If you have an existing phone number that you use for support calls, you might be able to port this number to our Talk phone service provider, Twilio.
The most up to date information can be found on our "regulatory requirements' article; if there are porting guidelines for a given country then porting is possible. Example below:
This article contains the following topics:
- Before you start
- Information to submit when porting a number
- What to expect after your request
- Porting a number out of Zendesk Talk
Before you start
To get this process started, we need some information from you about your current number and your provider. Before initiating a port request with us, keep the following in mind:
- You must be a paid subscriber to Zendesk Talk for us to port a number. We can't port phone numbers for customers on a Zendesk trial. We are unable to make exceptions to this.
- Porting US and Canada numbers can take between one and four weeks. Other numbers can take 6 or more weeks, it's always a good idea to check with Twilio for the specific porting timeline. During the process, consider forwarding calls from your current provider to a phone number in your Zendesk Talk instance to provide a smooth transition.
- Once a porting date is set by us, changing it can be difficult and cause potential issues. Don't initiate ports until you are ready.
- Notify your current carrier to not disconnect the number until you tell them it's OK.
- Zendesk Talk is compliant with Canadian CRTC regulations.
Porting is available in the following countries, if its not on the list, it's not going to be possible. Specific porting requirements can be found on this page.
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Information to submit when porting a number
When you are ready to port your number, contact Zendesk customer support with the following information:
- The phone numbers you want like to port.
- The phone carriers for the numbers.
- Does the carrier use Twilio?
- The country for the phone number.
- Your most recent billing statement for the number.
- If you are porting a US-based number, include this Twilio Letter of Authorization form. If you are porting from a different country, our team will reach out to you for any additional forms we may need
- If you are moving a number from another Twilio-based carrier and have your Twilio SID from the current carrier, please also include that. If you are moving from a current Zendesk account to a different Zendesk account, give us the subdomain the number is currently on and the one it is being moved to.
- If the number to be ported is a cellphone number, you'll need to submit your account details and PIN number in the porting request
What to expect after your request
We will keep you up to date throughout the porting process. We might reach out to you to obtain additional documentation or information if specific countries have different requirements. If at any point in the process you have questions, let us know.
Porting a number out of Zendesk Talk
Timeline: Zendesk is not in control of the timeline of port-out requests, this is controlled by the gaining provider.
For help moving your Zendesk Talk number to another provider for any reason, contact Zendesk Customer Support. Typically this is initiated on the gaining providers side first, and we automatically approve (if your account is in good financial standing) when your gaining provider attempts to move the number from Zendesk Talk.
33 Comments
Hi this is very confusing? It says that you need to port your number over to Twilio but then lower on the page here: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/215118307-Porting-numbers-into-Zendesk-Talk#PortingfromexistingTwilio it says if you have your number already on Twilio to port it to Zendesk? So do I port our numbers to Zendesk OR to Twilio??? And if I need to port them to Zendesk it does not say how to do that on here? My numbers (toll free and local numbers) are with Line2 right now. Please can someone help me with this?
Hello Julia,
Twilio is the telephony service provider that ZenDesk uses. The instructions above are several sets of directions depending on where you number is currently hosted (with another carrier, with Twilio and a service besides ZenDesk, already with ZenDesk but moving to a new ZenDesk Account, etc.). If you need to port your number into ZenDesk from Line2, follow this set of instruction:
Step 1: Submit docs to Zendesk customer service team
To get started, send an email to support@zendesk.com that contains the following:
Thanks for jumping in to help, Jose!
No problem! =) Just happened to be viewing the article myself for porting and thought I'd chime in! Hope that is alright.
It's more than alright! We love it when folks help their fellow Zendesk users. :) I hope you stick around!
Question here, upon porting my number to Talk, will the phone numbers from the end-users be recognized?
Hi Gabriel! Welcome to the Community!
If the end-users are already in your Zendesk, and their phone number is associated with their user profile, then that user profile is what will be added to the ticket as the requester. If a user calls you from a number for the very first time, a new user profile will be created because prior to their call that number didn't exist in you Zendesk. If that user has already contacted you via other channels, you can merge that new profile with just the phone number into their existing profile, and future calls from that user will be recognized by Zendesk.
I hope that makes sense! Let me know if you have any other questions!
Hi!
We are currently using a danish Softphone app called Firmafon. As our webshop is built on Shopify, we love Firmafon as it has an integration with Shopify, so if the customers calls from a number that is in Shopify, we can help them faster. Same goes for Zendesk support - Linked directly to Shopify orders which is awesome. We are considering a change to Zendesk Talk, however we need the above feature. So my question is:
Does Zendesk Talk also support access like Firmafon and Zendesk to Shopify orders?
Does this process work for 1-800 numbers, too? Are there any additional considerations that should be taken into account?
Hey Marty,
I reached out to our Talk team and it looks like the same process will work for 1-800 numbers. No additional considerations necessary.
Let me know if you have any other questions!
If I buy a number directly in Zendesk Talk and in Future from some reason want move out of Zendesk support and/or talk to some other support platforms(for example say move from Zendesk to Service now) will I be able to retain toll free number which I purchased in Zendesk (port the number from Zendesk to other platform)?
Hi,
Yes, the numbers can also be ported out of Zendesk if you do end up changing platforms.
I see that it's recommended not to initiate a port until the go-live date. Why is it important not to port early? I imagine we'd want to port as soon as possible since there's a 1-4 week timeline to ensure everything is working properly prior to receiving requests. Any insight?
Hi Ashley Blystone,
The carriers execute ports on their own timeline. I've seen ports happen in 2 hours. Others take 2 weeks. And we can't really tell them when and what time to do it.
