Key takeaways
- Rapidialer starts every team with eight outcomes: Connected, No answer, Voicemail, Callback, Not interested, Wrong number, DND and Other.
- A team can have up to 20 outcome buttons, and reps pick the first nine with the number keys 1 to 9.
- Only Connected and Callback count as a connect in Rapidialer’s reports and agent stats.
- With retry rules on, No answer contacts come back after 4 hours and Voicemail contacts after 24 hours by default.
- DND adds the number to the organization’s Do Not Call list, closes its open list rows and cancels its open follow-ups.
What is call disposition?
Good dispositions answer two questions at once: what happened on this call, and what should happen next. “Callback” both records that the person asked to be called later and schedules that call; “Do not call” both records the request and blocks future dials. A disposition that only describes the past, like a vague “Other”, leaves the next step to memory.
Keep the list of disposition codes short enough to learn by heart, usually six to ten options, and make each one mutually exclusive. If you need more detail, use a few custom dispositions that roll up into standard categories, so reports stay comparable across teams and campaigns.
Dispositions also feed your numbers. A connect rate is only as good as the codes behind it: if one rep logs a gatekeeper conversation as Connected and another logs it as No answer, the same list looks twice as good for one of them. Write a one-line definition for each code and share it with the team before the first session.
Common mistakes. Letting reps skip the disposition when they are busy, so the calls that went worst never reach the report. Making “Other” the easiest button to press. Keeping two codes that overlap, like “Not interested” and “Not now”, without saying which one schedules a retry. And logging a request to stop calling as “Not interested”, which leaves the number in the queue when it should be blocked.
What does call disposition mean in a dialer?
In a dialer, the call disposition meaning is practical as well as descriptive. A dialer stores the disposition on the call record and then acts on it: it sets the contact’s status in the list, decides whether the number comes back for another attempt, creates or cancels follow-ups, and counts the call in reports. The label is the switch that routes the contact to its next step.
What does each standard outcome do in Rapidialer?
Each of the eight standard outcomes has a fixed job, and every custom button inherits the job of the outcome it “counts as”.
- Connected: counts as a connect; the lead turns warm, and hot after a second connect.
- Callback: counts as a connect, asks for a “Follow up at” time and creates a follow-up for that moment.
- No answer: closes the contact, or puts it back in the queue after 4 hours when the list’s retry rules are on.
- Voicemail: like No answer, with a default retry delay of 24 hours.
- Not interested: closes the contact and turns the lead cold.
- Wrong number: marks the list contact as skipped so it is not dialed again from that list.
- DND: adds the number to the organization’s Do Not Call list and blocks calls to it from every list.
- Other: closes the contact; it can be retried too, but has no default delay.
A worked example: one rep’s morning in numbers
Say a rep makes 120 dials before lunch and saves these outcomes: 18 Connected, 4 Callback, 9 Not interested, 61 No answer, 22 Voicemail, 3 Wrong number, 1 DND and 2 Other. The connect rate is 22 out of 120, or 18.3%, because only Connected and Callback count as connects.
With the list’s retry rules on and Max attempts per contact set to 3, the 61 No answer contacts return to the queue four hours later and the 22 Voicemail contacts return the next day. The 4 callbacks wait in the follow-up queue for their scheduled times, and the DND number is blocked for the whole team.
Do dispositions matter for compliance?
Yes, because a do-not-call request is a disposition with legal weight. FCC rules require anyone making telemarketing calls to residential numbers to keep a company-specific do-not-call list and honor requests to stop calling (47 CFR 64.1200(d)), and the Telemarketing Sales Rule bars calling a person who has said they do not want calls from that seller (16 CFR 310.4). If reps record that request as Not interested, the number stays callable.
Keep stop-calling as its own button and restrict who can undo it. In Rapidialer only owners and admins can take a lead off Do Not Call. Rapidialer does not check the national registry. This is general information, not legal advice.
