Edit

Share via

Support emergency calls made by agents

  • Article

Applies to: Dynamics 365 Contact Center—embedded, Dynamics 365 Contact Center—standalone, and Dynamics 365 Customer Service

This article describes how emergency calling works when agents dial an emergency number during crisis situations.

Note

  • Emergency calling is currently supported in the United States, United Kingdom, Denmark, Canada, and Puerto Rico only where the emergency calling number is 911.
  • If the Customize active conversation form is enabled and an agent initiates an outbound call to emergency services, the active conversation form doesn't display the Save and Refresh options.

Prerequisites

For emergency calls to work, make sure that the following prerequisites are met.

  • The omnichannel agent user has a capacity profile associated with a voice outbound profile. Learn more in Configure capacity profiles and Create outbound profiles.

  • Browser location setting is enabled, and set to United States, United Kingdom, Denmark, Canada, or Puerto Rico.

  • For email notification, the mailbox for the agents is enabled.

  • For an emergency call to be handled, one of the following conditions is fulfilled:

    • The number from which the call originates is a Microsoft calling plan number.

    Note

    If you use a third-party public switched telephone network (PSTN) carrier, discuss the emergency calling behavior with the carrier and then configure it.

    • When the Azure Communication Services resource (tenant) has both direct routing (third-party PSTN carrier number) and at least one direct offer (Microsoft calling plan number) enabled and there's no direct routing rule for the emergency number, the call follows the direct offer path and is routed to our direct offer emergency calling service. Learn more in Voice routing considersations.

How emergency calls work

In the Customer Service workspace or Contact Center workspace, agents can use the dialer to call the emergency number during a crisis.

Here's how the emergency call works:

  1. The agent calls the emergency number such as 911 in the United States, United Kingdom, Denmark, Canada, or Puerto Rico.
  2. The agent status automatically changes to "Do not disturb," irrespective of the current status.
  3. A temporary callback number is assigned to the agent for a duration of 60 minutes.
  4. If the emergency call drops or gets disconnected, then the emergency responder can call back the agent via this callback number. The emergency callback gets the highest priority, bypassing all configured routing rules, capacity profiles, and presence settings.
  5. During the ongoing emergency conversation, the Communication Panel displays the device settings and the End call button only. An alert appears indicating that an emergency call is in progress.
  6. To ensure confidentiality, the application doesn't record or store the outgoing and incoming emergency calls as activities in call history.
  7. If you configure emergency contacts, an automated email message goes out to the contacts when the agent dials the emergency number.
  8. When the agent ends the emergency call, the agent presence changes back to the prior status.

Set up email recipients

When the agent makes an emergency call, the system can send an automated email to their supervisors or whoever needs to be informed about the call to ensure efficient emergency responder access. The system uses the Emergency Call Notification Template to send the email. You can use the Editor to modify the template.

  1. In the Customer Service admin center or Contact Center admin center, go to User management in Customer support, and for Users, select Manage.
  2. On the page that appears, select the Omnichannel Users view, and then select the user that you want to update.
  3. Select the Omnichannel tab, and in Emergency Call Notifications, add the email addresses of the recipients separated by a semicolon.
  4. Save the changes.

Set up outbound calling in the voice channel
Set up inbound calling in the voice channel
Customize email template using template editor