Understanding how voice calls become tickets

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">Most calls automatically create a ticket. Use this article to understand how calls become tickets.</p>
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<p id="docs-ai-summary-toggle">Summary: <span id="up-triangle">◀</span><span id="down-triangle">▼</span></p>
<p id="docs-ai-summary-content">Voice calls can automatically create tickets for incoming, outbound answered, voicemail, queued, and overflow calls, and you can add comments or update ticket details during the call. Caller phone numbers help identify or create end-user profiles through direct lines and shared numbers, and unknown callers get a unique profile you can merge later. You can also merge call tickets with existing tickets when the call is about an already tracked issue.</p>
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<p class="p">Most calls automatically create a ticket. Use this article to understand how calls become
tickets.</p>
<div class="p">This article contains the following topics:<ul class="ul" id="id_4408821302810__ul_otk_jkj_qfb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_fdy_ckj_qfb">About tickets created from calls</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_hz3_5nm_sx">Understanding how phone numbers are linked to end-user profiles</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_kmt_xsx_ry">Merging users</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_jrq_wnm_sx">Merging tickets when a call is about an existing ticket</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_fdy_ckj_qfb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">About tickets created from calls</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">A new ticket is automatically created for calls in the following situations:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_fdy_ckj_qfb__ul_pdf_src_yt">
<li class="li">When you accept an incoming phone call.</li>
<li class="li">When a <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10169333291290" target="_blank">voice AI agent</a> is connected to a
call.</li>
<li class="li">When you place an outbound call from the call console, and the call is
answered.</li>
<li class="li">When a caller leaves a voicemail.</li>
<li class="li">When a call enters the queue (only applies for <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409149119514" target="_blank">omnichannel routing</a>).</li>
<li class="li">When a call ends after overflow to an external number.</li>
</ul>
<div class="p">
<div class="note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> When you aren't using omnichannel routing, voicemails are treated like incoming
phone calls. Voicemails are included in triggers that use the "Ticket &gt;
Channel &gt; Is &gt; phone call (incoming)" condition. However, tickets
generated by voicemails can't be routed by <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409149119514" target="_blank">omnichannel routing</a>.</div>
</div>
<p class="p">Additionally, you can control whether calls that are abandoned (for example in the
queue, IVR, or voicemail) result in a ticket being created. For details, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408823877146" target="_blank">Managing phone line settings</a>. This control is not
available if you’re using <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409149119514" target="_blank">omnichannel routing</a>. With omnichannel routing, tickets
are always created for abandoned calls. </p>
<p class="p">If you place an outgoing call from an existing ticket, a new ticket is not created.
Call details are added to the existing ticket.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note tip">
<span class="tiptitle">Tip:</span> You can't disable the automatic creation of tickets. However, you
could set up a trigger that immediately solves tickets from calls when they are
created. For details, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409548876570" target="_blank">Can I disable automatic ticket creation for
calls?</a>
</div>
</div>
<div class="p">When a ticket is created, it contains details about the call or voicemail
including:<ul class="ul" id="topic_fdy_ckj_qfb__ul_hpm_4fv_kmb">
<li class="li">The number the call was made from and the number from which it was
received.</li>
<li class="li">The time of the call and its duration. The Length of phone call time shown
in the ticket includes talk time and events that were not recorded, like
hold time, transfer time, and time spent in the queue.</li>
<li class="li">The name of the person who made the call and the person who answered the
call.</li>
<li class="li">If available, the location of the caller.</li>
<li class="li">If configured, a recording of the call. You can prevent users from accessing
the live call recordings (see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408838035866" target="_blank">Enabling the voice channel and configuring
general settings</a>). If your administrator has allowed the
recordings to be accessible, the user can click a link to the recording from
the notification email to hear it. You can delete recordings from tickets if
needed (see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408831738266#delete" target="_blank">Deleting recordings from
tickets</a>).</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" height="NaN" id="topic_fdy_ckj_qfb__image_fxb_ffz_4f" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/voice_ticket_recording.png" width="NaN"></p>
<p class="p">You can add comments
