Step 6 · Calling Rules - VoxDash Help Center

Step 6 · Calling rules controls the dialing itself: the hours each record may be called, how many attempts are made, how callbacks are handled, when the study stops, the AI safeguards, and call recording. Step 6 is complete when calling windows, the retry policy, the maximum attempts and a valid Maximum interview duration are set.

Calling Windows

The grid sets the hours in which each record may be dialed. It has seven days and eight three-hour blocks (0–3, 3–6 … 21–24).

Hours are evaluated in each record’s own time zone, so a 9–12 block means 9 a.m.–12 p.m. where the respondent lives.
Click a cell to cycle it through Off → Enabled → Quiet.
Apply Monday to every day copies Monday’s pattern to the whole week.

Cell state	Meaning
Enabled	Calls may be placed in this block.
Off	No calls are placed in this block.
Quiet	No calls at all, not even callbacks.
Compliance (locked)	Hours the platform sets as mandatory quiet hours. You cannot enable them.

At least one Enabled block is required to launch. Quiet blocks do not count. If nothing is enabled, dialing cannot start.

Some studies may show notices such as “Some saved calling hours overlap compliance hours” or “Some saved calling hours don’t line up with these blocks”. Overlapping hours stay quiet. Hours that don’t fit the blocks stay as saved until you change that block.

Retry, Spacing and Attempts

Setting	Range	Default	Description
Maximum attempts per record	1–10	6	After this many tries the record is closed, whatever the outcome.
Minimum spacing between attempts	1–48 hours	8	No record is dialed again before this much time has passed.
Retry schedule	—	Linear	How the wait grows between attempts (see below).

Retry Schedules

Schedule	How waits are calculated	Good for
Linear	Adds one minimum spacing per attempt (8 h, 16 h, 24 h …).	Most studies.
Exponential	Doubles each wait, so later attempts can be days apart.	Long fieldwork periods.
Aggressive	Always waits only the minimum spacing.	Studies of a day or two.
Custom	You enter each wait by hand, one per attempt.	Specific designs.

The Applied intervals chips show the exact wait after each attempt. For a Custom schedule, each interval must be 1–48 hours and at least the minimum spacing. You need exactly one interval per attempt, up to 30.

What Happens After Each Outcome

These rules are fixed by the platform:

Call outcome	What happens next
Busy	Retried after 30 minutes.
No answer	Retried according to the retry schedule.
Voicemail	Retried once, then the record is closed.
Disconnected or invalid number	Closed with no retry.

Callbacks

Callbacks control what happens when a respondent asks to be called back.

Switch	When on
Soft callbacks (try later)	A “try later” sends the record back into the normal retry queue.
Same day only	Only same-day callbacks are offered, never a future date.
Hard callbacks (appointments)	A booked appointment jumps ahead of any new number in the queue.
One-hour window	The respondent picks a 60-minute block instead of an exact minute.
Missed appointment returns to the retry queue	An appointment that goes unanswered is treated as an ordinary retry instead of being closed.
Callbacks count as an attempt	A callback counts toward the maximum attempts per record.

Stop Rules

Stop rules decide what ends the study. At least one automatic stop rule is required before the study can launch.

Stop condition	Description
Target completes reached	Stops once the target completes set in Step 4 is met.
Sample exhausted	Stops when no callable records are left.
End date reached	Stops on a fixed calendar day, in the study’s time zone. The end date is required when this rule is on, and cannot be in the past or before the scheduled start.
Emergency stop	Always available as a manual stop on the study page. It cannot be turned off.

When the Study Stops

Choose how calls already in progress are handled when a stop rule fires:

Option	What happens	Pros	Cons
A. Graceful stop (default)	No new calls start; ongoing calls finish naturally.	Ongoing interviews are kept.	Fieldwork takes longer to finish, and billing continues until live calls end.
B. Hard stop	All ongoing calls end immediately.	No further billing.	Respondents are interrupted and in-progress calls give no data.

This choice also pre-selects the option in the Emergency stop dialog. You can still change it there before confirming.

AI Quality and Safeguards

Setting	Range	Default	Description
Ring timeout	5–120 seconds	25	How long an unanswered call rings before it counts as no answer.
Re-dials after a dropped line	0–5	2	If the phone line drops in the middle of an interview, the respondent is called again and the interview continues where it stopped. These re-dials are free and do not use up an attempt. 0 means every drop uses an attempt.
Wait before re-dialling a dropped line	1–240 minutes	10	How long after a drop the respondent is called again. Calling hours still apply.
Maximum interview duration (required)	1–120 minutes	—	The AI ends the call politely at this limit. It cannot be shorter than the questionnaire’s estimated length of interview (LOI), because a shorter cap would end every call before it could complete.
Auto-pause after consecutive failures	1–100	5	Saved with the study. Dialing does not yet pause by itself; watch Live Monitoring and stop the run if calls fail.

To see the estimated LOI of your questionnaire, check the bound questionnaire card in Step 2 or the LOI settings in the Questionnaire Builder.

Call Recording

Setting	Description
Save call audio	Keeps a recording of each call. When off, nothing is recorded and nobody is asked.
Ask for consent before saving	The respondent is asked first, and the audio is saved only if they agree.

When consent is on, choose where the consent question comes from:

Use the recording consent script — the AI reads the recording consent script from Step 3 at the start of the call.
Use a question from the questionnaire — pick a single-choice, dropdown or yes/no question from the bound questionnaire. Then tick which answers mean agree and which mean decline. Both must be set.

If the Respondent Declines

The audio is never saved after a “no”. Choose what happens to the interview:

Finish the interview (default) — the AI thanks the respondent and ends the call.
Continue without saving — the interview continues without recording. The UI marks this option as coming soon for the recording consent script; for now the call still ends after a “no”.

Next Step

Continue to Step 7 · Cost and Review.

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Step 6 · Calling Rules

Calling Windows