With Zendesk Talk, you can choose between using your web browser or your phone to place and receive calls.
This article contains the following sections:
Setting up your browser for calls
Before you start, ensure that you are using a web browser (like Google Chrome or Firefox) that supports WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication), a browser-based communication protocol to make calls. Zendesk Talk does not work with Adobe Flash.
Additionally, if you use a browser to place and receive calls, you must open ports on your computer and network firewalls for Zendesk Talk to work.
To learn more, see Preparing for Zendesk Talk.To take calls with your browser
- Click the Talk icon (
) in the top toolbar to open the call console.
- In the call console, click the globe icon and then select Via Browser.
Setting up your phone for call forwarding
To take calls with your phone
- In Zendesk Support, click your profile photo at the top-right of the console, and then click View profile.
- In the Talk Agent section of your profile, make sure that Talk Agent is turned on.
- Next to Agent forwarding, click + add number.
- In the window that appears, select a country and enter your phone number.
If your telephone number includes an extension, add it to the extension field. If you also use additional key presses, you can also add those to the extension field. For example, if a caller must dial '123' followed by a pound ('#') key, enter '123#'.
Note: If multiple users will share the same forwarding number, you must include different extension numbers for each agent. - Click Save.
- In the call console, click the globe icon and select Via Phone.
22 Comments
Hello, is there a way to get the ZenDesk App from Google Play to dial numbers using the smartphone's internet and not its actual phone line? or to use the smartphone's VPN dialer (such as Zoiper) instead of the default dialer? Thanks
Hey Arik!
There is no way to take Zendesk Talk calls through a mobile app (yet), currently the only way is outlined above (forwarding those calls to the mobile and answering via a normal phone call)
Here are the closest product feedback posts I could find requesting this feature:
Bring outbound call functionality to mobile apps
Zendesk Talk Mobile App
I recommend voting on the relevant requests and adding your use case in the comments.
If these don't match what you're looking for, feel free to create a new post in the feedback forum:
Zendesk Product Feedback
Thanks for your input!
Hi Amanda -
Do you know which browser they are using? Several people reported seeing this issue on Chrome last week due to an audio update pushed by Google.
The fix is to do the following:
1) Paste: chrome://flags/#autoplay-policy into the URL field
2) Change it to "No user gesture is required"
3) Restart the browser
You can also read through that conversation for more details.
Let us know if that fixes it for you!
Hi,
We are using an external Toll free number (not zendesk number) for all incoming calls on our zendesk number. Now we are getting the same Caller id number ( the external toll free number) for every incoming call on zendesk. How can we enable the originating caller id number?
Thanks
Hi Malik,
The forwarding of caller ID information to Zendesk Talk numbers is definitely possible, but from what you're describing the best recommendation here is to have the you check with the external service provider that provides the original access number to see whether the original caller ID information can be passed when forwarding that phone number to your Zendesk Talk number.
I do hope that helps, Malik!
Hi Jacob,
We have tested this with the external service and yes its passing the original caller id information.
While signed into Zendesk on my computer (chrome), my team longer receives "an incoming call" alert. It does not provide the alert for incoming calls whether calling our company support line OR our Zendesk assigned number. but I can see the missed calls in our "call history" admin panel. It worked last month and mysteriously stopped working this month.
Your Zendesk support team has not been able to determine the issue. Our customer service is failing because we no longer know when customers are calling in :-( PLEASE HELP!!
Hi Nik -
Do you already have a ticket open with our support agents? If so, can you tell me what the ticket number is so I can check on it?
When inbound call comes in, how can i make it ring on the speakers? But when I accept the call the inbound call sound comes into the headset. Are there any WebRTC Chrome extensions that can be used to accomplish this?
Reason for this is, when I put my headset down and walk away from the desktop, I dont hear an incoming call. Because the ring is only in the headset. We were using salesforce before and had service with NewVoiceMedia that has this Chrome WebRTC extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/webrtc-for-newvoicemedia/jahbgfelgdkpjhbcggnkfglaldkhodmi
Does Zendesk Talk have similar WebRTC extension that has this option that can be used in Chrome or Firefox?
See image below
Hey John!
This is a great question, and I can certainly see the validity of the request. Unfortunately this is something that is not planned at this time. We have a similar request over on our Talk Product Feedback Forum that you can check out here, with direct interaction from a Talk Product Manager explaining the reasoning.
https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/203430626-Zendesk-Voice-New-call-notification-through-speakers-call-through-headset
Thanks!
I am the primary user of our Zendesk account (in Canada).
If I want to use my mobile phone (in Canada) to receive incoming calls (from Australia), will they be considered international calls?
Also, if I want to avoid being charged international calls fee, I would be best to use a headset and browser configurations for receiving/making calls?
I will be purchasing 3 numbers (3 different countries) from Zendesk, how can I know which type to choose (local, toll free, beta)?
Thanks!
