Configuring voicemail options


When you can't answer calls, there's built-in voicemail. When customers leave a voicemail, a ticket is created with the voicemail attached. Additionally, you can optionally transcribe the voicemail right into the ticket.


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When you can't answer calls, there's built-in voicemail. When customers leave a voicemail, a
ticket is created with the voicemail attached. Additionally, you can optionally transcribe the
voicemail right into the ticket.
Customers can leave a voicemail of up to two minutes in length.
This article contains the following topics:

Considerations for voicemail
Configuring voicemail settings
Managing greetings when voicemail is off
Managing voicemail settings with business hours applied



Considerations for voicemail

If you don’t actively monitor voicemail on a line, consider turning voicemail off to
prevent customers from leaving messages that won’t be reviewed. If you disable voicemail,
make sure your greeting doesn’t instruct callers to leave a message. See Managing greetings when voicemail is
off.
For example, lines used primarily for outbound calls are often not monitored for voicemail. For those
lines, turning voicemail off helps avoid unattended messages.



Configuring voicemail settings



In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Talk and email > Talk.
Select the Lines tab.
Click the line you want to edit voicemail settings for, then select the
Voicemail tab.
Configure the settings you need from the following table:








Setting
Description




Voicemail
Turn voicemail on or off. By default, voicemail is on. For details, see
Managing greetings when voicemail is off below.


Greeting (voicemail on)
Select the greeting that customers hear when voicemail is on. This option
is shown only when voicemail is on.


Greeting (voicemail off)
Select the greeting that customers hear when voicemail is off. This
option is shown only when voicemail is off. For details, see Managing greetings when voicemail is off below. If voicemail is off,
make sure to use a greeting that doesn't instruct customers to leave a
message. For details on creating greetings, see Creating a custom
greeting.



Transcribe voicemails?
Convert voice messages to text and add them to the ticket conversation.
The language support for voice messages
and call recordings is the same.


Delete voicemails
Automatically delete voicemails after the selected amount of time or
select Never to always keep voicemails. Although voicemails get
deleted from a ticket, any associated transcriptions aren't
deleted.











Managing greetings when voicemail is off

When you disable voicemail for a number, customers won't have the option of leaving a
message. Accordingly, greetings that usually prompt customers to leave a message need to
change when voicemail is off.



Available agents greeting

The default Available agents greeting, which is located in the Settings tab of each number, prompts
customers to press 1 to leave a message. When you disable voicemail for a number, Zendesk
automatically updates the Available agents greeting for when voicemail is off to a version
without the prompt for customers to leave a message (the voicemail off greeting).
If you disable voicemail for a number, the voicemail off greeting is played when callers
connect. If the caller presses 1 while this message is being played, the message will
restart.
The Available agents greeting only applies to group routing. If you have IVR on, the
available agents greeting won't be played. See Routing incoming calls to groups of agents and Routing incoming calls with IVR.

Note: This behavior applies to newly-added numbers only. For numbers added prior to the
availability of voicemail disabling: When voicemail is disabled for the first time, the
Available agents greeting is replaced with the Available agents greeting you have set for
voicemail on. Make sure you change your greeting to a version that doesn't prompt
customers to leave a message.
If you want to change the Available agents greeting to a custom version without the
prompt for customers to leave a message, you can create your own version (see Managing outgoing greetings) and then manually change it
yourself following the steps below.
To manually change the Available agents greeting for a number to a custom
version

In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Talk and email > Talk.
Select the Lines tab.
Click on the line you've disabled voicemail for that you want to edit.
In the Settings tab, select your customized version in the Available agents
greeting (voicemail off) field.





Managing voicemail settings with business hours applied

When you apply one or more schedules to call routing, you'll see multiple versions of the
following settings:
Voicemail
Greeting (voicemail on)
Greeting (voicemail off)



For details, see Routing calls based on business hours.


