Why are phone calls not routing to agents?

Issue symptoms

Talk phone calls don't route correctly to agents. Examples of call behavior include:

Agents are available, but the message No support agents are currently available displays

Calls are in the queue, but the agent doesn't receive them or can't accept the calls

Calls don't route evenly among all agents in a group

Calls go straight to voicemail

Calls dial out from the wrong number

Resolution steps

To address call routing issues in Talk, follow the steps below.

Step 1: Check for a service incident

Visit the Zendesk status page to check if the problem is from a service incident for Talk or Support, which may affect calls.

Step 2: Check your Talk settings

Review your Admin Center settings for Talk:

Navigate to your phone line settings and ensure that you check the Enable Talk setting

Identify how you route calls. The two main ways to route calls are through group routing or an IVR menu. Check to make sure that the Talk line has a group destination set up to receive calls.

Confirm if the call came in outside your business hours, as this may affect routing based on the time the customer called

Your maximum queue wait time may be set too low. Try to set the maximum queue wait time to 5 minutes. If your queue frequently maxes out, set a priority line to help manage traffic.

Check if you have phone numbers associated with specific brands in the account, which can change call routing behaviors:

When you place calls from an existing ticket, the system uses the first number listed under the Lines tab in Admin Center

If a phone call didn't create the ticket, the system uses the first phone line of the brand associated with the ticket

If you do have phone numbers associated with specific brands, manually enter the number in the dial pad and select the preferred outgoing Talk number to place the call

Note: If you have omnichannel routing activated, this may affect the call routing behavior. For more information, see Using omnichannel routing to route calls.

Step 3: Check the affected agent's role and availability

Confirm that your agent has permission to use Talk and that they're available to receive calls:

All Talk agents need to have a Team Lead or Agent role and must set their status to Online to receive calls. Agents with an admin role for Talk can't place or receive calls.

If focus mode is turned on and the agent is in an active chat ticket, the system may not serve them calls even if they're online. Deactivate focus mode to confirm if this causes the problem.

If you use unified agent statues, verify that your agent status has the appropriate Talk permissions. Check the agent status dashboard in Analytics to ensure that agents appear online for Talk calls.

Step 4: Check for browser or network problems

Call quality and routing issues may result from the browser setup or poor internet connection. Have the affected agents troubleshoot the issue:

Clear the browser's cache and cookies and make sure it's updated to the latest version

Use Zendesk in a new web browser or a different computer and determine if the same behavior occurs. Individual system settings or a virtual private network (VPN) may cause problems with call routing.

If you use Google Chrome, add your subdomain to the Always keep these sites active under Settings > Performance > General to keep Zendesk pages active

Step 5: If the problem persists, submit a ticket

Open a ticket with Zendesk Customer Support and provide the below information:

At least 3 examples of phone calls that didn't route as expected

The web browser and version that each affected agent uses

If the issue affects all agents or only specific agents or groups

A list of all affected agents. Instruct the affected agents to run a Twilio network test on their web browser and include a screenshot of the results. For more information, see How do I use the Twilio network test to troubleshoot Talk agent calls?