VICIdial MIN SEC and MAX SEC: Gating Statuses by Call Length

Agents pick the wrong outcome code more often than anyone likes to admit. A four-second call gets marked as a sale; a fifty-second conversation gets dropped under a quick-hangup code. VICIdial gives you two fields on each Status (lead status) to stop that: MIN SEC and MAX SEC. They gate whether an Agent can select a given Disposition based on how long the call actually ran.

What the two fields mean

MIN SEC is the shortest a call must be before a status becomes selectable. MAX SEC is the longest a call can be and still allow that status. The system measures the actual call length and compares it against both before it lets the status appear as a choice at hangup.

Two concrete examples make the rule clear. If a call is 10 seconds and the MIN SEC for a status is set to 20 seconds, the agent will not be able to select that status. If a call is 40 seconds and the MAX SEC for a status is set to 30 seconds, the agent will not be able to select that status either. The call has to fall inside the window the two fields define.

The decision, step by step

flowchart TD
  A[Call ends, length L known] --> B{L >= MIN SEC?}
  B -->|No| X[Status hidden / not selectable]
  B -->|Yes| C{L <= MAX SEC?}
  C -->|No| X
  C -->|Yes| D[Status is selectable]
  D --> E[Agent can choose this disposition]

A status only shows up when the call length is at least MIN SEC and at most MAX SEC. Miss either bound and the code is off the menu for that call. Leave a field at its default open value and that side of the window simply does not restrict anything.

Where to use it

• Put a MIN SEC on your sale status so a four-second misclick cannot be logged as a sale.
• Put a MAX SEC on a quick no-answer or fast-hangup code so it cannot be applied to a long conversation.
• Gate a callback or completed status behind a minimum length to make sure a real conversation happened first.

Set the windows where they live

MIN SEC and MAX SEC sit on each status, and that includes statuses inside a Status Group. So if you override dispositions for a particular list or Ingroup with a group, you can apply call-length gating there too, tuned to whatever that list's calls look like. A short verification list and a long consultative sales list can carry very different windows on the same box.

Keep the windows loose at first. Over-tight bounds frustrate agents when a legitimate call sits just outside the window and the correct code refuses to appear. Watch a few days of real call lengths, then tighten only the codes that are genuinely being misused.

Why it helps your numbers

Cleaner dispositions mean cleaner reports. When sales cannot be logged on calls too short to be real, your conversion and quality figures stop lying to you, and the human_answered counts that feed your abandon math stay honest. Gating is a small setting that quietly protects the data you make decisions on.

To see where these statuses appear for the agent, read the VICIdial agent screen configuration guide. To scope gated statuses to a single list or in-group, see how to override statuses per list.

Call-length gating is built into every status on every VICIfast dialer. See our pricing and get a managed VICIdial box live in under 40 seconds.