A local number, included
Every agent gets its own number in the region the client asks for: Auckland 09, Christchurch 03, Wellington 04, or an Australian local number. Never a number a stranger used before.
Phone
A real number, a real voice, the first ring.
The phone is where a business wins or loses the job, and where every agent starts. A local number is included; the advertised number diverts to it in minutes.
What the channel gives you
A business phone line with an agent on the end of it
Underneath the agent sits a phone product. The numbers sit on Talkgate's own carrier account, so routing is Talkgate's to change, and nobody is held hostage by their number.
Keep the advertised number
The business diverts its advertised number to the agent's number on its own carrier: forward all, when unanswered, when busy, or when off. The only step the client does themselves.
Port in, port out
A number can be ported in from another provider and ported back out if the business ever leaves. Porting is charged once per number, with the amount stated on the form.
Through to a person
One general rule, then a number and a condition per line. Staff mobiles, the office line, a ring group. The record shows who was put through and whether they picked up.
On the number's clock
The clock lives on the number: New Zealand, the Chathams, or an Australian state. Trading hours, “tomorrow” and bookings read it, and after-hours behaviour is set on its own. See after hours.
A local voice
Over 80 English-speaking voices, New Zealand and Australian, male and female, plus te reo Māori and other languages. The whole New Zealand gazetteer is said properly, along with the business's own words.
How a number goes live
From sign-up to answering, usually the same day
- The agent is built from a template. Reception, sales, bookings or another shape, with the business's website read into the knowledge base.
- A number is chosen. A new local number in the right region is allocated to the agent. There is no hardware and nothing to install.
- The business sets the divert. On its own line, with dial codes for the main carriers. A missed divert is the most common support call.
- The first call is answered. On the first ring, in the business's own greeting, with a text and email summary following within seconds.
What the business gets
A line that behaves like a line, with a record of every call
Five, ten or fifteen calls can be answered at once on one number, with no queue and no hold music. Every call is logged on the dashboard with a summary, and a recording and transcript if the business switches them on.
Calls, transcription and recordings are handled in New Zealand and Australian data centres, and nowhere else. See security.
A business that already runs a phone system or carries its own trunk is connected with you during onboarding rather than through a self-serve form. How that works is on the platform page.
Two things to state plainly. Showing a number that is not held on the platform, such as the owner's personal mobile, as the outgoing caller ID is not something to promise. And the platform cannot set a client's divert for them: it cannot fix a call that never reaches it.
Sold through partners
The channel every client starts on
Every agent comes with its number, so the phone channel is not an add-on but the product itself. You set the price and help the client with the divert on day one; Talkgate runs the platform and the numbers. Porting or an existing phone system is agreed in the briefing, and the partner programme covers the rest.
Next step
Ring a live number and hear it pick up
A partner briefing walks through numbers, diverts, porting and transfers against your clients' actual phone setups. See also the reception agent and transfers and escalation.