What the adapt_hard_limit dial method does

If your campaign is set to ADAPT_HARD_LIMIT, the dialer is making the pacing decisions for you and watching one number very closely: your drop rate. It will push call volume up while answers are coming in cleanly, then refuse to push any harder the instant your dropped-call percentage reaches the limit you set. That is the whole personality of this dial method, and it is worth understanding before you point a busy campaign at it.

How the hard limit actually behaves

ADAPT_HARD_LIMIT is one of VICIdial's adaptive predictive dialing methods. It raises and lowers the auto dial level on its own based on recent call performance. The part that makes it 'hard limit' is the ceiling: once your campaign's dropped-call percentage reaches the limit you configured, the dialer will not allow aggressive dialing to continue. It holds back until that percentage falls again, then resumes climbing.

Because you are in an ADAPT method, you cannot type a value into the dial level field by hand. Only the dialer changes it. If you genuinely need to force a value, there is an ADAPT OVERRIDE checkbox next to the field, but reach for that only when something dramatic has shifted in your lead quality, such as a fresh batch of much warmer leads dropping in mid-shift.

The practical effect is a kind of sawtooth: pacing climbs, you brush the cap, pacing eases off, drops recover, pacing climbs again. Watch it on the Real-time screen for a few minutes and the pattern becomes obvious. That self-correcting behavior is exactly what you want from a method whose whole job is to keep you under a regulatory line without you babysitting it.

The two settings that shape it

Two campaign fields define the boundaries this method works inside:

• Drop Percentage Limit — the ceiling the method enforces. In the US the regulatory number is 3% of answered calls; you can set yours lower if you want more headroom.
• Maximum Adapt Dial Level — the most lines per agent the dialer is allowed to reach. Default is 3.0; raise it only if your hardware and carrier can carry the channels.

Together they form a box: the dialer freely tunes pacing inside it but cannot break through the top edge. That is different from ADAPT_TAPERED, which lets you run hot early in the shift and tightens as your stop time approaches. If you keep crossing the cap, the problem is usually upstream of the dial method — see how to lower your VICIdial drop rate for the usual suspects.

When to choose it

Pick ADAPT_HARD_LIMIT when you want predictive speed but treat your drop limit as a line you will not cross, not a target to flirt with. Compliance-sensitive consumer campaigns are the natural fit. It needs a healthy dialing strategy around it — enough agents to average over, and a steady flow of dialable leads in the queue. With only one or two agents the math has too little to average, so a hard-limit predictive method will feel jumpy.

If you are weighing this against simpler pacing or sizing a fresh fleet of dialers for a campaign like this, our plans lay out the headroom on each one — take a look at the options on the pricing page.