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Talkdesk offers two options for configuring an Outbound Caller ID: 

• “Customized” Caller ID
• “Automated” Caller ID

Both configuration options determine whether agents are able to choose the phone number to call from manually (“Customized”), or whether the system chooses it for them (“Automated”).

Please note that, in some cases, the Outbound Caller ID may not be displayed to the callee. Learn more here.

Customized vs Automated Caller ID

Customized Caller ID

The “Customized” caller ID option allows agents to select which number to use as their outbound caller ID, on a call-by-call basis. They can only select phone numbers that are assigned to them via ring groups. 

Once the “Customized” option is selected, Admins will be able to choose whether the “Default” option will be available in the Outbound Caller ID dropdown or not.

Automated Caller ID

When the “Automated” option is selected, Talkdesk will choose the best number to make the call from. To apply this option, first, select numbers that the agent making the call has access to (this means numbers the agent shares a ring group with). From there, the selection criteria order is the following:

• Find a number with the same area code prefix (excluding Toll-free numbers and dedicated lines).
• Find a number within the same state (excluding Toll-free numbers and dedicated lines).
• When placing an outbound call, if the area prefix of the number being called does not match any of the numbers for the selected ring groups, the phone selector will attempt to select a phone number that is in the same state as the number being called (available for US, Canada, and Brazil), even if they have different area prefixes.
• Find numbers in the same country and with the same country prefix (excluding Toll-free numbers and dedicated lines).
• If no number was found, use any number that is not Toll-free nor a dedicated line.
• If there is still no match, find a Toll free number in the same country and with the same country prefix.
• If no number was found, ignore ring groups, and from these:
  • Choose the first Toll-Free number in the account.
  • Finally, if still no match is found, include dedicated lines and choose the first in the account.

For example, if an account has US and Canadian numbers and an agent is calling a customer with a US number, Talkdesk will automatically use the US number that is not a Toll-free number nor a dedicated line as the caller ID. Also, if there are various numbers from the same country, Talkdesk will give priority to numbers with the same area prefix. This helps give you a local presence, by calling from the nearest number in your account to the person you're calling.

Configuring an Outbound Caller ID

By default, Talkdesk automatically chooses the best number to display as your Outbound Caller ID. However, it is also possible to manually select the phone number to use when making an outbound call.

If you wish to allow your agents to manually select the Outbound Caller ID for each call, you can turn this setting on. To do so, please follow these instructions:

Note: If you are in Talkdesk Classic, you can access all the features described below by navigating to the “Admin” section > “Preferences” tab. 

1. Log in to your Talkdesk account.
2. Click on “Admin”.  In the “Admin” app, select the “Preferences” tab.
3. Scroll down to the "Agent Workflow" section.
4. Next to "Outbound Caller ID Selection", select Customized [1] to enable a manual selection of the Outbound Caller ID.
5. Click “Save” at the bottom of the page.

Note: As an Administrator, once you choose the “Customized” option, you can enable or disable the "Default" option [2] that allows agents to automatically select the best outbound caller ID. To do this, they will simply need to select the number from Conversations.

Selecting the Outbound Caller ID

If your Administrator has enabled Custom outbound caller ID permissions, you can choose which phone number to display as the caller ID when making a call. When this option is enabled, a dropdown menu is displayed, allowing you to select your desired outbound caller ID per call:

Once a phone number has been selected, it will be used for all your outbound calls until the outbound caller ID phone number is changed again, or the "Default" option is selected. In this case, Talkdesk automatically determines the best number to use based on the phone number you are calling. If agents choose the "Default" setting, it will operate exactly the same way as “Automated”.

Troubleshooting tip: If an agent is not able to use a specific number as an outbound caller ID, this typically means that the appropriate ring groups are not associated with the number they want to use. Check to ensure that the ring group associated with a number is also associated with the agent.

Notes:

• You can define a specific phone number to be used as the “Outbound Caller ID” and specify different outbound caller ID settings per agent.
• It is also possible to configure the Outbound Caller ID to be a phone number that you own but is not in Talkdesk. Please contact Talkdesk Support.
• The CNAM (Caller ID Name) is a separate configuration and is not related to the Outbound Caller ID.