to the ticket and update the ticket properties during the call. </p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_hz3_5nm_sx">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Understanding how phone numbers are linked to end-user profiles</h2>
<div class="body">
<div class="p">Users are identified
by their phone numbers as follows:<ul class="ul" id="topic_hz3_5nm_sx__ul_dvc_3jz_vfb">
<li class="li">If the caller is an end user with an existing profile, and calling from a
number already added to the profile, their existing profile is set as the
ticket requester.</li>
<li class="li">If the number has not yet been added to a profile, a new profile is created
using the calling number as the user name.</li>
<li class="li">If the call comes from an unknown caller (for example, a call from a digital
line or a call from someone who has blocked their number), a unique ID is
created for the call and associated with the ticket. You can then use the
information from the ticket and call recording to match the ticket to an
existing user, or create a new user. For details, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408845588250" target="_blank">Understanding how calls from unknown
callers are handled</a>.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="p">Two types of phone number can be stored in end-user profiles:<ul class="ul" id="topic_hz3_5nm_sx__ul_hxd_nfw_qy">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Direct lines</strong> are used to identify a user. When you add a unique
number to a user's profile, it's automatically set as a direct line. If the
caller is an existing end-user calling from their direct line, the user's
existing profile is set as the ticket requester. Users can have more than
one direct line.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Shared numbers</strong> are linked to multiple user profiles. If a number that
is already being used as a direct line number is added for another user, it
becomes a shared number in that user's profile. When you make a call from
the shared number, the call will be associated with the original caller who
owns the direct line.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p">When receiving a call, Zendesk checks to see if a user is associated with the number
that is calling. If no user has the number as a direct line (for example, if it’s
been deleted from the user), then a new user will be created using the calling
number as a direct line. The number will no longer be associated to any users that
have that same number as a shared number. A user can have only one shared number on
their user profile.</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To add a number to a user's profile</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_hz3_5nm_sx__ol_cll_vkx_ry">
<li class="li">In Zendesk Support, click the <strong class="ph b">Admin</strong> icon (<img class="image" id="topic_hz3_5nm_sx__image_xzh_blx_ry" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/manage_icon.png">) in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Manage</strong> &gt;
<strong class="ph b">People</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">Select a user and click <strong class="ph b">edit</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">In the user's profile, click <strong class="ph b">+ add contact</strong> and select <strong class="ph b">Phone</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">Enter a phone number for the user. If you have phone number validation enabled,
this number must be in E.164 format. </li>
<li class="li">To add additional numbers, repeat steps 2-4.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested1" id="topic_kmt_xsx_ry">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title4">Merging users </h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Calls received from new, unknown users generate new end-users that are identified
only by the telephone number they're calling from. Unknown users might already have
a user account if they're using a telephone number that they haven't added to their
user profile. In this case, you can merge the new user account with their existing
user account. For more information, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408887695898" target="_blank">Merging a user's duplicate account</a>.</p>
<p class="p">When merging users, all phone numbers that the merging user has will be added to the
receiving user. The only scenario where a number is discarded during merging is when
two users both have a shared number. Because you can only have one shared number, in
this case, the shared number of the merging user will be discarded.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested1" id="topic_jrq_wnm_sx">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title5">Merging tickets when a call is about an existing ticket</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Sometimes, callers
might contact you about an issue for which a Zendesk Support ticket has already been
created. To handle this situation, complete the call and add comments as needed to
the new ticket. You can then merge the new ticket with the existing ticket. </p>
<p class="p">The phone number shown at the top of a ticket is the phone number that caused the
ticket to be created. When merging two tickets that both have a voice comment, the
number that caused the creation of the ticket being merged into will be shown.</p>
<p class="p">For details, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882445594" target="_blank">Merging tickets</a>.</p>
</div>
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