Outbound Dialer
Outbound call and messaging campaigns for a Twilio Flex contact center. The voice dialer places calls to leads and hands customers who answer to agents. The messaging dialer sends SMS and WhatsApp in batches and tracks delivery; customer replies reach agents in Flex as ordinary chats.
- Dialing modes: preview, progressive, power and predictive
- Callbacks from agents, IVR / CRM and supervisors
- SMS and WhatsApp campaigns
- DNC lists, calling windows and the contact-center calendar
- Live supervisor monitoring, in Flex or in a plain browser tab
- English and Hebrew (right-to-left) user interface
Channels
Voice and messaging share the same contact lists, DNC rules, calling windows and retries; only the way a lead is reached differs. The channel is chosen when a campaign is created and cannot be changed afterwards.
Voice dialer. Every second the engine decides how many numbers to dial and calls them through Twilio Voice. A customer who answers is connected to a free agent in Flex. The agent sees the lead card and, after the call, picks an outcome (disposition) that tells the engine what to do with the lead next.
- Four dialing modes, from "agent reviews the card first" to predictive
- Answering machine detection and retries by call outcome
- Callbacks from agents, IVR / CRM and supervisors
Messaging dialer. Every 5 seconds the engine sends the next batch through the Twilio Bulk Messaging API; every 15 seconds it checks delivery status for each lead. Failed messages are resent while the sending window is open. A customer reply reaches an agent as a chat, and an opt-out keyword such as STOP opts the number out.
- SMS with variables from lead fields
- WhatsApp through approved Content Templates
- Funnel: sent, delivered, read, replied
How the channels differ
| Voice | SMS / WhatsApp | |
|---|---|---|
| Who works the lead | An agent in Flex, in a live conversation | The message goes out with no agent (agentless mode); an agent joins only if the customer replies |
| Pace | The pacer, ticking every second: how many calls to open for the free agents | A batch every 5 s, limited by messages per minute and batch size |
| Result of an attempt | Call status, AMD and the agent's disposition | Delivery status: delivered, read, failed, undelivered |
| Window | The campaign's callingWindows in the lead's time zone, and the contact-center calendar if one is linked | The same windows (here they are the sending window) |
| DNC | Global and campaign lists | The same lists plus per-channel opt-out lists ("SMS opt-out", "WhatsApp opt-out") |
| Consent | National do-not-call registry (optional per campaign) | Marketing needs consent less than a year old, or an existing customer |
| TaskRouter queue | One queue per campaign; agents are assigned to it | Not needed |
In this section
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Architecture | The engine, its database and how it talks to Flex and Twilio |
| Contact lists and leads | Lists, CSV import, lead selection and the lead lifecycle |
| Compliance and calling hours | DNC, calling windows, the contact-center calendar, consent |
| Voice campaigns | Dialing modes, call flows, pacing, AMD, outcomes, callbacks |
| SMS and WhatsApp | Sending, content, delivery, replies, opt-out, beta caveats |
| The agent in Flex | What agents see and do |
| Managing campaigns | The supervisor's Campaigns view |
| Dialer console | The supervisor screens in a browser tab outside Flex |
| Setup and configuration | Deploying the engine, Twilio setup, the Flex feature flags |
| Reference | Campaign settings, API, limitations, glossary |
Related sections: Agent workspace (the business calendar that also gates the dialer), Wallboard (dialer tiles), Reports, Platform.