The caution here is that if you have a working number that you're using and you are not quite ready to go live with Zendesk Talk (Agents logged in, ready to take calls, trained, etc), then you could potentially have calls coming to Zendesk Talk and going to Voicemail or sitting in the wait queues without you knowing!
Ensuring everything is working correctly is unfortunately sometimes a bit of a scramble when it does port over. I suggest testing it out with your existing Zendesk Talk number. Have a group of people call your current Zendesk Talk number and test out the IVR, wait times, etc. Use that to train your Agents.
I am sure you thought of that, just making a note in case it helps others.
Sincerely,
Heather
I followed the advice and opened a support ticket 2 weeks ago. No reply. Yesterday I added a "hello, anybody there?" to the ticket. Still no reply. Today I called the zendesk global helpline 888-670-4887 and after 8 minutes of waiting on hold got put through to voicemail. Totally unacceptable service.
Hello Tomasz Wiglasz,
I'm sorry for the delay you are running into. Currently, our Support team is experiencing a higher than average ticket volume. I've gone ahead and escalated your ticket so we can get one of our specialists on this asap.
Best regards.
Please consider turning this into a form submission request. It is common that there are short timelines for flipping switches and it has equally as often caused frustration.
Hi Team,
Is there is any expected downtime when the number is ported?
Thanks
Hello Jay ishibashi,
Porting US and Canada numbers can take between one and four weeks. Other numbers can take 6 or more weeks. It's always a good idea to check with Twilio for the specific porting timeline. I would recommend forwarding calls from your current provider to a phone number in your Zendesk Talk instance to provide a smooth transition during the process.
Best regards.
Hi everyone, UK based company here: is it worth it? The charges seem very high.
Devan - Community Manager: That wasn't the answer to Jay's question. I am also wondering the same thing. Is there any downtime when porting? I understand porting numbers can take several weeks however the number will upon porting still work?
Hey Emma,
To answer your question, yes, there will indeed be a downtime once the porting process has started - this is also the same reason why we recommend not initiating the port until your go-live date to prevent porting early, which may cause unavailability of your numbers. For the best customer experience, it's recommended that you forward the number to one of your Zendesk Talk numbers to avoid any issues as Devan mentioned above.
Hope this clears up any confusion!
Hi Brett Bowser,
Thanks for your response. What is the expected downtime?
Hey Jay,
That most likely would depend on the start date for the ported number. If you do need to port a number, I would recommend confirm with the agent you're working with as they would most likely have a better idea what the expected downtime is.
Cheers!
Hi, i'm still not sure I understand this. We have already gone live with talk. Our current setup is that we bought a TALK-number to wich we forward our calls from our original provider with no YYY. We want to port our numbers in to talk, however I still want the customers to be able to call the same number as now (YYY) until porting? So we're not actually proting erarly here, we're "too late" it seems if I undestand yoru comment correctly(??). Please help us out :).
Hi Emma,
In your case if you are live with Zendesk Talk and you already have your external carrier forwarding to Zendesk then your impact should be minimal. That section is designed for those that may not have a live number in Zendesk or are not forwarding the number. As Zendesk does not control the timing of the port, so if the port happened in say one business day and they have not setup their Talk setting/agents etc on the Zendesk side that could cause them some disruption.
I hope that helps!
Jason Schaeffer | Customer Advocate | Support@zendesk.com
Hello,
We are starting up using Zendesk Talk and Support. Now as you said , while we are deciding to port some numbers you said that we can in the mean time just forward our numers to the Zendesk nummer.
My Question is, the Zendesk number that we got, got created automatically when i for the first time set up Zendesk Talk and it seems a USA number (with land code +1 and so on).
While our company is working with Belgian and Netherland phone numbers, will forwarding to that USA number than not create always an INTERNATIONAL call to the USA? And won't it costs our business alot of money for each incoming call to be transferred to that given Zendesk number?
Or is this forwarding done throug VOIP through the Internet and is their no extra costs?
Also where do i set up this call forwarding in Zendesk? Or do i have to call our own Belgian carrier to do this forwarding in their settings?
Thanks for a response.
Brecht
Hi Brecht,
You are right - for the callers (users), it will be an international call. For your business - I do not foresee huge costs (but do check with your current provider, if they might be charging extra for forwarding, as an example)). In respect to Talk and this default number that's provided for every account: you can calculate inbound call costs here - Zendesk Talk number availability and pricing
US number is selected on this page by default.
Zendesk Talk as such is a VoIP system, but in case of forwarding it would not matter much. Calls will simply be forwarded to your Talk number in Zendesk and it will be like any other incoming call, forwarded or not, coming from US or elsewhere.
Forwarding as such is done with your provider, as you mentioned. You can setup outbound call forwarding from Zendesk, but for inbound - only your provider will be able to help.
Hi There, I find everything very confusing as nothing is straight forward. So need some help:
1. I'm in Australia
2. I have a 1-800 number
3. Its not with Twillio
4. I'd like it ported to Zen desk
What do I need to do? Please advise step by step.
Hi Ron!
I'm glad to clarify this information for you.
To start with, I would recommend checking the Zendesk Talk number regulatory requirements to see if porting is possible in specific countries and what information is required to initiate this process. For example, porting an Australian 1-800 number is possible, and here is the information you'd need to submit:
- CAT A (simple port). Confirm with your current service provider that your phone numbers have no attached complex services.
- CAT C (complex port). Attached complex services (e.g., ISDN, Line Hunt, etc.) will be canceled during porting.
Along with the above, you can find more information in the article.
Once you have all the documentation and information, you can reach out to us by emailing support@zendesk.com and we'll be happy to start the porting process.
Iulia
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