Zendesk Talk

Forward Zendesk Talk calls to your PolyAI agent and hand them back to Zendesk agents over SIP.

Connect Zendesk Talk so calls to your Zendesk line reach your PolyAI agent, and calls the agent can’t resolve go back to a Zendesk agent with the caller’s ticket open.

You set this up in Agent Studio with a guided setup. It walks you through the Zendesk side, then saves the connection PolyAI uses to hand calls back.

This page covers Zendesk Talk telephony. For the Zendesk CRM integration, see the CRM section in Agent Studio.

How calls flow

Zendesk Talk can’t send calls to PolyAI over SIP, so the two directions use different paths:

1. A caller dials your Zendesk Talk line.
2. The line routes to an empty agent group. Because no agents are ever available, Zendesk’s overflow forwards every call to a PolyAI number over the phone network.
3. Your PolyAI agent answers.
4. When the agent hands off, PolyAI sends a SIP INVITE to a SIP line you register in Zendesk.
5. A Zendesk agent answers. If the handoff includes the X-Zendesk-Ticket-Id SIP header, Zendesk opens that ticket for them.

Before you start

• Admin access to Zendesk Admin Center.
• A PolyAI number in your project for Zendesk to forward calls to. If you don’t have one, buy or forward a number first.
• An email address of a Zendesk admin and a Zendesk API token.
• PolyAI’s SIP IP range for your region. Your PolyAI account manager can give you this.

Only one telephony integration can be connected to a project at a time. If the project already has a different one, the setup shows Another telephony integration is connected and won’t continue.

Set up Zendesk Talk

In Agent Studio, go to Integrations, open the Telephony tab and click Add number. In the Add a number panel, under Integrate with your contact center platform, select Zendesk Talk.

If the option shows Coming soon, contact your PolyAI account manager.

The Zendesk Talk setup has four steps: Number, Zendesk, Connect and Reference.

1. Pick the number Zendesk forwards to

   On the Number step, choose the PolyAI number your Zendesk line should overflow to. Each number in the list shows the environment it routes to.

   If the project has no numbers, the step shows This project has no numbers yet. Buy a PolyAI number first, then come back.

   Click Next.

2. Set up your Zendesk line

   The Zendesk step lists what to do in Zendesk Admin Center. The first four steps send calls to PolyAI. The SIP line is where PolyAI hands calls back.

   1. In People → Team → Groups, create an empty agent group. Don’t add any agents to it.
   2. In Channels → Talk → Lines, open your inbound line’s Routing settings and route it to that group only.
   3. Turn on overflow to the PolyAI number you picked, both when no agents are available and outside business hours. The group is empty, so every call overflows to PolyAI.
   4. Turn off voicemail and outbound calling on the line. Voicemail answers before overflow can forward the call.
   5. In Channels → Talk → Lines → Add line → Add SIP line, add a SIP line and register a SIP address named after your project.
   6. On the SIP line, allow PolyAI’s SIP IP range for your region.

   When you’re done, copy the SIP address from the SIP line and click Next.

   Click Copy prompt on the Have an AI assistant prepare the Zendesk side card to get instructions for an AI assistant that can work in your Zendesk Admin Center. The prompt already includes your PolyAI number and project ID. The assistant sets up the overflow and the SIP line, asks you for anything it needs, and replies with the SIP address the next step asks for.

3. Connect your Zendesk SIP line

   On the Connect step, enter:

   Field	What to enter
   SIP address	The SIP address from your Zendesk SIP line. It must start with sip: or sips:, for example sip:[e-mail].
   Zendesk admin email	The email address of a Zendesk admin.
   Zendesk API token	A token you create in Zendesk Admin Center under Apps and integrations, Zendesk API.

   Click Connect Zendesk. PolyAI saves the connection and creates the integration your handoffs use to reach Zendesk.

   If the connection fails, check the SIP address and try again. Contact PolyAI support if it keeps failing.

4. Add a handoff back to Zendesk

   The Reference step, Hand calls back to Zendesk, shows the Handoff settings to use:

   Setting	Value
   Method	INVITE
   Integration name	The name of the integration PolyAI created. Copy it from the screen.
   Encryption	UDP/RTP
   Overflow number	The PolyAI number Zendesk forwards calls to.

   Click Open handoffs to go to Voice > Handoffs and add a handoff with these settings. See Call handoffs for how to add one.

   Click Done to close the setup.

Show the caller’s ticket to the Zendesk agent

Add an X-Zendesk-Ticket-Id SIP header to the handoff and set it to the ticket ID. Zendesk opens that ticket for the agent who answers.

To set header values from conversation data, see Configuring SIP headers.

After setup

Once Zendesk Talk is connected, selecting Zendesk Talk again opens the Reference step with Zendesk Talk is connected. Use it to check the handoff settings at any time.

To change the SIP line, contact PolyAI support.

Testing the integration

1. Call your Zendesk Talk line and confirm your PolyAI agent answers.
2. Trigger a handoff and confirm the call reaches a Zendesk agent.
3. If you added X-Zendesk-Ticket-Id, confirm the ticket opens for the agent.
4. Review the call in Conversations.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Check
Calls ring in Zendesk and never reach PolyAI	The line routes only to the empty group, and overflow is on for both “no agents available” and “outside business hours”.
Callers reach voicemail	Voicemail is turned off on the line.
Handoffs to Zendesk fail	The handoff uses the Integration name, Method and Encryption from the Reference step, and PolyAI’s SIP IP range is allowed on the SIP line.
The ticket doesn’t open for the agent	The handoff sends X-Zendesk-Ticket-Id with a valid ticket ID.

Related pages

Call handoffs

Configure call routing and agent escalation.

Voice integrations

Browse other telephony integrations.