Recent searches


No recent searches

Zendesk Voice: New call notification through speakers, call through headset

Answered


Posted Apr 20, 2012

Our support people don't have their headsets on all of the time and are often flipping between applications -- meaning they don't always have Zendesk on-screen.

To use the audio through the browser, the notification "ring" AND the audio from the caller goes to the Windows default speaker. The Flash configuration pop-up only lets you choose your mic, but not your speaker. So, you can either have that audio go to the computer speaker or to the headset. Here's the problem:

  1. You don't want to wear a headset just for the mic, but have the caller's audio come through the speakers.

  2. If you pick headset as your default Windows speaker, then you don't hear the call notification "ring" unless you're always wearing your headset or always staring at Zendesk -- which we aren't.

That means for us, I can't find a way to use Zendesk voice because there's no good way to know when a call comes in.

Even if the pop-up happened in a way that would come up on the user's desktop, it could work. But it's only in that one browser window that's running Zendesk. If they aren't looking at it, they won't see that, either.

If someone has ideas on how to address this otherwise, let me know, since we'd love to use the voice features!


40

107

107 comments

+1

We have the same concern.

Agents often step away from their desk to configure hardware etc. they do not always go offline from Chat, especially when they only plan to be away for one minute.

 

0


A possible solution that we are now using is 'SoundSwitch' - a small freebie app on Github. You set up a shortcut key to switch between audio from speakers and audio on headset, and you can switch at any time.

So we leave the audio output on speaker and then press Ctrl-F1 when a call comes in.

It does mean we have to remember to press Ctrl-F1 at the end of the call to turn speakers back on, but overall it is quick and easy to use.

0


I found a device called Kuando Busylight it has a speaker and a light. It's marketed to work with skype4B , lync and cisco jabber. It might work with zendesk as well, this could be a solution.

0


I asked Kuando Busylight whether they integrate with Zendesk Talk - this is their response...

 

 

-------

Busylight Support Team (Kuando Busylight)

Sep 19, 15:13 CEST

Hi Peter

The Busylight can play a ring tone on a incoming call, which is handled by the Busylight software or Busylight SDK running on the local machine.


We have not previously looked at integrating with Zendesk Talk, but reading through their documentation, it does not seem possible today.

In order for a integration between the Busylight software and Zendesk to be built, we would need to receive an event from zendesk, that there is a incoming call.

Looking through Zendesk Talk API documentation, it does not seem possible to receive such an event.

They do seem to support sending an event through setting up a trigger and notifying a HTTP target endpoint in the Zendesk web UI. 
But a ticket is first created when the agent accepts the incoming call and triggers are only executed when a ticket is created or updated.

It might be possible to do an integration in the future, if Zendesk exapnds their API to include an incoming call event.

Let me know if you have any questions.


Best regards
Jesper Brovang, The Busylight Team

0


+1

This is basic functionality when handling phone calls.

We are using our headsets with several browser based conference call applications as well as Skype for business, Skype, Google Hangouts and Facebook Messenger (Both browser based and through applications). The common denominator is that it is possible to route the new call notification through external speakers without switching sound devices manually from headset to external speakers and back again. If not native so with an application in the taskbar handling this.

When are this basic functionality landing in Zendesk talk?

1


image avatar

Nicole Saunders

Zendesk Community Manager

Hey Lars - 

I'll flag this for the Talk Product Managers to review next week. Sit tight for a few days and we'll get an update from them mid-week. 

-1


Any news on the review @Nicole?

We've recently moved over to Zendesk Talk and our acceptance rates have tanked as the team aren't always sat there with their headsets on to know when a call is coming through... big concern for us here.

0


We've solved this problem by using a Kuando busy light and Cisco Jabber. All our agents have a light on their desk to indicate their status (syncs with IM precence) we can now see if their on the phone, or available. Also the light as a speaker built in so it rings in the headset and on the light. 

To use this set up you only need to have a light and cisco jabber available to you. You just need to route calls to "desk phone" instead of taking them via the browser. The the twist is that the desk phone is a jabber line so the zendesk call gets interpreted as a normal call to a desk phone therefore making the light ring and respond.

 

Hope this helps

0


image avatar

Caroline Kello

Zendesk Product Manager

Hi all,

I can absolutely see the benefit of the functionality that’s being described here, it might be especially beneficial to smaller teams who are away from their desks during the day but are still available to take calls and need to be made aware of these. This functionality isn't something that we're currently thinking of addressing natively, but the feedback is appreciated as is the added insight into your use cases. 

Cheers, Caroline

0


Gabriel, Thanks for the solution!!!

Finally a solution, have been waiting for this for long time now

How can you route calls to "desk phone", is that an app or physical desk phone?

