Live Call Routing (LCR) allows organizations to expand their customer support by directing incoming phone calls and voicemails to on-call responders. We provide a fixed, dedicated number (local or toll-free, where available), which will dynamically route calls or voicemails to the PagerDuty on-call responder and trigger incidents.

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Requirements

You must have Live Call Routing enabled on your account before you can configure it.

• Live Call Routing is available as an add-on to customers on Professional and Business plans, and it’s included on the following pricing plans: Enterprise for Incident Management and Digital Operations (Legacy). Please contact our Sales Team if you would like to upgrade to a plan with this feature.
• All users (with the exception of Limited Users) can view, add, edit and delete numbers on the Live Call Routing page once enabled.
• Some accounts may have opted to require users to log in to view the Live Call Routing page, and to restrict page editing to Manager, Global Admin and Account Owner base roles. Please contact your Account Manager if you would like to adjust these settings.

Add a Live Call Routing Number

US Service Region

1. Navigate to Integrations Your Integrations Live Call Routing.
2. Click New Routing Number (if this button is not visible, you have reached your maximum number of lines. Please contact our Sales Team if you would like to purchase additional lines).
3. Select the Country where you'd like the number to be based, and enter the area code (optional), if available.
4. Click Continue to create the number.
5. Enter a Name for the routing number. You will see your Live Call Routing number automatically generated below this name.
6. Under What should happen when a call is connected? choose one of the following options:

• Play greeting and go to voicemail. Send the voicemail recording to the current on-call responder.
• Play greeting and call the current on-call responder. This option requires additional configuration:
  • Choose one of the following call display options:
    • Show the incoming caller's number on the call display (Default)
    • Show [YOUR-LCR-NUMBER-HERE] on call display.
  • How long before call escalates to the next level (seconds): Select how many seconds you would like to pass before escalating.
  • Skip Numbers that were already dialed on other EP levels (optional).
  • Resolve Incident when call is completed with on-call user (optional).

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Toll-Free LCR number regulations in Australia

Due to local regulations, toll-free LCR numbers cannot send calls in Australia. Customers using these numbers should not select Show [YOUR-LCR-NUMBER-HERE] on call display option from the step above.

7. Under How should caller be greeted on the call? choose one of the following options:

• Read a greeting message for me: Enter the message that you would like the caller to hear when they call via automated message. If you would prefer that service names are not listed in this message, check the Only play this greeting, do not read out the service name(s) checkbox.
• Upload my own audio file to use as the greeting: You may upload your own MP3 audio file to play instead of an automated message. Click Choose File, select your audio file and then proceed with the following steps.

8. Select an associated Service where you would like incidents to trigger. This automatically assigns the service to Keypad # 1. To add more services, click Add Another Service.
9. When you are finished adding your services, click Update Routing Number. This will save your Live Call Routing number.

To add additional Live Call Routing lines, or to request a toll-free Live Call Routing number, please reach out to our Sales Team.

EU Service Region

Due to local regulations, we do not support self-service purchases of Live Call Routing numbers in the EU service region. Please contact our Sales or Customer Success teams if you'd like to enable an additional Live Call Routing number in the EU service region.

Edit a Live Call Routing Number

1. Navigate to Integrations Your Integrations Live Call Routing and click View Settings on the number you would like to edit.
2. Make the edits necessary and then click Update Routing Number.

Delete a Live Call Routing Number

1. Navigate to Integrations Your Integrations Live Call Routing and click Delete on the number you would like to delete.
2. Click Ok on the prompt that appears to delete the number.

Supported Countries

A Live Call Routing phone number’s availability will vary depending on your country and service region.

Note: While the lists below represent countries where we can currently create an inbound Live Call Routing number, responders can receive Live Call Routing-generated calls in any supported country.

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Availability

If you would like to set up a Live Call Routing number in a country that is not listed here, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or PagerDuty Support to confirm current availability.

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Calls to China no Longer Supported

As of November 2023, calls to responders with Chinese prefix numbers (+86) are no longer supported in the Live Call Routing application. This change is due to Twilio's updated policy , which no longer supports calls to Chinese numbers.

Regular Phone Numbers

US Service Region

• Australia
• Canada
• Czech Republic/Czechia
• Israel
• Puerto Rico
• United Kingdom of Great Britain and North Ireland
• United States of America

Toll-Free Numbers

Subject to availability, you can configure a toll-free Live Call Routing phone number in the following countries. Toll-free numbers are administered separately from regular phone numbers. Please contact our Sales Team if you would like to upgrade to a plan with this feature.

US Service Region

• Canada
• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• United States of America

Configuration Behavior

There are two ways to configure Live Call Routing's connection type:

• Play greeting and go to voicemail. (The current on-call responder will receive the voicemail recording)
• Play greeting and call the current on-call responder

Play Greeting and Go to Voicemail

This setting triggers an incident after the caller leaves a voicemail. The caller's message will attach to a newly triggered incident, which is assigned to the on-call responder on the first level of the escalation policy. If more than one person is on-call, PagerDuty assigns the incident to all responders on the first escalation rule. The incident then escalates according to the service's escalation policy.

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Disable Voicemail (US Service Region only)

Customers in the US service region may optionally disable voicemail in their Live Call Routing configuration, if it represents a security risk, for example. If you wish to disable callers’ ability to leave a voicemail, please contact our Support team.

