| Announced on | Rollout starts | Rollout ends |
| June 12, 2024 | June 12, 2024 | June 12, 2024 |
Recently, we made three changes to the call console that affect how outbound calls are made. Each change is small on its own, but when combined, they greatly enhance the experience for Talk agents. We believe it's time to highlight these improvements.
What is changing?
Ability to change the outbound line before placing a call
Previously, when initiating a call from the ticket using the "Call <number>" option, the call would start right away. This made it easy to call back a customer with just one click, but it also meant that agents couldn't change the outbound line before making the call.
Now, when starting a call from a number — either in the ticket or from the user profile's phone number — the call console simply opens with the ticket requester's number populated on it, allowing the agent to select a different line before hitting the "Call" button. (Pro tip: users can also just press the 'enter' key when the call console is open to start the call)
The country code now matches the outbound line selected
Historically, the call console always defaulted to the U.S. country code (+1) when opened, so non-American customers had to change the country code every time they made a local call. Now, the country code defaults to the country of the line selected in the outbound lines dropdown.
For instance, let's say a customer has two phone lines — one in Australia (+61) and another in the United Kingdom (+44) — and the Australian line is currently selected as the active outbound line. When the call console is first opened, it defaults to the Australian country code (+61), since this is the country code of the line selected. If after placing a few local calls the agent switches to the UK line and places an international call to Ireland (+353), the call console remembers that choice and keeps +353 as the selected country code. However, once they refresh the page or open a new browser tab/window, the country code will revert to (+44), reflecting that the outbound line currently selected is now the UK number.
This is great news for all customers, especially for those who primarily make local calls within one country, as they will rarely need to change the country code.
The outbound line selector now allows searching
This is the biggest small change we’ve made. Finding a line by scrolling through the unsorted outbound line dropdown has always been a chore for customers with more than a handful of phone lines. Now, as most customers must have noted already, agents can simply start typing the number, name, or brand of the line, to filter down the list and instantly select the line they want to use. What a time saver!
Why is Zendesk making this change?
These changes represent the first of many improvements we plan to implement in the Talk call console in the coming months, aiming to enhance Talk agents' productivity. Stay tuned for more updates.
What do I need to do?
Nothing! All changes are live for all Talk customers.
If you have feedback or questions about this announcement, visit our community forum where we diligently collect and manage customer product feedback. For general assistance with your Zendesk products, contact Zendesk Customer Support.