Thank you 

0


John, 

Glad this helped. Just follow this tutorial on setting up desk phone to take calls in ZD. The forward number needs to be your Jabber associated line for this to work.

Cheers

0


Hi all,

Is this a solution that could work if we don’t have Jabber?

Our acceptance rates have tanked since moving to Zendesk Talk, so much so that we’re considering reverting back to our old provider as we were on 80% acceptance and are about 40% - we’re addressing staff training on availability but for Zendesk to not have a native ring out loud feature is pretty fundamentally flawed and if it’s going to cost us a fair amount of money for the “available lights” and Jabber on top it’s probably wiser for us to revert.

Is there not a long term plan for native functionality @Zendesk folks? Or even the ability for calls to ring simultaneously on everyone’s phones to avoid missed calls??

0


Any alternatives for a team with a Mac set-up and previously using RingCentral?

0


The Cisco Jabber (+ light) is a nice solution, but am I correct in thinking that we will not see the incoming callers number in the jabber window, just the Talk number?

I also suspect that this might get charged as two calls (customer IN, Talk OUT). Our phone volumes are now very low compared to email/web so this is not necessarily a deal breaker.

But has anyone used an alternative to Talk that addresses these issues? I think I may have seen a Jabber plug-in!

0


The Zendesk Talk functionality is highly lacking. 

Other browser based talk systems (even free Google Talk) have configurations to send different sounds to different audio devices so we all know it's possible.

 

Other missing components are triggers based on phone number called and phone number SMS'd. 

 

Resources need to be put on Talk for a little while.

 

Zendesk themselves don't take very many calls but we use Zendesk for inbound sales and calls are hot leads that cannot be missed.

 

Whether it's windows application or browser based, there needs to be a way to both separate the sounds for calls as well as use headset answer/hangup buttons.

 

0


I don't usually wear my headset on coz we don't have much calls. Before, I can hear the ring on my laptop speakers when calls come in, but last Friday and today, it stopped working. I can't hear the ring anymore. Does anyone knows what happen and help me out. I am using a Lenovo Ideapad 310 Core i5 

0


image avatar

Stephen Belleau

Zendesk LuminaryCommunity Moderator

@Elizabeth our agents experienced this recently as well. It seems to be a conflict with Symantec Endpoint Protection chrome extension. We're still looking into it!

EDIT: never mind, not an extension problem actually. Zendesk support just said to us that 

 
With the most recent update of Chrome, we have received reports of and are experiencing ourselves this same issue. This is related to changes in Google's restrictions around their auto-play policies. The currently recommended workaround is to go to chrome://flags and search for autoplay, and change the setting from Default to "No user gesture required"

0


Thanks @Stephen. Will definitely try that and give you updates. Appreciate your help.

 

0


@Elizabeth (or @Stephen), do you have a solution that allows Talk agents to hear incoming calls ringing through the PC speaker and then handle the calls via headset? Any details would be much appreciated 

 

0


Hi @Russel. We have not tried that though and I don't think that Talk have that capability yet, I can be mistaken though. @Stephen, it worked perfectly, I can hear the ring on my laptop speakers now. Thanks again.

 

0


Thank you anyway @Elizabeth.

So when a call comes in via Talk, we switch from PC speaker to headset using a little util called SoundSwitch. It is OK, but we have to remember to switch back after a call.

How do you handle your incoming calls after they ring on your PC speaker?

0


Oh, just good old plug/replug the headset. Again, we don't get a lot of calls, max of 3-5 per day only.

0


@elizabeth - Ok, understand now. Basically the manual version of what we do with Soundswitch.

 

0


Any progress with this as this is a concern for us before we migrate to talk and may be the deciding factor to stay with ring central.

0


+1 for this functionality, implementing this into a call center that is seasonal, during the slow season, they may be in a different tab or not have the headset on, it would be great to have the option for the alert to go thru main computer speakers. 

0


+1! Shocked that this feature still hasn't been implemented. For a large call centre like ours, it's really important that agents can hear when a call comes through without having their headset glued to their head!

 

Seems like a rudimental option that all telephony software should have, right?

0


I know there hasn't been any action since the official response a year ago but I wanted to throw in my vote for this feature that is desperately needed.

As noted in the response, small teams like the one I manage systems for needs this feature as they're not always at their desk. And asking them to always wear their headsets (which at least are wireless) is something I really didn't want to burden them with.

1


Has there been any kind of update on this function - @nicole

1


Echoing we had a call center simulation today, and lacking this sound preferences feature, call workstation handling is cumbersome and inefficient.

0


adding my voice to this one. 
a desktop app linked to zendesk should be an easy way to trigger an external sound when an incoming call happens 

1


Please sign in to leave a comment.

Didn't find what you're looking for?

New post