Listen to a Voicemail

To listen to an incident’s appended voicemail, you will need to navigate to either the Incidents page or view the incident itself and then click the Show Details link. Click the Listen to Recording link and you will be able to listen to the voicemail.

To listen to the voicemail from the mobile app, tap the incident to view the incident details. Then, tap the Listen to Recording link.

Play Greeting and Call the Current On-Call Responder

This setting creates an acknowledged incident when a responder answers the call. You can configure the incident to automatically resolve when the call ends. If a responder has more than one phone number on their user profile, PagerDuty will call them at the first number listed on their Contact Information tab.

Escalation Behaviors

• PagerDuty will attempt to connect the caller with the on-call responder on the first level of the escalation policy.
• You can configure how long each responder has to answer the call before it escalates to the next responder. The default is 20 seconds.
• If more than one responder is on-call, PagerDuty will randomly cycle through all responders on an escalation level.
• If your account uses Round Robin Scheduling, please note that Live Call Routing may attempt to contact all on-call responders on an escalation level in certain situations. This is Live Call Routing's default behavior when there are multiple users or schedules on an escalation level and Live Call Routing is configured to connect directly to the on-call user.
• If the responder does not answer the call, PagerDuty will attempt to contact on-call responders at each remaining level of the escalation policy until someone answers. Please note that PagerDuty will not attempt to call the first level responders again. Even if you configured the escalation policy to repeat one or more times, it will only go through the escalation policy one time.
• If still no one answers, PagerDuty will prompt the caller to leave a message. An incident will trigger, with the incident description containing the inbound caller ID, and it will assign to the on-call responder on the first level of the escalation policy.
• The incident will then escalate as expected according to the service's escalation policy.

Show the Live Call Routing Number on Your Phone's Display

For calls that connect directly with responders, you can select an option to show the Live Call Routing number, instead of the caller's number, when they receive a call. This can be helpful to add to a contacts list, for example, so it is clear when a call relates to PagerDuty and Live Call Routing.

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Country Requirement

This feature is currently only available for US- and Canada-based Live Call Routing numbers. The number that appears on the call display of responders' phones is not configurable for Live Call Routing numbers outside of Canada and U.S.A. due to restrictions in these countries. It will usually show as the number of the original caller (rather than the Live Call Routing number).

Prevent Live Call Routing from Reading Your Services' Names

If you select Read a greeting message for me (Step 7 of Add a Live Call Routing Number) Live Call Routing will, by default, attempt to read your services' names to the caller so they can connect to the correct escalation policy. If your services reference internal jargon, this information may not make sense to the caller.

You can configure Live Call Routing to only play the greeting and not read out services' names. Please note that if you select this option, you'll need to update the greeting with more caller-friendly information.

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Text-to-Speech Pronunciation

We recommend listening to the text-to-speech greeting to ensure the pronunciation of special phrases or abbreviations are correct and in the desired format. For example, you may need to enter "knock" for "NOC" or "V I P" for "VIP".

Upload Your Own Audio Message

You may choose to upload your own audio file to play for the caller, instead of an automated message. Select Upload my own audio file to use as the greeting and upload an MP3 file.

Tie Multiple Services to a Live Call Routing Number

You can associate up to nine services with a single Live Call Routing number. This creates a phone-tree-like structure, which prompts the caller to select an option. When dialing in, an automated voice will announce, "Press 1 for Nagios Critical. Press 2 for Datadog Alerts… etc." Depending on the caller's selection, after a brief moment they'll connect with the appropriate response team. If the caller does not make a selection, the greeting will loop three times and then end the call.

To change the order in which services announce (most critical first, for instance), you can rearrange the list of services on a routing number's Edit screen.

Troubleshooting Guide

"You have reached a PagerDuty Live Call Routing line that is not set up yet; please call back later"

If you hear this message when calling your Live Call Routing number, here are some things you should check:

1. Is your Live Call Routing instance associated with at least one service?
2. Are the service(s) using your Live Call Routing instance disabled or in a maintenance window?
3. Is anyone on call for this service? Note that an incident cannot trigger if no one is on call.
4. Do the on-call responders in the service's escalation policy have a phone contact method listed in the Contact Information section of their user profile? Note that Live Call Routing will not check the SMS field, so on-call responders must have a number listed in the Phone field of their contact information in order for it to work.

FAQ

What happens when none of the users in an escalation policy have a phone number in their contact methods?

What happens when the first contacted person does not have a phone number in their contact methods to contact?

What happens if I send an SMS message to a Live Call Routing number?

What happens if no one is on-call in the escalation policy?

What happens if no one is on-call on the first level of the escalation policy, but there are people on-call at a higher level?

What happens if I set the Live Call Routing service to low-urgency, or if it has support hours and it’s on a low-urgency setting during the time of the call?

Will Live Call Routing follow the timing rules I have set between escalation policy levels?

No, Live Call Routing does not follow the timing rules between escalation policy levels when you select the connect directly option. To ensure that your callers connect to a responder as quickly as possible, if the user on the first escalation level does not answer the call, Live Call Routing will immediately try to contact the on-call responder at the next escalation level, and so on.