Can I route calls to all agents, or to specific individual agents?

Question

Can I choose which agents get a Zendesk Talk call?

Answer

Talk uses a round-robin cycle for routing calls to agents, so there is no native way to route certain calls to a specific agent profile. Unlike in Chat and Support, skills-based routing is not available for Talk.

It is also not possible to have Talk offer the same call to all agents at one time. New calls are routed first to the agent that is available for the longest time, with the longest time elapsed since they last answered a call. If declined or missed, the call is then offered to the agent who is available for the next longest time since they last answered a call, and will continue like that until the call has been answered or ended.

Depending on your plan type, you may be able to leverage the potential workarounds below.

Group Routing

With group routing, specify that a call to a specific number is routed to a specific group of agents. This allows you to have dedicated numbers for each group of customers, so that when they call their dedicated line their calls are only offered to their own customer support agents. For more information, see the article: Routing incoming calls to groups of agents.

IVR Routing

With IVR routing, use the different options in your menu to route calls to specific agent groups. For example, if the customer presses 2 for Billing and Invoices, route that call to agent groups with the relevant knowledge. For more information, see the article: Routing incoming calls with IVR.

Single-Agent Groups

It is possible to have single-agent groups for routing calls to, allowing you to route calls to just one agent. Be aware that this could cause a poor experience for the customer, as, if that agent is not available, and no additional agent groups were selected for routing, they will be directed to voicemail or have their call ended after only a short wait time.

Omnichannel routing

Set up omnichannel routing to create unified agent statuses and direct emails, calls and messaging tickets to agents based on their capacity and availability. Admins with the appropriate Explore permissions can monitor live activity. See this article: About omnichannel routing.

Note: Omnichanel routing is the default routing experience for all accounts and trial customers of Zendesk Suite created after December 11, 2024.