Timer Action: nudging agents after a set time

Sometimes you want something to happen automatically once a call has been running for a while — flash a reminder on the agent's screen, run a quick validation step, or move the call somewhere else if it has dragged on too long. Timer Action is the campaign setting that does that. It watches the clock on a connected call and fires an action after the number of seconds you set.

What it can fire

The Timer Action dropdown is where you choose what happens. The common options are:

• MESSAGE_ONLY — shows the text from the message field on the agent screen and does nothing to the call. A pure reminder.
• HANGUP — ends the call when the timer fires. Useful as a hard cap on call length.
• CALLMENU, EXTENSION, IN_GROUP — send the call to a Call Menu, a dialplan extension, or an inbound Ingroup. Where it goes is set in the destination field below.
• WEBFORM — opens the campaign's web form address. The D1 through D5 dial options launch a preset transfer number, often used for a small IVR or to play a recorded message.

The default is NONE, which leaves the whole feature off. So nothing fires until you pick an action and set a time.

Setting the timer and the message

Two more fields go with it. Timer Action Seconds is how long after the call connects the action fires — and note it counts from connection to the customer, not from when the agent starts talking. The default is -1, which also means inactive, so you must set a real number to arm it. Timer Action Message is the text shown on the agent screen when the timer trips; it is what MESSAGE_ONLY displays, and it is handy alongside the other actions too so the agent knows why the screen just changed.

If you picked CALLMENU, EXTENSION, or IN_GROUP, fill in Timer Action Destination with the menu, extension, or in-group the call should go to. Leave it empty and the transfer has nowhere to land.

Where this is genuinely useful

The everyday use is the screen nudge: at, say, eight minutes, MESSAGE_ONLY pops a line reminding the agent to wrap up or offer the next step. It keeps your Average handle time (AHT) in check without anyone hovering over the floor. A stricter version uses HANGUP as a ceiling on call length, though that is a blunt tool — most teams prefer the message and let the Agent close gracefully.

The transfer actions are more specialized — handing a long sales call to a verification IVR, or routing to a Closer queue after a set time. Treat those as the advanced path and test them on a quiet campaign first, since they change where the customer ends up mid-call.

Timer Action is one small piece of keeping a campaign tidy. If long calls are eating your numbers, it pairs well with the habits in how to lower your VICIdial drop rate, and the broader VICIdial dialing strategies guide shows how settings like this fit the bigger pacing picture. If you would rather not hand-tune every campaign field yourself, our managed plans set sane defaults for you — see the pricing page.