How to design custom outcome buttons
Add a custom button when a manager will act on it differently from the standard set. “Meeting booked” qualifies; “Spoke briefly” does not. Owners and admins edit the buttons under Settings, Dialing, Call outcomes: each row has a label of up to 40 characters, a “Counts as” outcome, an optional pipeline stage and a color. The first nine rows take keys 1 to 9.
If the set gets messy, “Reset to defaults” brings back the eight standard outcomes. A renamed button keeps its “Counts as” mapping, so reports still roll up across Power Dial sessions.
Call disposition in Rapidialer
Rapidialer calls them call outcomes. Every team starts with eight standard outcomes, can rename them or add its own (up to 20 buttons in total, each mapped to a standard outcome), and picks one in wrap-up before Power Dial moves on. Reps click a button or press a number key from 1 to 9. The standard outcomes do real work: Callback asks for a date and time and creates a follow-up, Wrong number takes the contact out of the list, and DND adds the number to your internal Do Not Call list. Owners and admins edit the buttons under Settings, Dialing, Call outcomes, where each custom button gets a “Counts as” outcome and can move the lead to a pipeline stage.
Related terms
- Preview dialerA dialer that shows the next contact’s record and waits for the agent before dialing.
- Abandoned callAn answered outbound call with no agent on the line within two seconds of the greeting.
- Connect rateThe share of outbound calls that reach a live person.
Call disposition: questions and answers
Is a disposition the same as a call outcome?
Yes. Different tools use different names, including disposition, outcome, wrap-up code and call result, for the same idea: the label saved when a call ends that records what happened and sets the next step. Rapidialer uses “call outcome” in its interface, and its analytics filter and chart calls by outcome.
What does “dispo” mean in a call center?
“Dispo” is call center shorthand for disposition, as in “dispo the call” or “what did you dispo that one as?”. It means picking the label that records how a call ended, such as No answer or Callback, before moving on. In Rapidialer, a rep dispos a call by clicking an outcome button or pressing a number key from 1 to 9 in wrap-up.
What is the difference between a disposition and a call result in a CRM?
A CRM’s call result field and a dialer’s disposition hold the same kind of label, but the dialer also acts on it, scheduling retries or blocking a number. In Rapidialer, HubSpot users get each call and its outcome logged on the HubSpot contact; for other CRMs, a call.completed webhook through Zapier, Make or n8n carries it, or Export CSV on the Call history page writes a file with each call’s disposition, notes, agent and list.
How many dispositions should a team have?
Enough to decide the next step for every call, and few enough that reps pick the right one in a second. Start with the standard set, then add a custom label only when a manager will act on it differently, such as a “Booked demo” button that moves the lead forward in your lead pipeline. Six to ten buttons covers most outbound lists.
Which dispositions count as a connect in Rapidialer?
Rapidialer counts Connected and Callback as connects. Those two feed the connect figures in call analytics and agent stats, and any custom button that counts as one of them is included too. Not interested means a person was reached, but Rapidialer does not count it as a connect.
What is the difference between a call status and a disposition?
A call status is the technical result the carrier reports, such as busy, no answer, failed or completed. A disposition is the business result an agent records, such as Meeting booked or Not interested. Rapidialer uses the carrier status to file busy and unanswered calls as No answer when the rep has not saved an outcome, and the rep’s choice describes everything else.
Can a rep skip the disposition in Rapidialer?
Rapidialer’s wrap-up panel requires an outcome and treats everything else, notes, temperature and follow-up, as optional. Power Dial does not start the next call while wrap-up is open, so a rep cannot move through the list without logging how the last call ended.
Do dispositions decide when a contact is called again?
In Rapidialer they do. Each list has retry rules, off by default, with a Max attempts per contact setting from 1 to 20 and a retry delay in hours for No answer, Voicemail and Other. Defaults are 4 hours for No answer and 24 hours for Voicemail. Callback contacts return at the time the rep scheduled instead.