Emergency calling is available in some countries (United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, Ireland, France, Germany, and Austria), enabling outbound calls to be made to emergency services (for example, 911, 999, and 112). In the event of an emergency, agents can quickly get in contact with emergency services using the call console.

In the event that an emergency address is not registered to a US or Canada based number, 911 calls are routed to a national emergency call center. A trained agent at the emergency call center asks for the caller’s name, phone number, and location. Then, they transfer the caller to the appropriate local Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) or otherwise determine the best way to provide emergency services. If you make a 911 call from a US or Canada phone number that does not have an associated emergency address, Zendesk reserves the right to pass the associated fee onto you.

In all cases, you should use traditional telephony for making emergency calls, if possible. Emergency calling in Zendesk is Internet-based and is different and limited compared to traditional land line or cellular services. For example, it may be unavailable due to loss of power, Internet connectivity, technical infeasibility, suspension of services due to billing issues, Zendesk outage, or an outage within your network, or the network of our underlying provider or their carriers.

In the US and Canada, Zendesk supports Enhanced 911 (E911). With E911, an emergency address can be associated with any US or Canada based phone number. Calls made from numbers with an associated emergency address are routed directly to the local Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) serving the address. The call automatically includes the caller’s phone number and corresponding address information for the 911 dispatcher answering the call.

Associating an emergency address with a phone number incurs a monthly fee per phone number. This monthly fee is charged by the state and/or local government to fund their emergency response systems and is passed on to you by Zendesk as part of your usage charges.

To associate an emergency address to a US or Canada phone number in Zendesk

1. In Admin Center, click Channels in the sidebar, then select Talk and email > Talk.
2. Click the Lines tab, then find the phone line you want to edit and open it.

   You can only add an emergency address to a U.S. or Canada phone number. Only one emergency address can be associated with a phone number at a given time.

3. On the Settings tab (of the phone line), scroll down to the Emergency Address section, and then click the Add address button.

   

4. Enter the physical address you want to associate with the phone line or, if you have previously entered the address, then select it from the dropdown list.

   This address may be used to dispatch police, fire, emergency medical and other emergency response resources. The address you enter is passed through an emergency address validation system and you may receive a suggested address, if a better match is found in the database.

   Note: In the US and Canada, the address must be recognized by the Master Street Address Guide (MSAG) database. The MSAG address often differs from the equivalent US Postal Service address because the MSAG uses the community name (township, city, county) from where the closest responding PSAP will come.
5. If prompted, confirm that you want to proceed with the suggested address.
6. Make sure you click Save changes before you leave the page.

   The address moves into the Pending registration state.

   

   Once registration of the emergency address to the phone number is complete, the status associated with the emergency address changes to Registered. It can take up to five minutes for the status of the emergency address to change.

   

If you want to check that your account has been properly configured for emergency calling, you can make a test call by dialing 933. You'll be connected to an automated system that reads back the phone number that you’re calling from, along with the address associated with that number.

This must be done sparingly. Some localities require you to schedule emergency test calls in advance and will charge penalties otherwise. You should check with your local authorities before placing any unscheduled emergency call tests.

To place a live emergency test call to 911

You can place a test call to verify the information that the emergency responder receives. Call 911 then use the following script.

• "Hello, this is not an emergency call. This is a test. Do you have a moment to verify my emergency information or can we schedule a later time to do so?"
• "Can you verify the address that you received for my call?" Confirm that this matches your intended emergency address.
• "Can you verify the telephone number you received for my call?" Confirm that this matches the phone number that you called from.
• "Thank you for your time."

If for any reason the address read back to you is incorrect, contact Zendesk Customer Support.

Making an emergency call is similar to making any other outbound call in the call console. The only important difference is that you do not need to enter the country code (for example, +1).

You can only dial emergency services in the country associated with your selected outbound number. For example, if you want to call US emergency services, the outbound number selected in the call console must be a US based phone number. If, for example, you had a French based phone number selected as the outbound number, a call to US emergency services (911) would not connect.

Agents can send proactive text messages to emergency phone numbers where available. For help creating proactive text messages, see Using Text notifications with triggers: Recipes and tips.

In addition to the steps in the article, you'll need to create an end user with a short code emergency number (for example 911, 999, or 988). You'll then specify that user as the requester when you sent a proactive message from a ticket.

Additionally, ensure that the setting Validate users phone numbers is unchecked (in Admin Center under People > Configuration > End users). If this setting is enabled, the users phone number must be in E.164 format meaning that short code numbers such as 911 will not validate and cannot be used.

In the event of a mental or emotional health emergency, agents can contact the US National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (988) using the call console. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is a national network of local crisis centers that provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the United States. Find more information about the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

The same restrictions and recommendations that apply to calling US emergency services (911) also apply to calling 988.