Zendesk voice support: A complete overview for 2025

Even with all the chat apps and email threads in the world, sometimes you just need to talk to a real person. And it turns out, most of your customers agree. Despite the constant push for digital-first everything, a massive 80% of consumers still prefer a good old-fashioned phone call to get help. It’s direct, personal, and often the quickest way to get a problem solved.

If your team is already running on Zendesk, using their built-in voice support seems like an obvious choice. It promises a smooth way to handle calls right where you manage every other customer chat. But is it really the right tool for you? This guide gives you an honest look at what Zendesk voice support offers: its features, how to set it up, what it costs, and some key limitations to think about before you dive in.

What is Zendesk voice support?

In simple terms, Zendesk voice support is a phone system that runs over the internet (VoIP) and is baked directly into the Zendesk Suite. Instead of having a separate phone app or system, your support team can make and receive calls from the exact same screen they use for emails, chats, and social media tickets.

The main idea is to give your agents one unified place to work. When a call comes in, the agent immediately sees the customer’s entire history, past emails, recent chats, you name it. No more flipping between tabs or making customers repeat information they just gave to another agent five minutes ago.

Behind the scenes, the service is powered by Twilio, a big name in the communications world, which handles all the technical plumbing for the calls. This lets Zendesk focus on making the voice experience fit neatly into its helpdesk and adding its own AI features to make things run a bit smoother.

Key features of Zendesk voice support

Zendesk has loaded its voice platform with features designed to bring the call center into the modern age. They've put a big emphasis on using AI and creating a single workspace where agents can handle any channel.

AI at every step

Zendesk uses AI across the entire lifecycle of a support call, hoping to automate the simple stuff and help agents handle the tricky problems more effectively.

• Before the call connects: You can set up AI agents to be the first point of contact. They can answer common questions, verify a caller's identity, and sometimes resolve issues on their own. If a question is too tough, the AI is smart enough to route the call to the right human agent, along with all the context it has already gathered.

• During the call: While an agent is talking to a customer, Zendesk’s "agent copilot" can listen in. It can pop up real-time suggestions, find relevant help articles, and nudge the agent toward the right solution, which can be a lifesaver for new hires.

• After the call: Once the call is over, the AI automatically creates a full transcript and a quick summary. This is a huge time-saver, cutting down on the manual wrap-up work that agents dread and letting them get to the next customer faster.

• For quality checks: With the Zendesk QA add-on, you can review 100% of your calls, from both AI and human agents. The system can flag calls with a negative tone, spot customers who might be about to cancel, and point out coaching opportunities for your team. It moves quality assurance from random spot-checks to something much more comprehensive.

A screenshot of an automatically generated ticket summary within the Zendesk interface, showcasing the AI features of Zendesk voice support.

One workspace for every channel

Probably the biggest selling point of Zendesk voice is that it's built right in. Having phone support inside the same dashboard as every other channel really does make a difference for your team's efficiency and the customer's experience.

The Zendesk agent workspace, demonstrating how Zendesk voice support integrates calls alongside other channels like email and chat for a unified view.

When a customer calls, their entire history pops up. Agents can see every past ticket and conversation. This context helps them give more personal and helpful support because customers don't have to explain their life story every time they call. For managers, this integration also applies to reports. You can compare call volume, resolution times, and customer satisfaction scores side-by-side with email and chat, giving you the full picture of your support operations.

Standard call center tools

Beyond the AI and the unified workspace, Zendesk voice also has the standard features you'd want from any modern call center tool.

You can set up call menus (an IVR system, like "press 1 for sales"), route calls based on which agent has the right skills, and create rules for what happens to calls that come in after hours. It also includes the basics like call recording, three-way calling, warm transfers (where an agent can brief a teammate before passing the call), and letting customers ask for a callback instead of sitting on hold.

One neat feature is the Voice API, which lets you put a "Call Us" button on your website or in your app. Customers can start a call right from their browser, no phone number needed. This is not only easier for them, but it also helps cut down on spam calls.

How to get started with Zendesk voice support

Setting up Zendesk voice support isn't a one-click affair, but it’s designed to be done without needing a dedicated IT department. Here’s a quick look at what it takes to get your phones ringing.

Step 1: Get a phone number

First things first, you need a number. You’ve got a few options. If you’re on a free trial, Zendesk gives you one automatically. For paying customers, you can buy new local or toll-free numbers directly from them in over 40 countries.

Have a business number you want to keep? You can often "port" it over to Zendesk, but that can take a few weeks. A quicker workaround is to just forward calls from your old number to your new Zendesk one. Just be aware that some countries require you to submit business documents to get a number, but Zendesk guides you through it.

