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Activating Talk and configuring general settings



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Rob Stack

Zendesk Documentation Team

Edited Feb 12, 2025


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18 comments

Hello! We are observing an issue that is upsetting our clients... when they call in they are told that the wait time is approximately 2 minutes, and then they end up waiting about 12 or 13 minutes, and then they get sent to voicemail if no one can get free. How would you suggest we configure ZD in order to a) announce a more accurate wait time at the beginning and b) encourage more clients to use the callback request feature vs VM so they don't have to wait as long for help? We are often a day behind with the VM queue. c) at the cut off of the end of the queue time limit, can we give them the callback option instead of the VM option? It seems like they are only getting VM at that point.

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Sabra

Zendesk Customer Care

Hey Michelle! As a potential solution to A and B, I would recommend adding additional information to your Greetings so that customers are aware that the estimate may be longer than the estimated time, and that you recommend selecting the callback option. For more information on greetings, check out this article: Managing outgoing greetings.

As for C, it is not currently possible to change that behavior. As mentioned in this article:

Callers who wait longer than the time specified in the maximum queue wait time are sent to voicemail.

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We are in the process of updating our IVR menu.  We have our current settings for max queue size and max queue wait time set to 2.

We are adding a Hold message (Your call is important to us variety) if an agent is not available.  The message plays and then there is a max hold time before sending to voicemail.

If an agent is not available, the message starts playing and 10 seconds into recording, an agent becomes available.

    • Does the recording cut off and connect or does the client have to listen to the entire sound byte before they can be connected?

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Brandon Tidd do you by chance have an answer?

We are in the process of updating our IVR menu.  We have our current settings for max queue size and max queue wait time set to 2.

We are adding a Hold message (Your call is important to us variety) if an agent is not available.  The message plays and then there is a max hold time before sending to voicemail.

If an agent is not available, the message starts playing and 10 seconds into recording, an agent becomes available.

    • Does the recording cut off and connect or does the client have to listen to the entire sound byte before they can be connected?

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Brandon Tidd

Zendesk LuminaryUser Group LeaderThe Humblident Award - 2021Community Moderator

Hey Katie Meek,

To clarify - the Hold greeting plays after a caller has connected with an agent, and that agent places the caller on hold to research something.  This greeting also plays during call transfers. 

What plays during the space after the IVR menu selection is made but before a connection is made to the initial Talk Agent is consider a Wait greeting (by default this is music).  If you want something to play before a call is patched through to a particular IVR option, that would be an Available Agents Greeting inserted under the settings for that IVR route.  

So, let's say an end user presses option 1, and no agents are online - they would be immediately presented with voicemail.  If they press option 1, but all agents are either on a call or 'away,' in wrap up or otherwise preoccupied, the (optional) available agents greeting will play in it's entirety (please hold while we transfer your call to the X department. Your call is very important to us).  At that point the call enters the queue and waits (in your case for up to 2 minutes) for an agent to become available.  If an agent does become available, they are offered the call immediately, but the caller will continue to hear the Wait greeting (music) until the agent accepts the call.  If no available agents accept the call, or the max queue time is breached, the caller is offered voicemail.

Many customers opt to not have a line-specific Available Agent greeting, but rather record a music-heavy mp3 with voice prompts placed overtop of the audio (all available agents are still assisting other callers, rather than waiting on hold, you can press 1 to leave a voicemail).  In this case, those prompts would be interrupted immediately if an agent is offered (and accepts) the inbound call out of the queue.

Hope this helps!

Brandon

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Dekbi

Zendesk Customer Care

Hi Katie,
 
With the Hold Message, it can only be played if the customer was placed on Hold by an agent or during a transfer. What I could suggest is to have a greeting created for 'Wait' or 'Available Agents' type of greeting.
 
Once an agent becomes available, the music or the greeting that was set will be interrupted immediately and the end-user/caller will be routed to the agent that is available.
 
For your reference about greetings: In what order do Talk greetings play?

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Hi! 

Is it possible to create subsections for different clients calling in on the same phone number?

eg. a client calls in with their home landline, we merge the clients email to that number. Then a different family member calls in and the ticket that comes up is already linked to the first caller's email. Is there a way to attach a secondary email to that phone number without those two different client's tickets to get combined and select the appropriate one case by case? 

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Joyce

Zendesk Customer Care

Hi Peter!
 
