Answer your first phone call in Talk – Gravity CX

Ref: B02 · Track: Channels · Time to complete: ~8 min

Before you start

Make sure of two things before a call ever reaches you: 1. Your status is set to Online (see article B01 if you're not sure how). 2. Your browser has permission to use the microphone. Click the little padlock next to the URL bar and confirm microphone access for your Zendesk URL.

Put a headset on if you have one. Built-in laptop microphones work, but your customer will hear every keyboard click.

What happens when a call comes in

You hear a soft ring and a pop-up slides in from the top-right of Zendesk.
The pop-up shows the caller's number, the phone line they dialled (e.g. "Support NZ"), and — if Zendesk recognises them from a previous interaction — their name.
You have about 30 seconds to accept before the call passes to the next available agent.

The pop-up has two buttons: Accept and Decline.

⚠️ Don't decline calls without a reason. Every decline gets logged. If you need a break, set your status to Away or Transfers Only instead.

Step 1 — Accept the call

Click Accept on the pop-up.

Three things happen simultaneously: - The call connects. Start talking. - A ticket opens automatically in a new tab. This is where you'll take notes, log the outcome, and store the recording. - Your status indicator shows you are on a call. Zendesk won't route anything else to you until you hang up.

Step 2 — Greet the customer

You should see the customer's details in the left sidebar of the ticket within a second or two. Use their name if you have it.

Example: "Good morning, this is Hugo at Gravity — how can I help?"

If you don't see a name, it's because they've called from a number Zendesk has never seen before. Ask their name and any reference they have; you'll link the call to their profile later in Step 5.

Step 3 — The controls while you're on the call

The call widget floats at the bottom-right. From left to right:

Button	What it does
Mute	You can still hear them; they can't hear you. Use this before sneezing.
Hold	They hear hold music; you can't hear them and they can't hear you. Use this if you need to check something quietly.
Transfer	Hand the call to another agent or an external number (see B03 for warm transfers).
Add to call	Bring a third party into the call. Everyone can hear everyone.
Keypad	Send DTMF tones — useful if you need to navigate an IVR mid-call.
End call	Hang up.

While the call is live, you can type notes, search the KB, look at the customer's previous tickets — anything you can do in a regular ticket. Notes you make in the ticket before hanging up are part of the call record.

Step 4 — End the call

Click End call (the red button) when you're done. The customer hears the line go dead.

You do not lose the ticket when you hang up. The ticket stays open in its tab.

Step 5 — Wrap-up

The moment you hang up, a wrap-up timer starts. This is protected time — Zendesk won't route another call to you during wrap-up. Default wrap-up is 30 seconds; your admin may have changed this.

Use wrap-up to: 1. Add a brief internal note in the ticket summarising what you discussed and what you agreed. 2. Set the correct ticket fields (type, category, reason) so the call is properly reportable. 3. Set the status: - Solved if the caller's issue is genuinely done. - Pending if you promised to come back to them. - Open if someone else is picking this up. 4. If you didn't have the caller's profile linked, search their name/number and merge or assign now.

When you're done, click Submit on the ticket. This also closes out your wrap-up and returns your status to Online.

⚠️ If wrap-up runs out before you finish typing, don't panic. The ticket stays — you just need to manually change your status back to Online once you're done editing.

Common situations and what to do

"I need to look something up — 30 seconds please"

Click Hold. The customer hears music. Do what you need, then click Unhold (same button) to come back.

"I can help with most of this but not the billing part"

You need a warm transfer — you stay on the line, introduce the caller to the billing agent, then drop off. See article B03.

"Can you loop in my colleague from the other side of the company?"

Click Add to call and dial the third party. Everyone's in one call. Once you've handed over, you can leave and the two of them stay connected.

"My microphone isn't working"

Mute yourself, set your status to Away, and troubleshoot. Do not leave the customer on a call where you can hear them but they can't hear you — hang up politely, fix the mic, and call back from the ticket (see article B04).

The customer is hostile / threatening

Stay calm, don't escalate. At the end of the call, flag the ticket to your team lead with an internal note. The full audio is recorded on the ticket if you need to reference it.

Where is the call recording?

As soon as the call ends, a recording is attached to the ticket as an audio file in the conversation timeline. Anyone with access to the ticket can play it back. Retention policy is set by your admin.

Quick check — have you got this?

Your status is Away. A call comes in. What happens?
You're 10 minutes into a call and need to sneeze. What do you press?
You hang up and the next call comes in instantly. Is that expected?
You need to copy the caller's account number while they wait. Mute or Hold?

Answers

- Zendesk doesn't ring you — the call goes to the next Online agent, or queues. - Mute. (Hold plays music and is rude for a one-second pause.) - No. Wrap-up should have protected you for at least 30s. Check your status isn't stuck on Online when it should be On call. - Hold, so they don't hear your keyboard and you can concentrate. Mute is for short pauses where you still want to hear them.

B01 — Setting your online status for Talk
B03 — Warm transfer: introduce before handing over
B04 — Outbound calls and calling back from a ticket
B05 — Voicemails and queue wait time