Step 2: Check your network and gear

Because Zendesk voice uses your internet connection, you need to make sure a few technical things are in order for good call quality.

• Internet: A stable, fast connection is a must. A wired connection is almost always going to be more reliable than Wi-Fi.

• Network: You might need to ask your IT person to tweak your firewall settings to make sure the voice traffic can get through without being blocked.

• Hardware: You can use your computer’s built-in microphone, but you really shouldn't. A decent USB headset will make a huge difference in call quality for both your agents and your customers.

Step 3: Enable and configure the voice channel

Once your number and network are good to go, the last step is to flip the switch in your Zendesk admin panel. You'll enable the voice channel and then start setting things up: define your business hours, record custom greetings, create your voicemail message, and route calls to the right agent groups.

How Zendesk voice support pricing works

Okay, let's talk money. This is where things can get a little complicated. You can't just buy Zendesk voice support pricing by itself. It’s only available as part of their "Suite" plans, which means you have to buy into their whole customer service package.

The pricing has three parts:

1. The plan cost: A monthly fee for each agent on your team.

2. The number cost: A small monthly fee for each phone number.

3. Usage costs: Per-minute charges for calls you make, calls you receive, and voicemails.

Here’s a simplified look at the plans that include voice support:

It's also worth noting that many of the cool AI features, like the agent copilot, are often sold as paid add-ons. These can add a good chunk to your monthly bill, so make sure to factor those in when you're doing the math.

Limitations of native Zendesk voice support (and how to fix them)

While having everything in one place is nice, it comes with some trade-offs that can cause headaches. It’s a solid tool, but it isn’t perfect. Here are a few common issues.

• The AI has blind spots: Zendesk's AI works best when it's using information that already lives inside Zendesk, like your help articles and past tickets. But what about all the important info your team keeps elsewhere? If your product specs are in Confluence, your troubleshooting guides are in Google Docs, and your return policies are in Notion, the Zendesk AI can't see any of it. This means agents are stuck switching tabs and searching multiple systems to find answers, which slows them down and annoys customers.

A workflow diagram illustrating how agents must switch between Zendesk and external knowledge sources, a key limitation of native Zendesk voice support.

• You're locked into their system: Because the voice and AI tools are so deeply tied into the Zendesk platform, you have to do things their way. Customizing the AI, building unique workflows, or connecting to other systems can be tricky and might require hiring expensive consultants. You end up having to change your processes to fit their tool, instead of the other way around.

• The setup can get complicated: While the basic setup is pretty simple, digging into the advanced features is a different story. Building out detailed call menus, designing routing rules, and fine-tuning the AI agents requires a lot of time in the Zendesk admin panel. It’s powerful, but it’s not exactly a walk in the park.

A more flexible solution: A smart AI layer

Instead of locking yourself into one vendor's world, what if you could just add a smart AI layer on top of the tools you already use? That's where eesel AI comes in. It’s a flexible AI platform that plugs directly into your helpdesk, including Zendesk, without making you change how you work.

A screenshot showing the eesel AI Copilot drafting a reply within Zendesk, an example of a flexible AI layer for Zendesk voice support.

• Connect all your knowledge, instantly: eesel AI connects to all of your company's knowledge, no matter where it's stored. It learns from your Zendesk tickets, your entire Confluence space, your shared Google Drive, and more. This gives both your AI and your human agents one single source of truth, so they can find the right answer in seconds.

• Go live in minutes, not months: Forget about complicated setups and long training sessions. eesel AI is designed to be self-serve. You can connect your helpdesk with a click, point the AI to your knowledge sources, and set up your automations in a simple, clean dashboard.

• Test without the risk: This is a big one. eesel AI has a simulation mode that lets you test it on thousands of your past Zendesk tickets. You can see exactly how the AI would have responded, get a real forecast of your resolution rate, and find any gaps in your knowledge base before you let it talk to a single customer. It takes all the guesswork out of launching a new AI tool.

Is Zendesk voice support the right choice?

Zendesk voice support is a solid choice for teams who are already all-in on the Zendesk ecosystem and want everything in one box. The tight integration between channels is a genuine plus, and the AI features are pretty good.

However, for teams that need more flexibility, want to move faster, and need an AI that can learn from their entire company's knowledge, a dedicated AI layer is the smarter move. The best modern support teams are built by adding smart tools to the systems they already know and love, not by getting stuck with the limitations of a single platform.

Supercharge your Zendesk voice support

Ready to get past the limits of a siloed knowledge base and tricky setups? eesel AI plugs into Zendesk in minutes to automate support, draft agent replies, and give your team answers from all your company docs, right where they work.

Start your free trial or book a demo today.