The dropped-call rule

What a dropped call is

A dropped call is a call where a person answered and nobody was free to take it. The person hears silence, or only the safe-harbour message, and then the line ends.

These are not dropped calls:

• An answering machine.
• A call that a bot took, including through the bot overflow. See when nobody is free.
• A call that an agent took.

A call counts as a person answering when the answer was not recognised as a machine. If the machine check is unsure, the answer counts as a person.

The 30-day rate

The rate is dropped calls divided by calls a person answered, over the last 30 days, for this campaign. One dropped call in 100 answers is 1.0%. The legal limit this product enforces is 3%.

How VoDialer protects you

What the dialer does at each 30-day dropped-call rate, with the default target of 1.0%. If you change the target, the first two points move with it.

Here the target is Keep dropped calls under, which is 1.0% unless you change it. It appears in Predictive mode.

30-day rate	What the dialer does
Fewer than 100 answered calls	Holds the dial ratio at 1.0, because a rate on a few calls means nothing. The 2.5% and 3.0% rules below still apply.
Up to half the target	May raise the dial ratio slowly, never above Most people called per free agent.
Between half the target and the target	Lowers the ratio at once, step by step.
At the target or above	The ratio is 1.0: one person per free agent.
2.5% or above	Ratio 1.0, and a live warning: “Dropped calls are close to the limit at X%. The dialer is slowing down.”
3.0% or above	The campaign is paused. “Dropped calls reached the limit, so this campaign was paused.”

After a pause at 3.0%, Start is refused until the 30-day rate falls below 3.0%. The sample size does not matter here. Nobody can override it today: old dropped calls leave the 30 days one day at a time.

A bot overflow is the strongest protection: when a bot takes every call nobody else can, the rate stays at zero. See dialing modes.

The meter on the campaign page

The card is called Dropped calls, with “Last 30 days” under it, and a tag “Not reviewed by counsel”. It shows:

• The rate, for example 1.2%.
• A word beside it: “Within the limit”, “Close to the limit” (from 2.5%) or “Over the limit” (from 3.0%).
• A bar from 0 to 3%. A mark at the right end is the limit.
• A sentence: “1.2% of answered calls were dropped. The limit is 3%.” Under 100 answers it says “Only N calls have been answered so far, so this is not a reliable rate yet.”

The classic design shows the same meter under the heading “Dropped calls, last 30 days”. Next to it, “Answered, 30 days” shows the number of answered calls the rate rests on.

Not yet

These thresholds and the rule for what counts as a call answered by a person are VoDialer’s own choices. Counsel has not reviewed them. That covers the 3%, the 2.5% warning, the half-target easing, the 100-answer minimum and the machine rule. Do not treat them as legal advice. Have counsel confirm them before real calls depend on them. See rules and counsel review.

Note

The 2-second limit in the definition of a dropped call is not timed by the code. See when nobody is free.