What the Scheduled Callbacks Force Dial setting does

Most callback settings nudge. The Scheduled Callbacks Force Dial setting does the opposite — it takes the choice away. When an Agent has a triggered USERONLY Scheduled callback (one reserved for them whose date and time has arrived), VICIdial forces the agent to a paused state and blocks out their screen. Their only option is to dial that callback.

What the agent sees

The screen locks to the next triggered callback. The agent can look at the Lead info before they dial — name, notes, history — but they cannot pull a fresh lead, take another call, or move on. If there are several triggered callbacks queued for them, all of them must be called before the screen unblocks and normal work resumes.

flowchart TD
  A[Agent's callback triggers] --> B[Force agent to paused]
  B --> C[Block out the screen]
  C --> D[Show next triggered callback]
  D --> E[Agent may view lead info]
  E --> F[Agent must dial the callback]
  F --> G{More triggered callbacks}
  G -->|Yes| D
  G -->|No| H[Screen unblocks, normal work resumes]

So this is a hard gate, not a suggestion. The agent works through every due callback before the dialer lets them do anything else.

Two sharp edges to know

There are two behaviours that catch people out:

• It ignores the campaign call time. Force Dial does not look at the Call Time set for the Campaign, so a forced callback may go out outside your normal calling window. That has compliance implications — do not assume it respects your hours, and check the rules for the region you are calling.
• The agent must be allowed to place calls by hand. If the agent cannot place a by-hand call, the feature simply will not work. Confirm Manual dialing (click to dial) is permitted for the user and the campaign before you turn this on, or the screen-block does nothing useful.

The setting is N (disabled) by default, which is the right starting point — you should turn this on deliberately, not stumble into it.

Why VICIdial pauses the agent first

The forced pause is not incidental. By dropping the agent into a paused state, VICIdial guarantees no fresh Lead is sitting on their screen competing for attention. The blocked-out view then presents the callback as the only path forward. Combined with the all-or-nothing rule on multiple callbacks, the design makes it impossible for an agent to cherry-pick the easy fresh leads and let their promised callbacks rot. That is the entire reason the feature exists — to remove the choice when the choice is the problem.

Force Dial versus the softer options

Force Dial is the most aggressive way to surface callbacks. If you want callbacks to come up next but still let the agent click, look at Next-Dial My Callbacks instead. And because the call-time bypass is a real consideration, read when to force agents to dial their callbacks before flipping it on. The scheduled callbacks overview covers how every triggered callback reaches an agent.

Use it where missed callbacks cost real money

Force Dial fits teams where a missed callback is a lost deal or a broken promise to a customer — the bluntness is the point. Just respect the two edges above: the call-time bypass and the by-hand-dialing requirement. On a managed VICIdial server every callback setting sits in one campaign screen, so you can test Force Dial against your call-time rules safely before you roll it out to a live floor. See our plans — we provision in under 40 seconds.