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When to use the RELEASE button on a QC call

The red RELEASE button hands a claimed call back to the queue unfinished and clears your scores — here is when that is the right move.

VICIfast Support
··3 min read
When to use the RELEASE button on a QC call

Next to the green FINISH button on the QC display screen is a red RELEASE button. It does the opposite of finishing: it gives the call back to the queue without completing the review. Releasing is the safety valve for the times you realize a call should not be in your hands, or that the score you started needs to begin again from scratch.

What RELEASE does

Clicking RELEASE relinquishes your ownership of the call and purges any scorecard data you had entered for it. The call goes back into the available pool where any reviewer can claim it again, and the slot it was using under your claim limit opens back up. There is no confirmation that keeps your scores — releasing is a clean reset, not a pause. If you only want to step away for a while, do not release; the call stays claimed and your scores stay put as long as you leave it alone.

RELEASE wipes the scores and comments you entered on this call. There is no undo. Only release when you genuinely want to start over or hand the call to someone else.

When releasing is the right call

A few situations make RELEASE the correct move:

  • Wrong reviewer — you claimed a call that should be scored by someone else, or one you are too close to to judge fairly.
  • Needs a manager — the call is borderline and you want a senior reviewer to take it instead.
  • Checkpoint changes applied — the scorecard was edited after you claimed the call, and you want it re-claimed so the new checkpoints take effect.

That last one is the most common reason. Because a claimed call holds the scorecard it had at claim time, the only way to score it against an updated Campaign or Ingroup scorecard is to release it and claim it again. Releasing then re-claiming pulls the current version. For how the dialer decides which scorecard a fresh claim gets, see how claiming a QC call works.

FINISH vs RELEASE at a glance

flowchart TD
  A[Claimed call open] --> B{Review complete?}
  B -- Yes --> C[Click FINISH]
  C --> D[Scores committed and status set]
  B -- No, wrong call or stale scorecard --> E[Click RELEASE]
  E --> F[Scores purged, call back in queue]
  F --> G[Anyone can re-claim]

The two buttons are not interchangeable. FINISH commits your scores, applies a QC Status (lead status), and marks the record done. RELEASE throws the scores away and reopens the call for anyone. Picking the wrong one costs work either way — finish a call you meant to release and you have to re-claim and redo it; release a finished-quality review and you lose every checkpoint you entered.

Releasing after the call has aged past the QC expiry window can drop it from the queue entirely, since the dialer filters out calls older than the expiry days. Release promptly if you intend for the call to be re-reviewed.

Used well, RELEASE keeps the queue honest — wrong claims and stale scorecards go back instead of producing a bad evaluation. For how releasing fits into the wider review flow and what the recording link and Call recording playback give you, read the quality-control guide.

A tidy QC queue starts with a box that just works. VICIfast runs managed VICIdial with QC ready to claim, live in under 40 seconds. See our plans and pricing.

About VICIfast LLC

VICIfast LLC operates a managed VICIdial hosting + BYOI service for outbound and inbound call centers. We run the dialers, the carriers, the recordings pipeline, and the compliance plumbing so operators don’t have to.

Citing this article

VICIfast Engineering. “When to use the RELEASE button on a QC call”. VICIfast LLC, June 26, 2026. Retrieved from https://vicifast.com/blog/how-to-release-a-qc-call

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