfortunately, there are times when tempers fray and things can get heated. And in situations where customers behave badly, it puts agents in a difficult predicament. They may feel they don’t have the right to defend themselves, even when a customer is threatening them. Call barging is ideal for this situation. Supervisors cannot afford to allow customers to act like this, because it can seriously undermine team morale. Instead, one can barge the call and push back respectfully.

4.  Scheduled calls: Finally, you can use the call barge function as an ordinary teleconferencing tool. Despite its name, the underlying functionality is just as useful for three-way calls as traditional group call software is.

What are the benefits of a side barge feature in a contact center?

Call barge is sometimes known as side barge, meaning in some call center environments you may hear either term. The two mean exactly the same thing. And there are numerous benefits of side barge contact centers can take advantage of. Here are just a few.

Supports agent training

Supervisors can use the call barge feature to help with agent training. It’s particularly useful as a mechanism for supporting new recruits who may not be fully confident in their role yet.

Equally, even more experienced staff can refresh their skills from time to time. Call barge allows supervisors to achieve this by monitoring calls and stepping in if needed.

Increases customer satisfaction

Customers don’t like to be passed from pillar to post. When they encounter a problem, they want to have it solved as quickly as possible.

The fastest route to issue resolution can often be a call barge, meaning the customer doesn’t have to worry about having to wait to speak to a supervisor or — worse — being obliged to call back a second time. The result? Higher first call resolution rates and increased customer satisfaction levels.

Improved workflow efficiency

With call barging, you can optimize your workflow efficiency because it reduces the need for escalations. If a customer query is particularly complex, the agent may not know how to handle it. In that case, the traditional approach would be to transfer the call to a supervisor.

But that takes time, and may require the customer to explain their issue all over again. Instead, if the supervisor simply joins the call in progress, they can give their agent support immediately, simplifying the process.

What tasks can the call barging feature solve?

While the details of how to use the feature are simple to grasp, there’s also a strategic element to the barge-in call, meaning you can factor in call barging to help you meet specific objectives. Some of the tasks it can play a role in include:

• Quality control: If you deploy call barging in a systematic way, it can be a very valuable contributor to overall quality control. This doesn’t mean supervisors have to listen to every single call. But if you set a target for them to monitor a certain percentage of calls, they should be able to assess how well agents are performing, and how closely they’re meeting their objectives.

• Developing tailored training: We’ve already mentioned that call barging can support training, but it doesn’t just do that by giving supervisors an opportunity to support agents in-call. It’s equally useful for assessment purposes. The supervisor can observe where each agent’s strengths and weaknesses lie. In turn, this provides an excellent foundation for developing dedicated training programs, tailored to each individual.

• Ensuring consistent service: Sometimes, an agent might simply forget to mention something crucial while speaking with a customer, or overlook a detail such as a special client discount. To prevent this kind of patchy customer service becoming the norm, supervisors can step in to make sure every customer receives the same high level of customer service.

• Staff retention: According to a survey by McKinsey, staff turnover in call and contact centers fell back a little in 2024, but retaining customer service staff can still be a significant challenge for companies. Call barging can help with staff retention, but only if it’s used in a careful way. In other words, it’s crucial agents perceive it to be a genuine support mechanism that makes their lives easier. If, instead, they see it as some kind of unwelcome surveillance, trust could degrade, leading to a counterproductive drop in team morale.

Call barging in different industries

Although call barging is a well-known stalwart of call center technology, it’s a highly versatile feature. This means it can be adapted to suit a wide variety of industries and organizations. For example:

1.  Healthcare: Healthcare providers can use call barging technology to streamline the process of managing patient care. Scheduling appointments with different consultants while juggling other patient needs can be complicated, and often it’s useful for a more experienced staff member to step in to find the best solution.

2.  Political campaigning: If you’ve ever been involved in political campaigning, you’ll know how important it is that every single member of the team stays on-message 100% of the time. It’s worth building a knowledgeable team of supervisors whose role is to intervene fast if someone strays from the core message.

3.  Nonprofit fundraising: Similarly, nonprofit organizations sometimes use phone-based fundraising. Again, it can be a good idea to have some experienced hands on standby to jump onto calls and help persuade donors to contribute.

4.  Banking and finance: These are examples of industries that tend to be quite heavily regulated. As a result, compliance is one of the most important considerations for any employees communicating by phone. Call barging can play a key role in ensuring all team members remain compliant with the relevant legislation.

How to get started with Vonage call barging 

If you’re using the Vonage Unified Communications platform, implementing call barging in your daily operations is simple. Here’s how it works.

1. A Super User or Administrator on the company’s Vonage account adds call monitoring to the system.

2. The supervisor logs into their account. Note that they don’t have to be in the office to do this. They can easily access it through the Mobile App or Desktop App, so there’s no need for them to be in the same location as the agent taking the call.

3. They then select an extension to monitor the call, directly from their account dashboard. The account administrator can set a PIN as a security measure so that only authorized personnel can access calls.

4. Having entered the PIN, the supervisor can switch between monitoring, whisper, and barge mode with a simple keystroke.

Take your customer experience to the next level with call barging

With top-end call monitoring software from Vonage, you can empower your team to deliver a truly impressive customer experience. Thanks to the call barging feature, agents will know that they can count on support from their supervisors when they need it most. In turn, your customers will benefit from access to the most experienced managers, who can help resolve even the most complex of customer service queries.

What’s more, you can use call barging to help meet broader business goals like ensuring quality control and increasing staff retention. It’s a great way to burnish your brand reputation.

Best of all, it’s straightforward to set up, easy to use, and comes with robust security features as standard. So why not reach out to a Vonage expert today to find out more about how call barging can help your company deliver an outstanding customer experience?