Using emergency calling

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<div class="note fastpath" style="margin-right: 0px;">
<span class="fastpathtitle">Location: </span> <span class="ph">Admin Center &gt; Channels &gt; Talk and email &gt; Talk</span>
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<p class="p">In certain countries, you can make emergency calls from Zendesk.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">This article includes these sections:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="id_4408835710618__ul_cdb_225_vrb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_usx_rc5_vrb">About emergency calling</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_u2w_yzv_hsb">Associating an emergency address with a Zendesk phone number (US and Canada numbers only)</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_aq2_sd5_vrb">Testing emergency calling (US and Canada numbers only)</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_v4l_5d5_vrb">Making an emergency call</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_dj4_vj1_f5b">Sending an emergency text</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_wbg_vj1_f5b">Contacting the US National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (988)</a></li>
</ul>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_usx_rc5_vrb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">About emergency calling</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Emergency calling is available in some countries (United States, Canada,
the UK, Australia, Ireland, France, Germany, and Austria), enabling outbound calls
to be made to emergency services (for example, 911, 999, and 112). In the event of
an emergency, agents can quickly get in contact with emergency services using the
call console.</p>
<p class="p">In the event that an emergency address is not registered to a US or Canada based
number, 911 calls are routed to a national emergency call center. A trained agent at
the emergency call center asks for the caller’s name, phone number, and location.
Then, they transfer the caller to the appropriate local Public Safety Answering
Point (PSAP) or otherwise determine the best way to provide emergency services. If
you make a 911 call from a US or Canada phone number that does not have an
associated emergency address, Zendesk reserves the right to pass the associated fee
onto you.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">In all cases, you should use traditional telephony for making emergency
calls, if possible. Emergency calling in Zendesk is Internet-based and is different
and limited compared to traditional land line or cellular services. For example, it
may be unavailable due to loss of power, Internet connectivity, technical
infeasibility, suspension of services due to billing issues, Zendesk outage, or an
outage within your network, or the network of our underlying provider or their
carriers. </p>
<div class="note note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> You can only dial emergency services if outbound calling is enabled for your phone
numbers. Emergency calling in Zendesk does not include access to non-emergency help
lines, such as Harmonised Services of Social Value in the EU. It is only technically
feasible for Zendesk to enable emergency calling in countries where Twilio,
Zendesk’s voice services provider, supports it. Therefore, emergency calling is
available only in the supported countries. </div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_u2w_yzv_hsb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Associating an emergency address with a Zendesk phone number (US and Canada numbers only)</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">In the US and Canada, Zendesk supports <a class="xref" href="https://www.fcc.gov/general/enhanced-9-1-1-wireless-services" target="_blank">Enhanced 911</a> (E911). With E911, an
emergency address can be associated with any US or Canada based phone number. Calls
made from numbers with an associated emergency address are routed directly to the
local Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) serving the address. The call
automatically includes the caller’s phone number and corresponding address
information for the 911 dispatcher answering the call. </p>
<p class="p">Associating an emergency address with a phone number incurs a monthly fee per phone
number. This monthly fee is charged by the state and/or local government to fund
their emergency response systems and is passed on to you by Zendesk as part of your
usage charges.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr"><strong class="ph b">To associate an emergency address to a US or Canada phone number in
Zendesk</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_u2w_yzv_hsb__ol_j2q_5c5_vrb">
<li class="li"><span class="ph">In <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4581766374554#topic_hfg_dyz_1hb" target="_blank">Admin Center</a>, click <img class="image" id="topic_u2w_yzv_hsb__d8e872" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_channels_icon.png">
<strong class="ph b">Channels</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Talk and email &gt; Talk</strong>.</span></li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Click the <strong class="ph b">Lines</strong> tab, then find the phone line you want to edit
and open it.<p class="p">You can only add an emergency address to a U.S. or Canada phone
number. Only one emergency address can be associated with a phone number at
a given time.</p>
</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">On the <strong class="ph b">Settings</strong> tab (of the phone line), scroll down to the
<strong class="ph b">Emergency Address</strong> section, and then click the <strong class="ph b">Add address</strong>
button.<p class="p" dir="ltr"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_u2w_yzv_hsb__image_s3d_bl5_vrb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/talk_emergency_add_address.png" width="500"></p>
</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Enter the physical address you want to associate with the phone line
or, if you have previously entered the address, then select it from the dropdown
list.<p class="p">This address may be used to dispatch police, fire, emergency medical
and other emergency response resources. The address you enter is passed
through an emergency address validation system and you may receive a
suggested address, if a better match is found in the database.</p>
<div class="note note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> In
the US and Canada, the address must be recognized by the Master Street
Address Guide (MSAG) database. The MSAG address often differs from the
equivalent US Postal Service address because the MSAG uses the community
name (township, city, county) from where the closest responding PSAP will
come.</div>
</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">If prompted, confirm that you want to proceed with the suggested
address. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Make sure you click <strong class="ph b">Save changes</strong> before you leave the page.
