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Take calls from the Help Desk
Take calls from the Help Desk

Learn how to handle inbound phone calls from the Help Desk.

Beth-Ann Sher avatar
Written by Beth-Ann Sher
Updated over a week ago

Taking an inbound call

If you’re available for phone calls and a call is assigned to you, you’ll receive a notification on the Help Desk about the incoming call. You can then choose to:

  • Answer - Accept the call and connect through to the customer.

  • Decline - Leave the customer on hold and notify the next available teammate about the call.

Note:

  • You must have the Help Desk open in a tab in order to be assigned calls. Teammates outside of the Help Desk will not be assigned calls.

  • Calls are always assigned using balanced assignment, regardless of the assignment method the team uses.

  • Calls have their own assignment limit, so teammates will still be assigned calls if they’re at their conversation assignment limit and are available for ‘All’ or ‘Phone’.

  • If a call is assigned manually, the assigned teammate will not be able to answer the call.

Click See details to view the call conversation in your inbox, including the customer’s details and the options they selected in the workflow.

Calls will ring an individual teammate for 30 seconds. If the teammate doesn’t take any action during this time or declines, the call will notify the next available teammate.

Phone number matching

By default, inbound phone calls are matched with your existing leads/users by their phone number. If no matching number exists, a new lead will be created.

If you’d like to create a new lead for every inbound phone number, configure user identity and select “Always create lead”.


During the call

Calls are created in the inbox the same as conversations. So when you answer a call, you’ll see call controls and have all other Help Desk actions available for that conversation (take notes, see user/lead data, add tags, create a ticket, etc.)

You can also navigate around the Intercom app to look up other information or carry out tasks, without dropping the call. 👌

Call controls:

  • Move/drag the call widget anywhere on your screen.

  • Transfer inbound calls to another team or teammate who’s online.

  • Place the call on hold.

  • Put yourself on mute.

  • Pause recording.

  • End the call.

Outbound calls currently can’t be transferred.


After the call

When you or the customer end a call, you may be given wrap up time to finish handling the conversation in the inbox (depending on your workspace phone settings).

While on wrap up time, your status will be updated to “Away” with the reason Call wrap up. ​​You can select Switch to active to end wrap up time early and make yourself available for new incoming calls.

You’ll notice that the call card in the conversation thread automatically gets updated. Click on this to view the call details.

If enabled, the call card will include the call recording and transcript.

Use the three dot menu inside the Recording to:

  • Download the recording, or

  • Adjust the playback speed.

Use the three dot menu next to Transcript to:

  • Download Recording,

  • Download Transcript, or

  • Delete Recording and Transcript.

Next, learn how to make a phone call or Messenger voice/video call from the Help Desk. 😃


💡Tip

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