Ready state

Ready state is the green light. An agent in ready state is logged in, unpaused, and waiting for the system to connect them to the next live person. It is the opposite of not ready, and an agent flips between the two many times across a shift.

The dialer cares deeply about how many agents are in ready state right now. In predictive dialing, the pacing math counts ready agents and dials enough numbers ahead of them so that, on average, a live answer arrives just as someone becomes free. If the count drops, dialer pacing should slow down; if it climbs, the dialer can place more calls per agent.

A useful number to track is how long agents wait in ready state before getting their next call. Short, steady wait times mean your pacing is tuned well. Long waits mean the dialer is too cautious or your lead supply is thin. Very short waits paired with a rising drop rate mean you are dialing too aggressively and dropping live answers because no one was free in time.

During an agent session, time spent in ready state plus time on calls is what feeds occupancy. High occupancy with low drop-rate is the sweet spot: agents are busy, but the system is not punishing the people you call. If you want a deeper walkthrough of keeping that balance, see how to lower your VICIdial drop rate.

One thing that trips people up: an agent in ready state is not the same as an agent who is free to be dialed for. In some setups an agent can be available but parked on a specific ingroup or campaign, so only certain calls reach them. The dialer's count of usable ready agents is per campaign, not a single floor-wide tally. When you are reading a real-time board, look at ready agents in the context of the campaign they belong to, otherwise the numbers will not match what the pacing engine actually sees. Mixing inbound and outbound work with a blended setup adds another wrinkle, since an agent in ready state might get pulled into either direction depending on which queue needs them first.