How are calls routed to my agents in Talk?

Question

What is the default way Talk routes calls to my agents?

Answer

Zendesk Talk routes a call to an agent based on both factors:

The agent with the longest time since they last answered a call

The agent appears online, which you can verify in the live data dashboard

Note: When you enable omnichannel routing, Talk uses different rules. Omnichannel routing is the default experience for all accounts and trial customers of Zendesk Suite created after December 11, 2024. For more information, see About omnichannel routing with unified agent status. If you enable custom unified agent statuses, Talk routes calls only to agents with permission to receive calls. You can also add a tag from specific IVR key presses in each ticket if you use omnichannel routing.

When agents sign in to Talk and go online, Talk prioritizes them for calls because they are the most recently available agents.

If an agent misses or declines a call, Talk routes the call to the next available agent. If all available agents miss or decline a call, the call goes to voicemail. An outbound call changes the time since the agent last answered a call.

If you enable omnichannel routing, Talk offers the call to the available agent repeatedly until the agent accepts it or the queue wait time expires. If voicemail is on, the call goes to voicemail; if voicemail is off, the call ends.

The default wait time before a call goes from one agent to the next is 30 seconds. Talk Enterprise customers can adjust the Call offering time limit. For details about Talk number settings, see Managing Talk line settings.

If a caller exceeds the Maximum queue wait time set in your account settings, the call may go to voicemail before Talk offers it to all agents. For details on Talk settings, see Enabling Talk and configuring general settings.

Finally, Talk does not route calls to all agents at the same time. This rule applies to all options, IVR included. You can segment options by routing incoming calls to groups of agents and by routing incoming calls with IVR.

Tip: If you use omnichannel routing, check the Zendesk Omnichannel: Agent state dashboard to understand how your agents spend their time.