Pre-Filter Recent Call: deduping repeat inbound callers

Some callers dial in over and over. Maybe they already spoke to an agent yesterday, maybe they were dispositioned do-not-call last week. Pre-Filter Recent Call lets a DID (direct inward dialing) (Direct Inward Dialing number) check whether a number has called or been called recently, and reroute it before it ever hits the normal queue.

This is the dedupe valve for inbound traffic. It runs ahead of the standard Filter (the rule that decides what happens to a matching caller) and can send repeat callers to a different internal DID.

It needs a settings container

Pre-Filter Recent Call does not work on its own. It reads a Settings container (a reusable block of configuration values) of the type DID_RECENT_CALL, which tells it how far back to look and what to look for. You define separate rules for outbound history and inbound history, four values each.

• check_type: either lead-x-y-days-range, which searches your leads by their last call time, or log-x-y-days-range, which searches the call logs by call time.
• days: a range like 0-14, where the start day begins at midnight and the end day runs to end of day in server local time. Setting 0-0 searches all of today.
• campaigns or groups: --ALL-- for no restriction, or a pipe-separated list of campaign IDs for outbound, inbound group IDs for inbound.
• statuses: --ALL-- or a pipe-separated list of Disposition codes such as DNC, NI, or LIT to match only on certain outcomes.

Wiring it to the DID

On the Modify DID screen, point Pre-Filter Recent Call at your DID_RECENT_CALL container, then set Pre-Filter Recent Call DID to the internal DID a matching call should be redirected to. If the system finds a recent call that fits the rules, the caller is sent to that DID instead of the normal route.

That redirect DID is where the design gets useful. It is just another DID in your system, so it can do anything a DID can do: drop the caller into a dedicated callback queue, send them to a recorded message, or route them to a senior Agent (a logged-in user handling calls) who already knows the account. You decide what "this person called recently" should mean for your operation, and the redirect DID carries out that decision.

The inbound and outbound rules are independent, which is the point. You can ignore inbound history entirely and only flag people your campaigns dialed in the last two weeks, or the reverse. Mixing both lets you catch a number whether it reached you by calling in or by being called.

How the check decides the route

flowchart TD
  A[Inbound call on DID] --> B[Read DID_RECENT_CALL container]
  B --> C{Recent call found in range}
  C -->|Yes| D[Send to Pre-Filter Recent Call DID]
  C -->|No| E[Continue standard filter]
  E --> F[Normal DID route]
  D --> G[Redirect handling]

This is a precise tool, not a blunt one. It is great for steering callbacks, repeat complainers, or recently dispositioned numbers away from your main agents. For the wider routing context, see our VICIdial inbound call handling guide. To route differently based on the caller ID value itself rather than history, read about the in-group area code filter.

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