Campaign Caller ID: setting the number you dial from

Every outbound call your campaign places carries a number that shows up on the other person's phone. In VICIdial, the simplest place to control that number is the Campaign Caller ID field. Set it once, and every call the dialer makes for that campaign sends the same number. Here is what the field actually does and how to fill it in without surprises.

What the field controls

Campaign Caller ID sets the CID (caller ID) number sent on calls the dialer places directly for the campaign. The default value is UNKNOWN. It applies to the campaign's own outbound calls, not to third-party calls or transfers an agent makes by hand, so do not expect it to follow a Warm transfer.

For this to work on the wire, your Carrier has to allow you to set the outbound number on each call. Most VoIP and SIP trunk providers do, which covers nearly everyone on modern hosting. Older PRI and T1 circuits need a specific feature enabled, and robbed-bit lines will not pass a custom number at all.

Why you should not leave it as UNKNOWN

Leaving the word UNKNOWN in the field is unpredictable. Some carriers respond by sending the default number assigned to your trunk instead, so your calls go out under a number you may not have meant to use. If you genuinely want to suppress the number, a string of zeros is more reliable than the word UNKNOWN. But in almost every real campaign you want a real, working number that someone can call back, because calls from a blank or odd number get ignored and can look like a Spam Likely label tag waiting to happen.

Picking a good number

Use a number you own and can answer. A common pattern is to point the caller ID at a DID (direct inward dialing) that routes inbound calls into an Ingroup, so when someone calls back they reach a live person or a queue instead of a dead line. Enter the number in the format your carrier expects, usually plain digits with no spaces or dashes:

A clean ten-digit number such as 2025550143 works for most North American trunks. If your carrier wants full E.164 format, you would write it with the country code instead. Test one call to your own cell phone before you turn agents loose.

Where it sits in the bigger picture

Campaign Caller ID is the fallback. If you later turn on rotating numbers or per-area-code numbers, those take priority and the campaign value only gets used when nothing more specific matches. To see how the field fits with the dialer as a whole, read our guide to VICIdial dialing strategies. If your problem is calls being abandoned rather than caller ID, the more useful read is how to lower your VICIdial drop rate.

Getting caller ID right is part of running a clean outbound operation, and a fast, single-tenant box makes it easy to test changes without waiting on anyone. See our plans to get a dialer of your own up in under a minute.