Caller ID on outbound calls

@Neil Follow up question - my company recently launched Talk and it has mostly been a success.  We were eager (and able) to add our external number for the outbound caller ID.  Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the "callback calls" feature would still display the ZenDesk phone number from the group the customer was routed to.  We assumed that our external number, when configured as the only "outbound calls enabled" number for the account, would override the caller ID across the board.  Is there any plan of expanding that functionality so that our customers consistently receive callbacks from our longstanding/reliable/trusted external phone number?

Hi,

We also are interested in this functionality. Seems like an easy fix. The work-around provided here with another external number is far from ideal.

-Thanks,

Randell

This is a huge issue for us as well. We need our calls to customers to show our Caller ID -- business name not phone number. Otherwise we just look like one of the many phone spammers out there and our customers don't answer because they don't know it's us. This feature would have such a massive positive impact on all your customers' businesses, Zendesk!

I see that Zendesk has closed some threads asking for this even though the only thing that was solved was to show phone number caller ID, not business name

Bumping this thread, this is important and should not continue to be overlooked.

I agree,

With the increase in the financial cost to use Zendesk Talk this should be an option.  There seems to be little action to create a better service experience for Zendesk consumers. Zendesk, feel free to contact me to discuss this further.

Update August 23, 2023

The ability to show a caller ID is as follows:

For Inbound:

• IVR route to an external number will send the original caller ID.
• Automatic overflow call to an external number will send the original caller ID.
• Automatic call forwarding to agent phone line - the call will send the Zendesk phone number, not the original caller ID.
• Agent initiated manual call transfer via call console - the call will show up as the Zendesk phone number being used to make the transfer.

For Outbound:

• Talk number will be displayed to the end receiver in either the actual number or if masking is desired via 1-CNAM (in USA and if applied) or 2-external number (see here)

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Greetings,

Thank you for the feedback!

For our Customers in the USA, you can display your company name as sender ID. Please see the following article for instructions. This capability is also available for some carriers in Canada. 

Unfortunately, at this time, due to carrier constraints, it is not available in other countries.

Thanks

Rohan

Very interested in this; many Zendesk customers need this!

Since you use Twillio for the talk feature I looked to see if it was available in that platform and I found this article which seems to indicate that it can be done through a support request to the Twillio team.

https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/223180148-Unable-to-Display-a-Business-Name-or-Custom-Text-as-Caller-ID

This is crazy this isn't available to Zendesk Talk users.  We are an outbound call center that NEEDS patients to know who is calling. People will not answer the phone if it's a spammy 800#.  Any idea when this will be added to the roadmap?

Good afternoon,

I attempted to use the Twilio article you provided and could not gain a clear understanding of how the outbound caller ID would be manipulated. I attempted to submit a request to Twilio but it requires a account ID which I do not have. Since our account was created with Twilio while setting up our Zendesk Talk number can you provide this in a secure manner to me?

Thank you!

William (and everyone else) - I reached out to Twilio support about this and can share what I learned.

TLDR: Zendesk can write in to Twilio to ask for your Caller ID (CNAM) to be set to your company name (the owner of the phone # has to make this request). I asked Zendesk to do this an they submitted the request for me. The CNAM update was made but no one is able to say how long it takes to populate the databases so I'm not sure how long to wait to test it (plus it sounds like it's not foolproof...some customers may still not see the caller ID as you wan tit). Below is the longer explanation from Twilio.

FROM TWILIO --

Regarding what you want here, CNAM, the big caveat here is that we don’t control how the callee’s carrier looks up CNAM. Nowadays we can request CNAM updates for Twilio phone numbers from the United States, but it is not possible for us to guarantee it will display correctly every time for everyone. CNAM isn’t something we send, unlike a CallerID, it’s something that the callee’s carrier looks up from a database when a call comes in. If they hit a database that’s not up to date, it can display wrong, or if they don’t hit it at all, it won’t display

Caller ID query/return is generally the responsibility of the terminating carrier. While many terminating carriers query the database we use for Caller ID, some query other databases and some require their subscribers to purchase enhanced services for Caller ID return.

I just want to set your expectations here. We consider this a best-effort scenario where we can request our provider update the CNAM for a Twilio phone number, however, as mentioned we are unable to guarantee it's delivery to a destination simply due to us not having control over how the destination carrier queries a number.

However, we will need the Twilio project owner to write in the request to us. Please ask Zendesk reach out to us with providing the phone number and the name you would like to update. CNAM is limited to 15 characters because of an industry standard.

Piling on... adding to the requests for Caller ID/ANI control. Please make this a higher priority, Zendesk team.

Adding to the request for Caller ID on outbound calls. With the proliferation of SPAM calls it is unreasonable that we would expect our customers to accept a call from a random number and city. We need the Caller ID to reflect that we are calling.

I'll beat the dead horse too- this should be a priority. 

Why is ZD ignoring requests for this feature?? It is such basic functionality for any business/support phone line and does not make sense to have to use an external number workaround. Customers are missing our outbound calls because they see the 855 number and assume it's a spam call or telemarketer. I would like an update on the ETA for this please. 

I agree, this seems like table stakes. What is the ETA for this? 

In the meantime @chad29 thanks for the pro tip. I'll give it a try.

This definitely needs to be done Zendesk! it has almost been 3 years and there is still no resolution for this.

Adding to the request here. This is critical for any business that is making outbound calls.

I am adding to this as well.  We just started to use Talk and found it surprising that we didn't have a tool to specify the Caller ID. 

I'm also adding to this request. Definitely an issue for us right now, it makes it much less likely we'll be able to get our customers to answer important calls from us.

Adding my voice here. Would be wonderful to display caller ID for our business.

We need this feature, Zendesk! As many others have already stated, the proliferation of spam calls all but ensures our customers will not pick up when they see some random number on their caller ID. Being able to display the company name is critical to the success of our outbound calls.

Please fix this. We’re losing potential revenue at our bank because the Caller ID shows it’s from the state. Is there an ETA?

Adding my two cents here as well. While I was demoing Zendesk Talk to the C-Level executives in our company, the COO kindly ask to place an outbound call to his number and the caller ID showed Hope BC, right away he said we need that it shows our company name.