Routing incoming calls to agents

<body>
<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">Zendesk voice routes incoming calls to human agents using the routing configuration on each phone line. You can use group routing to send calls to one or more groups, oromnichannel routingto route calls through queues and routing rules.</p>
<div class="article-banners">
<div id="docs-wmp-link">
<a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5411234991258-plan" rel="noopener" target="_blank">What's my plan?</a>
</div>

<div class="article-banner" id="suite_all">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<strong>All Suites</strong>
</td>
<td>Team, Growth, Professional, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>

<div class="article-banner" id="support_with_talk_all">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<strong>Support with</strong>
</td>
<td>Talk Team, Professional, or Enterprise</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>

</div>
<div id="docs-ai-summary">
<p id="docs-ai-summary-toggle">Summary: <span id="up-triangle">◀</span><span id="down-triangle">▼</span></p>
<p id="docs-ai-summary-content">You can route incoming calls on each phone line to specific agent groups, or leave them open to all available agents. If you select multiple groups, you set a default group for first routing and voicemails, while the other groups share the call pool based on availability. This helps you control call routing, group assignment, and voicemail handling, with options for IVR or omnichannel routing when available.</p>
</div>

<div class="body">

<p class="p">Zendesk voice routes incoming calls to human agents using the routing configuration on each
phone line. You can use group routing to send calls to one or more groups, or <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409149119514" target="_blank">omnichannel routing</a> to route calls through queues and routing
rules.</p>
<p class="p">If your plan includes it, you can also use IVR to let callers choose a destination with key
presses. For details, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408885628698" target="_blank">Routing incoming calls with IVR</a>.</p>
<p class="p">You can optionally assign a <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10169333291290" target="_blank">voice AI agent</a> to a phone line. The AI agent answers calls before
they are routed to human agents. If the AI agent resolves the caller's request, no human-agent
routing is needed. If it escalates the call, the phone line's configured routing takes over.
If you don't assign an AI agent to the line, calls follow your existing routing
configuration.</p>
<p class="p">This article contains the following topics:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="id_4408885952922__ul_group_routing_topics">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_group_routing">Using group routing</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_voice_ai_agent_group_routing">Using a voice AI agent with group routing</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_group_routing">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Using group routing</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Use group routing to route incoming calls to agents in one or more selected groups.</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To route calls to specific groups</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_group_routing__ol_hw2_jbr_rx">
<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_group_routing__image_o2w_j3c_ksb" 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">Click the <strong class="ph b">Lines</strong> tab.</li>
<li class="li">Click the number you want to edit.</li>
<li class="li">Click the <strong class="ph b">Routing</strong> tab.</li>
<li class="li">In the <strong class="ph b">Group Routing</strong> section, select one or more groups to route calls to. If you
don't enable a group, calls are routed to all available agents.<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_group_routing__image_jhp_nbr_rx" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/voice_grouprouting1.png" width="400"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">If you chose more than one group, also choose a default group from the drop-down menu
next to <strong class="ph b">Default group</strong>. Calls are routed to the default group first if agents in
that group are available. If no agents from any of the selected groups are available,
resulting voicemails are also assigned to the default group.<p class="p">When three or more groups
are selected, there is no hierarchy to the non-default groups. All voice channel agents
in those groups are put into a single assignment pool. Call routing is determined by an
agent's online status.</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_group_routing__image_bks_4br_rx" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/voice_defaultgroup.png"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">When you are finished, click <strong class="ph b">Save changes</strong>.</li>
</ol>
<div class="note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> If <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408831738266#topic_zwp_syc_yt" target="_blank">call recording is enabled</a>, recording continues after you transfer a call internally (to
another agent or group) or externally (to an end-user or external number).</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_voice_ai_agent_group_routing">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Using a voice AI agent with group routing</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/11179614475162" target="_blank">Connecting a voice AI agent to a phone line</a> doesn't change its
group-routing settings. The AI agent is the first responder, and group routing is used only
if the AI agent escalates the call.</p>
<p class="p">For Talk-native routing, an AI agent can update the ticket's <strong class="ph b">Group</strong> field before it
escalates the call. The updated group takes precedence over the groups configured on the
phone line. If the AI agent doesn't update the <strong class="ph b">Group</strong> field, the call follows the
phone line's group-routing configuration, including its default group when one is
configured.</p>
<p class="p">With omnichannel routing, the phone line's group-routing configuration isn't used after
escalation. Instead, omnichannel routing uses ticket fields updated by the AI agent, such as
<strong class="ph b">Group</strong> or <strong class="ph b">Skills</strong>, together with your configured queues and routing rules.
Omnichannel routing doesn't route the call while the AI agent is handling it; it begins
after escalation.</p>
</div>
</div>
<script id="docs-schema-markup" type="application/ld+json">{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "TechArticle",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408885952922",
"url": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408885952922",
"headline": "Routing incoming calls to agents",
"description": "You configure incoming call routing on a phone line by choosing group routing, optional IVR, or a voice AI agent, then saving the settings that send calls to the right agents or queues.",
"articleSection": "Managing your voice channel",
"datePublished": "2021-10-16T16:04:17+00:00",
"dateModified": "2026-09-01T12:54:31.218643+00:00",
"inLanguage": "en",
"mainEntityOfPage": {
"@type": "WebPage",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408885952922"
},
"author": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com"
},
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com"
},
"isPartOf": {
"@type": "WebSite",
"name": "Zendesk Help",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/"
},
"about": {
"@type": "SoftwareApplication",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com",
"softwareAddOn": {
"@type": "SoftwareApplication",
"name": "Voice",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/4405298861722"
}
}
}</script><script id="ai-summary-script">
//<![CDATA[
const ai_summary_style = document.createElement('style');
ai_summary_style.innerHTML = `#styled-article-body{padding:0 0 0}#article-body #docs-ai-summary{background-color:#f3f3f3;border:1px solid #d3d3d3;padding:10px 10px 6px;margin-bottom:16px}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-toggle{font-size:.9em;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:4px;cursor:pointer;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-toggle #up-triangle{margin-left:auto;padding-right:10px;display:none}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-toggle #down-triangle{margin-left:auto;padding-right:10px}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-content{font-size:.9em;padding-left:25px;padding-right:25px;margin-bottom:12px}`;
document.head.appendChild(ai_summary_style);

const toggleAISummary = () => {
const summary = document.getElementById("docs-ai-summary-content");
const upTriangle = document.getElementById("up-triangle");
const downTriangle = document.getElementById("down-triangle");
if (summary.style.display === "none") {
summary.style.display = "block";
upTriangle.style.display = "none";
downTriangle.style.display = "inline";
} else {
summary.style.display = "none";
upTriangle.style.display = "inline";
downTriangle.style.display = "none";
}
};

document.getElementById("docs-ai-summary-toggle").addEventListener("click", toggleAISummary);
//]]>
</script>
</body>