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Zendesk Voice: New call notification through speakers, call through headset

Related products:Voice
  • April 20, 2012
  • 108 replies
  • 263 views

Our support people don't have their headsets on all of the time and are often flipping between applications -- meaning they don't always have Zendesk on-screen.

To use the audio through the browser, the notification "ring" AND the audio from the caller goes to the Windows default speaker. The Flash configuration pop-up only lets you choose your mic, but not your speaker. So, you can either have that audio go to the computer speaker or to the headset. Here's the problem:

  1. You don't want to wear a headset just for the mic, but have the caller's audio come through the speakers.

  2. If you pick headset as your default Windows speaker, then you don't hear the call notification "ring" unless you're always wearing your headset or always staring at Zendesk -- which we aren't.

That means for us, I can't find a way to use Zendesk voice because there's no good way to know when a call comes in.

Even if the pop-up happened in a way that would come up on the user's desktop, it could work. But it's only in that one browser window that's running Zendesk. If they aren't looking at it, they won't see that, either.

If someone has ideas on how to address this otherwise, let me know, since we'd love to use the voice features!

108 replies

  • January 15, 2013

Setting this up as a browser answered soft phone would be great and I agree the headset/speaker configuration should be more dynamic.


  • May 2, 2013

+1


  • May 30, 2013

+1


  • June 6, 2013

@ Even if the pop-up happened in a way that would come up on the user's desktop, it could work. But it's only in that one browser window that's running Zendesk. If they aren't looking at it, they won't see that, either.

 

+1


+1 to this - I would love to see a pop up notification, so that if your not wearing your headset - you know someone is calling!


  • December 19, 2013

+1


  • January 29, 2014

I cant imagine there would be anything hard to implement here. A small desktop application which connects to your Zendesk and provides a pop up on your screen which allows you to answer/decline a call. 

 

Having calls come in while my speakers are on mute or if my headset is plugged in but not wearing it means we miss calls. 

 

Zendesk, any plans or suggestions? 


  • Product Manager
  • March 14, 2014

We're working on HTML 5 based browser notifications. These will be available in April 2014. The idea here is to give you the notification which if you click on it will bring you to Zendesk so you can answer the call.


  • Product Manager
  • March 20, 2014

Hi all, 

I plan to open the Browser Based notifications for Zendesk Voice as a Beta in the coming weeks. If you are interested please sign up for the beta here. https://zendesk.wufoo.com/forms/zendesk-voice-browser-based-notifications/

Neil 


  • Product Manager
  • April 16, 2014

Hi all, 

Browser based notifications for voice have been released today. Documentation may be found here : https://support.zendesk.com/entries/20415731-Taking-inbound-telephone-calls-with-Zendesk-Voice

Neil


  • October 7, 2014

Neil, your update didn't solve anything the original poster mentioned.

Phones have ring tones, we cannot hear the ring tones if the headset is plugged in, we need a feature where the ring tone can be heard through the speakers.

Or else Zendesk voice feature is always going to be second to conventional VOIP phone systems.

 


  • October 17, 2014

Agreed would prefer the ring via system speakers then on answer switch to headset and mic.

Far more usable for agents then browser alert and provides the freedom to remove the headset throughout the day.

 

Andrew


  • October 28, 2014

I agree with what everyone is saying here. It's not practical to set your default speaker for your whole computer to your headset. You only want to use your headset while in a call.


  • May 7, 2015

We are experiencing exactly the same problems, but we will just try to use our mobiles instead of softphones, thus, the ring tone will be heard in the mobile phone and with the right kind of headset we can work completely mobile anyway.


  • May 15, 2015

External Ring would really help out, we are missing calls because we don't have our headsets on all day.


  • June 8, 2015

This is exactly my problem right now! I am assuming this hasn't been addressed still?


  • July 1, 2015

Hello? This is such a serious problem for us. Our agents do not have their headsets on all the time. Any workaround to address this issue?


  • July 2, 2015

Hi Sam, if you let your agents use their mobilephones to answer the incoming calls it works as you want it. We've tried it, it's working fine but I would like Zendesk to have a better solutions because when you're using your mobilephones the cost is higher.


Michael200
  • October 8, 2015

Yes please! 

This sort of thing works in other chat/call clients, wheras the ringing comes through the speakers, but as soon as I answer, the speakers become my headset.

I have my laptop speakers set as the "Default Output device" but my headset as my "Default Communication device". It'd be great if Zendesk Voice could support this.


  • October 13, 2015

I totally agree Michael!


Reservations

No update to this? 


Reservations

We're having the exact same issue as everyone else on this thread...

This is a gaping hole in the solution.

Counterpath/Bria handles this perfectly -- what gives? 


  • July 18, 2016

Had come here hoping to find a solution to this issue as we also suffer with this and are missing calls.

Hope Zendesk can provide an update soon, perhaps they don't have their headsets on though so aren't seeing these calls for help! ;)

Craig


  • August 31, 2016

Is there any news related to this question? We just started to use ZD voice and immediately we found out that calls are being missed because agents don't have their headset on all day. Hope there is a solution for this problem soon because in our opinion this is a must for giving our customers professional support.

 

Regards,

Robin


  • August 31, 2016

We have the same issue.

You can make the headset and speakers work together with independent volume controls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU5sy_f17mk

Will work for a few but not all