Listen, whisper or barge in on a call

Listening in lets a manager hear a live call while it happens, without the people on it hearing the manager. Teams use it for coaching and for checking on a tricky call.

Recording and monitoring laws vary by state, and your company is responsible for any notice and consent they require.

Some labels in your portal or apps may look slightly different from this guide.

What each plan includes

Every plan includes live call monitoring, so a manager can listen in from their phone. Contact Center Pro adds supervisor monitor, whisper and barge.

Let someone listen in

The person who listens needs call monitoring turned on in their own user settings. That's also where you decide whose calls they can hear. You have two ways to do it:

• Ask CallSprout support. Contact support with the listener's name and extension and the people whose calls they may hear. Support turns it on for you.
• Do it yourself, with a PIN. Follow the steps below and choose PIN Required, so the listener has to enter a PIN each time. Don't choose Access Granted.

1. 1
   Step 1:

   Open the listener's settings

   Go to Extensions, find the person who will listen and select the edit icon. Then select Enhanced Services.
2. 2
   Step 2:

   Turn on call monitoring

   Select Call Monitoring, allow it and save. Then select Edit beside it to open its settings.
3. 3
   Step 3:

   Choose whose calls they can hear

   In Extension, add the people they may listen to, or choose all of them.
4. 4
   Step 4:

   Set the permission

   Choose PIN Required, so they enter a PIN before they listen. To block listening, choose No Access.
5. 5
   Step 5:

   Pick the mode and save

   On Business and Contact Center Lite, choose Listening. The other modes are part of Contact Center Pro. Select Save.

Listen in from your phone

1. 1
   Step 1:

   Check who's on a call

   Open the monitor in the admin portal. A headset icon marks each person on a call. See the live monitor.
2. 2
   Step 2:

   Dial the code

   From your phone, dial *199 followed by your coworker's extension.
3. 3
   Step 3:

   Listen

   You hear both sides of the call. Neither person hears you.
4. 4
   Step 4:

   Stop

   Hang up when you're done.

Whisper and barge on Contact Center Pro

This feature needs the Contact Center Pro plan. See plans and pricing

• Whisper lets you coach your coworker during the call. They hear you and the caller doesn't.
• Barge brings you into the conversation, so both people hear you.

If the listener's monitoring mode is set to All, they can switch while listening: press 4 to listen only, 5 to whisper or 6 to barge. If these keys don't work, check with support.

On Contact Center Pro, you can also start from the Monitor button on the Extensions and Apps tabs of the monitor. It works the other way around from the star code: you start from the coworker's live call, then enter the extension you want to listen on. The portal rings that phone. Whoever answers hears the call, and nobody on it hears them.

Supervisors on Contact Center Pro can also listen, whisper and barge from the supervisor panel. The supervisor dashboard is an add-on. See listen, take over, transfer and change agent modes.

What you say while barging isn't captured in the call recording. Keep that in mind if your team relies on recordings to review calls.

Troubleshooting

• A message says the service isn't enabled. Call monitoring isn't turned on for the person dialing. Follow the steps above, or contact support.
• You're asked for a PIN. The permission is set to PIN Required, which is how it should be. Enter your PIN. If you're not sure which PIN to use, ask your admin or contact support.