How VICIdial Dispositions Decide Lead Recycling

When an agent dispositions a call, the status they pick does more than label the record. Its flags decide whether the lead ever gets dialed again. Understanding that link is the difference between a list that works itself efficiently and one that either burns out fast or never stops re-calling the same dead numbers. Here is how the flags govern recycling.

Callable versus terminal statuses

Think of every status as either terminal or callable. The terminal flags on the System Statuses screen are DNC, Not Interested, Unworkable, and Completed. Each of these takes a record out of rotation, just for a different reason. DNC means the number should never be called again and counts toward DNC totals. Not Interested means do not call again, but the lead stays off any DNC list. Unworkable means the lead is not viable regardless of interest. Completed means the work is done without being any of the above.

Everything else is callable. A No Answer, a Busy, a non-final outcome: these leave the Lead eligible to be worked again. That is the raw material of Lead recycling, where the dialer feeds previously-attempted records back into the Hopper under your rules so a temporarily-unreachable contact gets another shot.

The recycling decision

flowchart TD
  A[Agent sets disposition] --> B{Terminal flag set?}
  B -->|DNC| C[Parked, suppressed]
  B -->|Not Interested| C
  B -->|Unworkable| C
  B -->|Completed| C
  B -->|None| D[Callable status]
  D --> E{Matches recycle rule?}
  E -->|Yes| F[Back into hopper]
  E -->|No| G[Waits for next pass]

Read it as a gate. A Disposition carrying any terminal flag never reaches the recycle question. A callable Status (lead status) does, and whether it actually goes back into the hopper then depends on your recycle rules for that code and the wait time you set.

Why this is worth getting right

Mis-flag a status and recycling does the wrong thing. Flag a transient No Answer as Completed and you throw away a contactable lead. Leave a genuine refusal callable and the dialer keeps re-dialing someone who already said no, which wastes dials and risks complaints. The flags are the contract between an agent's one-click disposition and the dialer's pacing engine, so the engine knows which records are still in play.

This is also why your custom codes need their flags set carefully. A new disposition with no terminal flag is callable by default, which is usually what you want for an intermediate outcome but a disaster for a final one. When you build one, decide up front whether it should recycle. The guide to adding a custom disposition covers where to set each flag.

Tuning recycling to the list

Once your terminal flags are right, the rest of recycling is policy: how long to wait before re-dialing a Busy, how many attempts a No Answer gets before you give up, which non-final statuses feed back in at all. Those rules sit on the campaign and the list, but they only ever apply to the callable side of the gate. The flags decide the gate; the rules decide the timing. For the full agent-screen context, read the VICIdial agent screen configuration guide.

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