<p class="p">The address moves into the Pending registration state. </p>
<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_u2w_yzv_hsb__image_rdm_cl5_vrb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/talk_emergency_pending_reg.png" width="500"></p>
<p class="p">Once registration of the emergency address to the phone number is
complete, the status associated with the emergency address changes to
Registered. It can take up to five minutes for the status of the emergency
address to change. </p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_u2w_yzv_hsb__image_b4z_dl5_vrb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/talk_emergency_registered_address.png" width="500"></p>
</li>
</ol>
<div class="note note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> To remove an emergency address from a phone number,
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408843597850" target="_blank">contact Zendesk Customer
Support</a>.</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested1" id="topic_aq2_sd5_vrb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title4">Testing emergency calling (US and Canada numbers only)</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">If you want to check that your account has been properly configured for emergency
calling, you can make a test call by dialing 933. You'll be connected to an
automated system that reads back the phone number that you’re calling from, along
with the address associated with that number. </p>
<p class="p">This must be done sparingly. Some localities require you to schedule emergency test
calls in advance and will charge penalties otherwise. You should check with your
local authorities before placing any unscheduled emergency call tests.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr"><strong class="ph b">To place a live emergency test call to 911</strong></p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">You can place a test call to verify the information that the emergency
responder receives. Call 911 then use the following script.</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_aq2_sd5_vrb__ul_bkj_sd5_vrb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">"Hello, this is not an emergency call. This is a test. Do you have a
moment to verify my emergency information or can we schedule a later time to do
so?"</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">"Can you verify the address that you received for my call?" Confirm
that this matches your intended emergency address.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">"Can you verify the telephone number you received for my call?"
Confirm that this matches the phone number that you called from.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">"Thank you for your time."</li>
</ul>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">If for any reason the address read back to you is incorrect, <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408843597850" target="_blank">contact Zendesk Customer Support</a>.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested1" id="topic_v4l_5d5_vrb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title5">Making an emergency call</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Making an emergency call is similar to making any other <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408836235162-Making-outbound-calls#topic_orv_t31_5hb" target="_blank">outbound call in the call console</a>. The
only important difference is that you do not need to enter the country code (for
example, +1). </p>
<div class="p" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">To initiate a US emergency call</strong><ul class="ul" id="topic_v4l_5d5_vrb__ul_svg_zqb_z2c">
<li class="li">In the call console, dial <strong class="ph b">911</strong>, then click <strong class="ph b">Call</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p">You can only dial emergency services in the country associated with your selected
outbound number. For example, if you want to call US emergency services, the
outbound number selected in the call console must be a US based phone number. If,
for example, you had a French based phone number selected as the outbound number, a
call to US emergency services (911) would not connect.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title6" class="topic nested1" id="topic_dj4_vj1_f5b">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title6">Sending an emergency text</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Agents can send proactive text messages to emergency phone numbers where available.
For help creating proactive text messages, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882005402-Using-Text-notifications-with-triggers-Recipes-and-tips#topic_arl_s33_xhb" target="_blank">Using Text notifications with triggers: Recipes
and tips</a>.</p>
<p class="p">In addition to the steps in the article, you'll need to create an end user with a
short code emergency number (for example 911, 999, or 988). You'll then specify that
user as the requester when you sent a proactive message from a ticket.</p>
<p class="p">Additionally, ensure that the setting <strong class="ph b">Validate users phone numbers</strong> is
unchecked (in Admin Center under <strong class="ph b">People</strong> &gt; <strong class="ph b">Configuration</strong> &gt; <strong class="ph b">End
users</strong>). If this setting is enabled, the users phone number must be in <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408823756570" target="_blank">E.164 format</a> meaning that short code numbers such as 911
will not validate and cannot be used.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title7" class="topic nested1" id="topic_wbg_vj1_f5b">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title7">Contacting the US National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (988)</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">In the event of a mental or emotional health emergency, agents can contact the US
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (988) using the call console. The 988 Suicide
&amp; Crisis Lifeline is a national network of local crisis centers that provides
free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional
distress 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the United States. <a class="xref" href="https://988lifeline.org/" target="_blank">Find more
information about the 988 Suicide &amp; Crisis Lifeline</a>.</p>
<p class="p">The same <a class="xref" href="#topic_usx_rc5_vrb">restrictions and
recommendations</a> that apply to calling US emergency services (911) also
apply to calling 988.</p>
</div>
</div>
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