How to slow down VICIdial dialing

If your customers keep answering to silence, or your agents keep getting calls thrown at them before they have finished the last one, your dialer is running too hot. Slowing VICIdial down is mostly about one number, and once you know which one it is, the fix takes a minute. Here is how to ease off without disrupting the whole campaign.

The setting that controls speed

Speed comes from the Dial level on the Campaign Detail screen. It tells VICIdial how many lines to open per active agent. At 1.0 the dialer places roughly one call for each agent. At 3.0 it places three. The higher that number, the more calls land per agent, and the more often a live person answers with nobody free to talk to them.

How you change it depends on your Dial method. In RATIO mode you type a lower number into the dial-level field and submit. In any of the ADAPT modes the dialer owns the level and you cannot edit it directly, but you can still slow things down using the levers below. For the bigger picture on how all of this fits together, the VICIdial dialing strategies guide walks through every dialing mode.

If you are in a predictive (ADAPT) mode

Predictive dialing means the algorithm sets the pace for you, so you steer it indirectly. There are three useful brakes:

• Lower the Maximum Adapt Dial Level. This caps how aggressive the dialer is allowed to get. Drop it from 3.0 to 2.0 and the dialer can never run more than two lines per agent.
• Set the Dial Level Difference Target to -1. This tells VICIdial to aim for one free agent at all times, which holds calls back and keeps a person ready to answer.
• Lower the Drop Percentage Limit. The dialer treats this as its ceiling for abandoned calls. A tighter ceiling forces it to dial more cautiously.

Give it time. The predictive engine averages recent call performance, so a change can take fifteen to thirty seconds to show up in the live numbers. Do not yank the levers back and forth in a panic.

The blunt instrument: switch to manual

If you want the dialer to stop pushing entirely, set the dial-method to MANUAL. That locks the dial level at zero, and agents click to place each call themselves. It is slower, but every call has a human ready on your end, so your Drop rate goes to zero. It is a good safety mode while you sort out a list problem or a staffing crunch.

Watch the right number

Open the real-time campaign screen after any change. Watch the live dial level, the dropped-call count, and the number of waiting agents. If drops are still climbing, you have not slowed down enough. For a deeper treatment of that specific symptom, see how to lower your VICIdial drop rate. If you would rather not babysit any of this, a managed dialer host tunes pacing for you. See what that looks like on our pricing page.