Managing the Phone in Zendesk

One of the unique traits of Zendesk is that it brings emails, live chats, phone calls, and text messages into one place so that agents can manage them easily. This article will focus on how to manage the phone feature in Zendesk to be available for phone calls, phone call tickets, and other key features. 

Setting Your Availability

As an agent, one of your responsibilities is to answer phone calls from customers about LMS fixes, invoicing, and other questions. When you log in to Zendesk, it will bring up the Agent Workspace. Here, you can manage all your tickets, including phone calls.

In the top right corner of the screen, you will find the phone icon. By clicking on it, you can set your availability the drop down menu. There are four settings for availability that an you can choose from including offline, away, transfer only, and online. Only when your phone is set to online will you receive calls from the queue.

An agent who sets their availability to offline or away will not receive calls. Additionally, team leads or managers can set up their phones to transfer only to be available for questions and issues that specifically require their attention. Keep in mind that agents should only transfer calls when it is absolutely necessary.

Receiving a Call

Generally, your availability should be set to online so you are always available to answer the phone  during business hours. Calls are assigned to agents based on their order in the queue. When a call is received, it is routed to the next available agent.  

When a call comes in, Zendesk will alert the agent by opening a window at the top of their screen. By clicking accept, the agent can begin speaking with the customer. However, if the agent isn't available, they can click decline, and the call will be rerouted to another available agent. After accepting a call, Zendesk will automatically create a ticket that saves the customer's phone number and an audio recording of the conversation.

Note: When all agents are available, Zendesk will assign calls based on which agent took the most recent call. If there are no agents available, the customer will be put on hold until an agent becomes available. Customers on hold can leave a call back number by pressing two on their phone at any time while waiting in the queue. 

Once you accept a phone call, you should see a newly created ticket similar to the one shown below. Here, you can review the customer's information if they are a returning customer. If it is the customer's first time calling, you should take time during the call to write down the caller's name, business, state/province, city, and the reason for their call.

This information can also be filled in later at the agent's earliest convenience from the call recording. Do your best to get this information during the call, but if you do forget an important detail you can always give them a call back.

Note: This image is an example of a returning customer. As you can see the agent who took the call was thorough in filling out the customer's info so that they could remember important details about the company, contact info, and more. 

When you have answered a call, a column should appear on the left side of the screen that has placeholders to help you input important information regarding the caller, usually the name of the company or individual. In the column to the right, you can include other information like the caller's email address, city, country, and preferred language. There is also be a space where you can add notes about who the main contact is for that caller's particular company. 

The interactions list in the bottom of the column to the right will show previous communications or contact with the customer. This will help you communicate with customers more effectively and identify any recurring problems they may be experiencing. 

Lastly, at the bottom of the center column, you can use the internal notes section as a workspace for taking detailed notes. Generally, you should use the AA - Call Template macro to record important customer information. The information in this macro should be added later to the caller's ticket as shown in the photo above.

Call Controls

During a call, agents will have some useful controls at their disposal. In total, there are five buttons shown below that an agent can use. Starting from the left, these include record, mute, put call on hold, transfer, and hang up.

Record

Reviewing recorded calls can help you remember important information that you may have forgotten during the conversation. Recording conversations also helps managers and team leads give feedback to agents on how they can better serve customers. Zendesk should alert customers upon calling the office that the call may be recorded. If you have to discuss sensitive information such as payment or banking details during the call, you can turn off the recording function for security purposes.

Mute

Muting your side of the call is helpful for when you need to ask your coworkers or team lead a question during the conversation or verify that they have helped this customer in the past. The mute function can also be used for simple things such as when you need to cough and sneeze. Whatever the circumstances, don't forget to unmute yourself afterward, so that you can maintain a professional atmosphere throughout the call.

Put Call on Hold

If you need more time to help a customer, you may consider putting them on hold. Be sure to let the caller know beforehand and only use this for relatively short periods times. If you think it will take longer than 10 minutes to resolve an issue, it is probably better to ask ask the caller if you can call them back when you have found a solution. Putting customers on hold will direct them to the wait lobby where they will listen to some great music.

Transfer Call

As we stated previously, there is an option to transfer the call if a customer is difficult, requests a manager, or if they have a question that requires someone with more experience. To transfer the call, select the transfer call button near the hang up button on the right. You can then route the call to another agent or team lead by clicking on their name. Always do your best to help the customer before transferring them.

End Call

To end a call, an agent can click the red hang up button on the right. Hanging up the phone will save the audio of the call inside the ticket for the agent to review. The agent can then update the status of the call at the bottom right of the page.

If the agent still needs to finish the customer's request, they can mark the call as open or pending. However, marking the call as open will make it more clear that the agent still needs to follow up with the caller. You should typically mark the call as pending if you are waiting to hear back from the caller. A call can be marked as solved after you have successfully resolved the customer's problem or question. 

Making a Call

There are a variety of reasons that you may need to make a call. You will often have to call customers to inform them that a task or request was completed. You may also need to contact customers for overdue invoices.

To make an outgoing call, click on the phone button in the top right corner near your profile picture. In the bottom right of the availability window, there is a three by three grid in the bottom right as shown in the picture below. Clicking here will open the number pad you can use to dial outgoing calls.

Zendesk can remember phone numbers that have contacted the office previously. By filling out the customer's info when they call the office, you will help future agents ensure they call the right customers. If a phone number isn't found in Zendesk, you can also search for it in QuickBooks, a branch manager's account, or in Stripe if no other sources are available. 

Remember, while on the phone, you are representing Safety Provisions. Do your best to be professional, kind, patient, and knowledgeable about your work. Do not be afraid to ask for help from your coworkers or managers if you don't know the answer to a question. If you ever have difficulties with a customer, do your best to see things from their perspective.

For more specifics about managing the phone in Zendesk or some common questions you will encounter from customers, consult your manager, coworkers, or the FAQ section in the Zendesk Help Center under Customer Support.