Zendesk Telephony Options: A Comprehensive Guide

Who knew untangling phone options could be a team-building exercise? After a few too many client complaints and a whole lot of head-scratching, we’ve gotten to the bottom of Zendesk’s phone options so you don’t have to. We've laid out the pros, cons, and costs of each one, from the tried-and-true Talk to the soon-to-be-released WhatsApp Calling. Take a look and let us know what works best for you—we’re here to help you get started!

Option 1: Zendesk Talk (Twilio-based)

Zendesk Talk is the most direct and user-friendly option for adding phone functionality to your Zendesk account. It's a cloud-based call center solution that integrates directly with Zendesk's ticketing system, allowing agents to manage all interactions from a single platform.

• Pros:
  • Ease of Setup: This is the easiest option to get up and running. The process is straightforward: "verify your business, get a number, go."
  • Comprehensive Features: It includes a wide range of features such as call routing, IVR menus, call queuing, call recording, and advanced call analytics. It also allows for omnichannel integration, unifying phone calls, emails, live chats, and social media messages.
  • Digital Line Option: A cheaper digital line option is available, which provides click-to-call functionality without a physical phone number.
• Cons:
  • High Cost: This is the most expensive option. Customers are charged heavily for the time they spend on calls, making it costly for businesses with high call volumes. You must have a Zendesk Service Suite subscription to use it, and then there are additional usage-based charges.
  • Usage-Based Pricing: Beyond the per-agent subscription cost, you pay for phone numbers and per-minute usage charges.
• Cost (South Africa):
  • Phone numbers: ~$1.00 per month.
  • Inbound calls: ~$0.012 per minute.
  • Outbound calls: Costs vary, but this option charges heavily for time spent on calls.
  • Call recording: ~$0.003 per minute.
  • Voicemail: ~$0.012 per minute.
  • Call transcription: ~$0.01 per minute.
  • Voicemail transcription: ~$0.05 per minute.
  • These costs are in USD and are subject to currency fluctuations.

Option 2: SIP In

This option allows you to connect your existing SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) lines from a telecommunications provider to Zendesk. It's a "Bring Your Own Carrier" (BYOC) solution that lets you use local carriers and forward calls to Zendesk via SIP.

• Pros:
  • Lower Per-Minute Cost: Charges are US$0.01 per minute plus any carrier charges from your telco. This is significantly cheaper than Zendesk Talk for inbound calls.
  • Call Flexibility: It allows for call forwarding and integrating with external applications like a third-party IVR.
  • Outbound Calling (Planned): Zendesk plans to add support for outbound calling to this option by the end of the year, which would remove a significant current limitation.
• Cons:
  • Technical Complexity: Requires customers to obtain a SIP line from a major telco and provide a URI and CIDR network address.
  • Inbound Only (Currently): A major limitation is that it does not currently support outbound calls.
  • Mandatory Talk Number: A mandatory Zendesk Talk number is required for overflow/failover. This adds an additional cost of approximately $1/month. It's recommended to use a US number for this purpose to avoid the South African business verification process.
• Cost (South Africa):
  • Zendesk Charge: US$0.01 per minute for inbound calls.
  • Mandatory Failover Talk Number: ~$1/month.
  • Carrier Costs: Your telecommunications provider (e.g., Telkom, Safaricom) will have its own SIP trunking costs. For example, local providers like Switch Telecom offer usage-based SIP trunks from R100 per month, while United Telecoms offers a single SIP line for R150 per month.

Option 3: External Providers

This option involves using third-party telephony solutions that integrate with Zendesk. These are often full-featured contact center solutions that extend Zendesk's capabilities.

• Pros:
  • Enhanced Functionality: Many providers offer features not available in standard Zendesk Talk, such as advanced analytics, AI integration, video calls, and mobile apps.
  • Flexible Pricing Models: Charges are often based on concurrency or a per-user/extension model, which can be advantageous for specific use cases.
  • Centralized Workspace: Integrations allow agents to manage all communications from a single interface, with automatic ticket creation, call logging, and synchronization of data.
• Cons:
  • Variable Costs: The pricing can be complex, and you must manage contracts with both Zendesk and the external provider.
• Cost (South Africa):
  • Aircall: Offers a local South African pricing plan starting at R455/user per month (excl. VAT) for their Essentials plan (3-user minimum). This includes unlimited local calls, one local number, and a range of features.
  • CloudTalk: Offers local South African numbers with a monthly fee of €20 and a per-minute charge of €0.12 for incoming calls. Their user-based plans start at $19/user per month.
  • VoiceSpin: As a part of their larger platform, VoiceSpin offers pricing that includes outbound calls to South African mobile numbers starting at $0.3390/min.
  • Votacall: A local provider like Vox offers business voice plans from as little as R399.00 per month (incl. VAT) for unlimited calls on up to 6 simultaneous lines.
  • Knots: This service is designed to integrate existing telephony systems with Zendesk, with pricing for their Zendesk automation apps starting at $269/month for their Essentials plan.

Option 4: WhatsApp Calling (Upcoming)

This is an upcoming option that will leverage the existing WhatsApp infrastructure for voice calls.

• Pros:
  • Cheapest Option: This is expected to be the most affordable solution, using the same pricing model as SIP In.
  • "Two-for-One" Solution: It provides a voice solution while also being built on a widely used messaging platform, making it a strategic recommendation for the South African market.
• Cons:
  • Not Yet Available: This functionality is still in development and is expected to be released by the end of the year.
• Cost: Expected to be priced similarly to SIP In.

Alternative Solution: AWS Connect

AWS Connect is a promising alternative that offers a robust and feature-rich contact center solution. It is a cloud-based service with pay-as-you-go pricing.

• Pros:
  • Advanced Functionality: It provides superior features such as real-time transcription, call summarization, and automatic data population.
  • Consumption-Based Pricing: Pricing is based on consumption with no fixed fees, making it an excellent choice for businesses with seasonal volume spikes.
  • Real-time Verification: Capabilities for real-time verification during calls are a key feature.
• Cons:
  • Complex Pricing: Pricing is based on various usage metrics and can be complex to calculate.
• Cost (South Africa):
  • AWS Connect voice usage charges are typically priced per minute, in addition to telephony usage charges from carriers.
  • For example, an inbound call might incur an Amazon Connect voice usage charge of ~$0.038 per minute, plus a telephony usage charge for the South African number.
  • A local AWS partner may offer setup and support plans on top of these AWS costs, such as a one-time setup fee of R8,750 and a monthly support plan starting at R99 per agent.

Cost Strategy Recommendations

A potential cost-saving strategy for businesses with low outbound call volume is to use a combination of SIP In for inbound calls and a Zendesk Talk line for outbound calls. While this can be effective, it's important to note that call forwarding between the two may incur dual costs.

To better help you make this decision, please see this handy-dandy costing matrix.