How to route inbound calls to a Remote Agent

Getting an inbound call to ring a Remote agent — a forwarded external phone number rather than a softphone on your VICIdial server — requires wiring three things together correctly: a CLOSER campaign, at least one Ingroup (inbound group or queue), and a DID (direct inward dialing) that points to those queues. Miss any piece and the call either drops, rings the wrong place, or never reaches the Remote Agent at all.

The three pieces you need before you start

• A CLOSER campaign — VICIdial's inbound campaign type. This is the container the Remote Agent registers under. Outbound campaigns will not work here.
• One or more in-groups — these are the call queues inbound callers land in while they wait. You'll assign them to both the DID and the Remote Agent record.
• A DID (direct inward dial number) with a DID route pointing to the right in-group. This is the phone number your callers dial.

The full inbound call flow

sequenceDiagram
  participant Caller
  participant DID
  participant InGroup
  participant CloserCampaign
  participant RemoteAgent
  participant ExternalPhone
  Caller->>DID: Dials your number
  DID->>InGroup: DID route sends call to queue
  InGroup->>CloserCampaign: Call waits, system finds an agent
  CloserCampaign->>RemoteAgent: Matches Remote Agent with this in-group selected
  RemoteAgent->>ExternalPhone: VICIdial dials the external extension
  ExternalPhone-->>Caller: Agent answers, call bridges

The caller never knows their call bounced through VICIdial to a forwarded number. From their perspective it's just a normal call that got answered.

Step-by-step setup

1. Create a CLOSER campaign. In VICIdial Admin go to Campaigns → Add Campaign. Set the campaign type to CLOSER. Give it a name you'll recognize.
2. Create an in-group. Go to Inbound → In-Groups → Add In-Group. Set the queue music, max wait time, and any IVR message. Note the in-group ID.
3. Set your DID route. Go to Inbound → DIDs, find your number, and set the DID Route to IN_GROUP. Select the in-group you just created.
4. Configure the Remote Agent record. Open or create your Remote Agent. Set Campaign to the CLOSER campaign. In the Inbound Groups section, select the same in-group.
5. Set the Remote Agent to ACTIVE and test. Dial the DID from an external phone. VICIdial should call the Remote Agent's external extension and bridge the call.

Checking it's working

Open the Real-time report (Admin → Real-Time → Campaign) for your CLOSER campaign while a test call is in progress. You should see the Remote Agent lines listed (R/111, R/112, etc.) and the call appear in the queue. If the Remote Agent lines don't show, double-check the Status field is ACTIVE and the Campaign field points to this CLOSER campaign.

For full context on what Remote Agents are and when to use them, read VICIdial Remote Agents Explained. For the difference between a Remote Agent and a standard logged-in agent, see Remote Agent vs Standard Agent.

If you'd rather have a managed VICIdial host where the inbound routing and server setup are already handled, see what's included on VICIfast's pricing plans.