On-Hook CID: handling calls with no agent on the line

Most agents log in with a softphone that auto-answers, so the call just arrives and they start talking. But some teams run on-hook: the agent's phone actually rings, and they pick up the handset like a normal call. On-hook agents need to know who is calling before they answer, and that is exactly what the On-Hook CID setting on an Ingroup controls.

This setting only does anything for an Agent whose phone has the agent-on-hook feature turned on. If your agents auto-answer, leave it alone. A DID (direct inward dialing) is the number people dial to reach you, and once that call lands in a queue it has to ring an actual phone somewhere. On-Hook CID decides what name and number show up on that ringing phone.

What each option shows

• GENERIC: a plain notification like RINGAGENT followed by a string of digits. No customer detail at all.
• INGROUP: shows only the in-group the call came from, so the agent knows which queue is ringing.
• CUSTOMER_PHONE: shows only the customer phone number.
• CUSTOMER_PHONE_RINGAGENT: shows the customer number with RINGAGENT in front of it, like RINGAGENT_3125551212.
• CUSTOMER_PHONE_INGROUP: shows the first ten characters of the in-group name followed by the customer phone number.

The default is CUSTOMER_PHONE_RINGAGENT, which is a good middle ground: agents see the real customer number but still know the alert came from the dialer.

Sending a number along too

There is a companion field, On-Hook CID Number, that sets the caller ID number sent to the ringing phone. Put Y, YES or CUSTOMER in it to pass the customer's own number through. Put a specific phone number in instead and that fixed number is what the phone displays. Leave it blank to disable it, which is the default.

How the ring gets decorated

flowchart TD
  A[Inbound call hits ingroup] --> B[Queue finds an on-hook agent]
  B --> C{On-Hook CID setting}
  C -->|GENERIC| D[Phone shows RINGAGENT id]
  C -->|INGROUP| E[Phone shows ingroup name]
  C -->|CUSTOMER_PHONE_RINGAGENT| F[Phone shows RINGAGENT plus number]
  D --> G[Agent answers handset]
  E --> G
  F --> G

Once you understand how a call moves from carrier to queue to agent, this setting is just the last cosmetic step before the phone rings. For the bigger picture of how inbound calls are routed and answered, read our VICIdial inbound call handling guide. If you are still building the queue itself, start with how to create an inbound group that takes calls.

Setting up on-hook agents and SIP phones is the kind of plumbing that eats a whole afternoon on a self-managed box. With our managed VICIdial hosting, your server is live in under 40 seconds and the dialplan is already wired, so you go straight to picking the option that fits your agents and the Status (lead status) of each call shows up cleanly.