Dial Prefix vs Manual Dial Prefix

VICIdial has two prefix fields that look almost identical on the campaign screen, and mixing them up leads to calls going out the wrong route. Dial Prefix governs your normal auto-dialed calls. Manual Dial Prefix is an optional override that only kicks in when an agent places a call by hand. Once you see why they are separate, the setup is simple.

What a dial prefix actually is

A dial prefix is a short string VICIdial sticks on the front of the number before it hands the call to Asterisk. That prefix matches a pattern in your dialplan, and the pattern decides which route, and therefore which Trunk or Carrier, the call goes out through. The default is typically 9, lining up with a dialplan entry like 91 plus a ten-digit number. The neat part is that you can switch routes by changing this one field, without reloading anything on the Asterisk side.

One gotcha worth remembering: if you want no prefix at all, you put a single X in the field. Leaving it empty does not mean "none" here.

Where Manual Dial Prefix comes in

Manual Dial Prefix is an optional field that only applies to calls an agent starts themselves. That includes the Manual Dial button, Dial Next Number while the campaign is in the manual Dial method, manual alt-number dialing, and user-only scheduled callbacks. If you leave it empty, it is disabled, and those manual calls just use the regular Dial Prefix. Set it, and manual calls quietly route a different way than your auto-dialed traffic.

It also stays out of the way of the separate three-way call prefix, so transfers keep their own routing and you do not accidentally reroute a Warm transfer when you only meant to change how manual calls go out.

Why you might want two routes

The most common reason is sending bulk auto-dialed calls through a cheaper, high-volume carrier while routing handpicked manual calls, like callbacks to a warm prospect, through a carrier with cleaner caller ID or better reach. Some operators also split routes for quality reasons, keeping low-volume manual calls on a more reliable path. Because each prefix points at a different dialplan pattern, you can send Manual dialing (click to dial) and auto-dialing down entirely different pipes without touching your lists.

Setting it without breaking things

Whatever prefix you put in either field, a matching pattern has to exist in the dialplan or the call will fail to route. So decide the route first, confirm the pattern is there, then point the prefix at it. Make a couple of test calls in each mode before you turn agents loose. If your real goal is to dial faster or cleaner, the dialing strategies guide and the walkthrough on how to lower your VICIdial drop rate are better levers than prefix tweaking alone.

If wiring dialplan patterns by hand is not how you want to spend your week, our managed VICIdial plans hand you a routed, working dialer in under a minute.