inbound
Next agent call
Next agent call is the VICIdial setting that decides which free agent gets the next waiting inbound call, picking among methods like longest-idle, fewest calls, or ranked order.
Next agent call is the setting on an inbound Ingroup that answers one question: when a call is waiting and more than one agent is free, who gets it? You pick a method, and VICIdial follows that rule every time a call needs an owner.
Common methods
- Longest-idle: the agent who has waited the most goes next, which spreads work fairly
- Fewest calls: the agent with the lowest call count today goes next, evening out the day's load
- Ranked order: the agent with the better Agent rank is offered the call first
This setting is the heart of how you balance fairness against priority. Longest-idle and fewest-calls keep Occupancy level across the team, which is kind to your people and steadies your Agent utilization. Ranked order trades that evenness for steering calls toward your strongest agents, and it is one of the pieces you wire together when building Skills-based routing.
Note that next agent call is about choosing one agent. It is different from a Ring-all approach, where the call rings every free agent at once and the fastest to grab it wins. Pick the method that matches how you want the team to feel the load, then check your reports after a week to confirm it behaves the way you expected.
Related terms
Agent rank
Agent rank is a number you give each agent in a queue so VICIdial offers waiting inbound calls to higher-ranked agents before lower-ranked ones.
Agent utilization
Agent utilization is the share of an agent's paid time spent on productive call work — talking, waiting for a dial, and wrapping up — versus idle or unavailable time.
Ingroup
An inbound group in VICIdial that routes incoming calls to a pool of agents, the inbound counterpart to an outbound campaign.
Occupancy
Occupancy is the share of an agent's logged-in time spent actively working calls, including talk and necessary wrap-up, rather than waiting idle.
Ring-all
An inbound queue setting that rings every available agent at once for a call, so the first one to answer takes it.
Skills-based routing
Skills-based routing sends each inbound caller to the agent best equipped to help, matching the caller's need against the specific skills each agent has been tagged with.