Talk identifies users by their phone numbers and not with the email address associated with the account. If the number that the caller is using is already associated with an existing profile, that profile is set as the ticket requester. Users will have to have different phone numbers for tickets not be to associated in one profile.

You can check the article Understanding how phone numbers are linked to end-user profiles for more information. 

Hope this helps!

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How do you disable Talk and not receive any further charges? I've unchecked the Enable Talk box on the Talk > Settings page but we're still receiving vmails and getting charged.

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Rob Stack

Zendesk Documentation Team

Hi Brian Coakley, I'm going to take your request into a ticket to figure out what's happening. Somebody should contact you soon.

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how do I add a number? what is wrong this website?? Why is everything so disorganized? My original number was cut off - a number I had for many years due to an expired credit card on file. I made a payment and now I find out I have to get a number number. They send me a link that goes nowhere!!! Where is the page to create a new phone number? 

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Anne Ronalter

Zendesk Customer Care

Hello Michelle,

we are so sorry to hear, that you are currently experiencing so many issues with Talk.

I can see, that you have already opened a ticket with Support, so my colleagues can investigate further and assist you with it.

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Hi ZD support,

I have questions about how to report on the two edge scenarios in ZD Talk. 

1. when a customer call in and wait on-hold >60 min (beyond Maximum queue wait time), they will be kick off and a new ticket is created for further action. --- How could we capture those tickets and report on the numbers every month?

2. similar to this threshold, when a customer requires a callback but waits>60 min for it, they will not be connected to an agent automatically but a new Zendesk ticket is created for callback later (https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/4645654279706-Call-Back-Feature).   ----  How could I identify them and report on them?

Additionally, when I use some examples to dig into their call information, I find some of them only have outbound calls but no inbound calls. So is there any documentation about what kind of inbound calls would be tracked? Thank you so much if anyone can help!

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Brandon Tidd

Zendesk LuminaryUser Group LeaderThe Humblident Award - 2021Community Moderator

Hey Anqi Chen -
 

For the first question, Call exceeded queue wait time is an attribute in the Talk dataset in Zendesk Explore.  Expired callback request tickets do get tagged accordingly and you can leverage that tag in your reporting.  Hope this helps!

 

Brandon Tidd

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Hi Brandon!

 

Thanks for the reply! I still have some follow-up questions.

If the Call exceeded queue wait time here refers to any customer who waits on hold or waits for a callback? And if a customer waits on-hold>60min, will they be kicked off the queue and new ticket created, or they will be directed to a voicemail to further action? Finally, I noticed some tickets with description queue callback request: expired, so is it referring to Call exceeded queue wait time? But I didn't find any ticket created for it. Thank you!

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Brandon Tidd

Zendesk LuminaryUser Group LeaderThe Humblident Award - 2021Community Moderator

If the Call exceeded queue wait time here refers to any customer who waits on hold or waits for a callback? 
> As I understand it, this would only refer to customers that wait on hold (not callback requests)
And if a customer waits on-hold>60min, will they be kicked off the queue and new ticket created, or they will be directed to a voicemail to further action? 
> Depends on your voicemail settings on the line.  Either is possible.

Finally, I noticed some tickets with description queue callback request: expired, so is it referring to Call exceeded queue wait time? 

> This is someone who pressed 2 to receive a callback and entered the virtual queue but did not receive a call within the 60 minute allotment of virtual hold.  Note that this is a separate counter. 

 

Let's say someone holds in queue for 15 minutes and then presses option 2.  If the lines don't clear, a queue callback request expired: ticket will be created 1 hour and 15 minutes after the initial call was placed.  Hope this helps!

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Hello! Is it possible to increase the maximum queue wait time beyond 60 min?

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Brandon Tidd

Zendesk LuminaryUser Group LeaderThe Humblident Award - 2021Community Moderator

Hey Soleil Tacher Unfortunately, this is not possible - nor do I know of any end-users that are willing to wait on hold for longer than 60 minutes.  The best practice here would be for a voicemail to be offered.  The only other option (not recommended) would be to overflow to a secondary Talk number, which would ‘reset’ the hold time.  That being said, I would encourage you to look at finding ways to perhaps use Zendesk's AI and self-service tooling to reduce the volume of inbound calls, which might alleviate your need to increase the queue wait time.  Hope this helps!

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