Hey Jeremy,
If I want to use my mobile phone (in Canada) to receive incoming calls (from Australia), will they be considered international calls? Yes these will be considered international calls.
Also, if I want to avoid being charged international calls fee, I would be best to use a headset and browser configurations for receiving/making calls? Costs would be identical regardless of what device you're using if the call originates from a different country call.
I will be purchasing 3 numbers (3 different countries) from Zendesk, how can I know which type to choose (local, toll free, beta)? Toll-free numbers have specific area codes so you could try searching by area code to see if the number is available.
Hope the above information helps!
Hi Guys
We just face a problem when using an iPad for handling calls. We can login to support account on a browser on iPad. but when we want to place an outbound call the call button doesn't respond.
This is happening when the calls set to be taken "Via browser". But if we switch to "Via Phone" the problem will be solved. and the call button works fine and we can place the call.
Is that suppose to be like this!? I mean the "Via Phone" option is not only determining the inbound call receiving device?
Regards
Ehsan
Hello Ethan,
Due to the nature of this issue, I've gone ahead and opened up a ticket on your behalf so one of our specialists can investigate this further for you. You should receive an email followed by a response shortly.
Best regards.
Hi All
When configuring "Setting up your phone for call forwarding" (ie: call forwarding to an agents personal phone), if I have configured Group routing and queue times, do these settings still apply when a call is forwarded to an agent's personal phone?
For the following scenario, what happens:
So my question really relates to what happens with routing and queue wait times before going to overflow/voicemail when agent forwarding is enabled and an agent doesn't pick up.
Zendesk has confirmed that normal browser based calls will wait in the queue for the specified time (we have it configured for 20 mins) before it overflows (although this is not what we have seen in testing).
The above article says "If a key is not pressed, the call is routed to Talk's voicemail" however, voicemail is not enabled on my customer's instance.
Many thanks
Chad Susa
Founder and Owner
Gravity CX
Zendesk Select Partner
Zendesk Certified Admin
Hi Chad,
As long as you have "Agent confirmation when forwarding?" checked under Admin > Channels > Talk the expected behavior is to route the call to the next available agent and respect your settings.
If you have any follow up questions please let us know!
Ben Van Iten | Senior Customer Advocate | support@zendesk.com
Got a question? Ask our Zendesk Community
We can't figure out how to get the sound to come through the headset, instead of speakers. It works fine in all other apps (ie. hangouts). But with Talk, sound isn't controllable.
We found this thread: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/203430626-Zendesk-Voice-New-call-notification-through-speakers-call-through-headset?page=2#comments
But it's closed for comments. Why?? Seems awfully relevant and important.
Hi Casey!
My apologies that the thread in question is closed for comment. We frequently close older threads to promote discussion in newer active threads. However, if you feel that you have more to add we always encourage you to start a new discussion.
In terms of your question, the thread that you linked to was related to having certain notifications happen through a headset and other notifications happen through the browser. Is that what you are trying to achieve or are you saying that it won't play through the headset regardless of any setting choices you make?
Those settings should live in the browser/device so it might be a good starting point to make sure that the browser has given Zendesk the proper permissions as well.
If you are still having trouble I'll be happy to move this conversation into a ticket so our Support team can assist further.
Thanks!
Ben Van Iten | Senior Customer Advocate | support@zendesk.com
Got a question? Ask our Zendesk Community
Hi,
We are considering the use of forwarding calls to a phone and I have seen that the caller Id is not the original.
I would like then to know if when receiving a call Zendesk will create a ticket identifying the correct client or as the caller ID is changed that will not happen.
Regards,
Jorge
Hello Jorge Monfort,
As for your query with regard to an inbound call and the caller ID, natively Zendesk Talk identifies users by their phone numbers.
When receiving a call, Talk checks to see if a user is associated with the number that is calling. If no user has the number as a direct line (for example, if it’s been deleted from the user), then a new user will be created that has that number as a direct line. The number will no longer be associated with the users that have that same number as a shared number. A user can have only one shared number on their user profile.
Hi Erika,
Thanks for your thorough explanation.
I understand that that this is the standard behavior when you are using Talk answering via the browser.
However, I would be using the option to answer by forwarding calls to a phone. In this article it says that in this case the Caller ID displayed will be my Zendesk Talk number and not the original caller's phone number.
If so, I would like to know if the system will be able to match the call with the corresponding profile (if exists).
Can you confirm that in this case it behaves as per your description?
Regards,
Jorge
Hello Jorge Monfort,
Thank you very much for helping me realize your point. My apologies for the delay as we are handling more requests than usual hence the late response in this post.
Currently, Zendesk talk is designed that forwarded calls to a phone will display the Zendesk Talk number and not the original caller ID. The calls are meant to be answered by an agent who needs to know that it is a business call they are taking, and not some other number calling them.
We really can't find any workaround at the moment. I'll leave this post open in case other users have solutions for you. :)
Please sign in to leave a comment.