Take phone calls

With voice, customers call a phone number and agents answer in the browser. Every call ends as a ticket with the caller, the call details and, if you record calls, the recording and transcript.

Set it up in Admin Center, Channels, Voice. The page has three tabs: Lines, Call log and Reports.

Add a phone line

A line is one phone number with its call flow. Choose Add line, give it a name and pick the provider.

Provider	What you get
Twilio	ChaosDesk runs the whole call: greeting, phone menu, queue, browser phone, voicemail and recordings
Aircall, 3CX, RingCentral	You keep your phone system. ChaosDesk shows a caller pop-up, logs the call and creates a ticket with a link to the recording

Twilio with your own account

1. Enter the phone number, and the Account SID and Auth token from your Twilio console.
2. Choose Connect to Twilio.

ChaosDesk finds the number on your account, creates what the browser phone needs, and points the number’s calls at ChaosDesk. You pay Twilio directly.

A number on our account

Switch on Buy the number on our Twilio account. You don’t need a Twilio account, and call minutes are billed on your ChaosDesk invoice. Outgoing calls stop when your spending limit is reached.

Aircall, 3CX or RingCentral

1. Pick the provider and enter the webhook token (and, if asked, an API token).
2. Copy the webhook URL the page shows and paste it in your provider’s webhook settings.
3. Under Agents, list each extension and the agent’s email, one per row, like [email protected]. This makes the caller pop-up reach the right agent.

The call flow (Twilio)

1. The caller hears your greeting.
2. If you record calls, the caller hears your recording notice first and can press 9 to opt out. Nothing is recorded before the notice.
3. A phone menu (IVR) is optional: callers press a key to reach a group’s queue, voicemail or the voice AI agent.
4. The call rings the agents of the queue who are online and set their phone to available. The longest-idle agents ring first.
5. If nobody answers in time, or nobody is available, the caller can leave a voicemail.

Answer calls

Agents use the Phone in the agent workspace. It appears once a line is set up, for agents whose role may take calls. It shows their state: Offline, Available, On a call or Wrapping up.

1. Set yourself to Available to take calls. Your browser asks for microphone access the first time.
2. When a call rings, choose Answer or Decline. A caller pop-up opens the customer’s profile.
3. During the call you can Mute and Hang up.
4. After the call, fill in the after-call work: how the call ended and an optional note. Then choose Done, take calls or Done, go offline.

To call a customer, open the phone, pick the line and enter the number. A call placed from a ticket is logged on that ticket.

Calls as tickets

When a call ends, it becomes a ticket of the caller. The caller is matched by phone number, or added as a new customer. The ticket gets an internal note with the direction, line, outcome, agent, menu choice, wait time and talk time. The recording, transcript, AI summary and after-call note are added when they are ready.

Voice AI agent and summaries

If your AI agent is on, a line or a menu option can send callers to the voice AI agent. It answers from your procedures and help centre, and hands over to the queue when needed. Calls it resolves show as Resolved by AI.

With Transcripts on, recordings and voicemails are transcribed, and every call with a transcript, voicemail or AI conversation gets a short AI summary on the ticket.

Reports

The Reports tab shows calls by direction and outcome, answer rate, average wait and talk time, talk minutes, missed calls, voicemails and calls resolved by AI, per agent, line and day. The Call log lists every call with its ticket. Agents see their own calls.

Recording rules differ by country. Check what applies to you before you switch recording on.

Related

• Channels overview
• Agent statuses
• Set up SMS