Calling and texting customers

ZenTalk lets your agents call and text customers on their real phone number, straight from the Inbox, using a number your workspace rents. Calls run in the browser, so there is no desk phone or extra app to set up.

Before you start

An owner or admin first rents a number and assigns it to you in Numbers & Wallet, on the Sales tab. Until then the call buttons tell you that no calling number is assigned to you and to ask an owner or admin. Calls and texts are billed from your workspace's calling wallet.

Phone calls and texts are different from the other ways to talk to a customer in ZenTalk:

• Web calls ring a website visitor inside their chat widget, with no phone number. See the Inbox.
• WhatsApp messages and calls come in through a connected WhatsApp Business number. See Channels.

Call a number from the Dialpad

1. In the Inbox, click Dialpad at the top of the conversation list.
2. Type the number with its country code, for example +1 415 555 2671, or tap it in on the keypad.
3. If you have never been in touch with this number before, tick I confirm I have permission to contact this number. The Call button stays disabled until you do.
4. Click Call. ZenTalk opens a phone thread for the number under Calls & SMS and places the call from your browser.

Call from a conversation

When a website visitor has shared a phone number, click Call this number under the phone in the visitor panel. It opens a phone thread for that number. In any phone thread, the Call button in the header dials the customer again.

The call bar

A call bar floats in the corner of the screen during a phone call, so you can keep working while you talk.

• Incoming calls: click Accept or Decline. The Open conversation link takes you to the caller's thread without dropping the call.
• During a call: Mute and Unmute your microphone, and Hang up when you are done. While an outgoing call is still connecting, the button reads Cancel.
• Missed calls: an incoming call nobody answers goes to voicemail and shows in the thread as Missed call · Voicemail.

Send a text message

In a phone thread, the reply box becomes a text composer. Type your message and click Send SMS. A pill above the box shows the price per text segment for that destination; long texts and emoji use more than one segment. Each text appears in the thread marked SMS sent, SMS received, or SMS failed, and replies from the customer land in the same thread.

If texting is not possible, the composer tells you why. The usual reasons are:

• The contact has no phone number on file.
• Texting to that country is not supported.
• No calling number is assigned to you yet.
• It is a US number and your workspace has not finished the A2P 10DLC texting registration in Numbers & Wallet.

For an unsupported country or a US number awaiting registration, you can still call from the Call button.

Consent, opt-outs, and calling hours

• Permission: for numbers with no earlier contact, you confirm you have permission before the first call.
• STOP replies: a customer who replies STOP to a text is opted out automatically.
• Do-Not-Call list: numbers on your workspace's Do-Not-Call list are never called or texted. Owners and admins manage it in Numbers & Wallet.
• Calling hours: outbound calls and texts only go out between 8am and 9pm in the recipient's local time, unless that person contacted you in the last 24 hours.

Recordings and transcription

Phone calls may be recorded, and when they are, the customer hears a short notice that the call may be recorded. Every call leaves a Phone call bubble in the thread with its outcome and length. Owners and admins can click Play recording or Download on it, and recorded calls are also listed on Call Recordings. Recordings delete themselves automatically after 1 month.

If an owner or admin has turned on live call transcription, the call is transcribed into the conversation in real time, with each side labelled.

Related

Owners and admins set up numbers, the wallet, and texting registration in Numbers & Wallet. For the rest of the Inbox, see The Inbox. For WhatsApp messages and WhatsApp calls, see Channels.