---
title: "Call queues"
description: "When a lead runs out of dials, send it to the next queue."
---
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# Call queues
[Open original guide with interactive examples →](/originals/call-queues/)
**The short version** Open **Agent Command Center → Call Queues**. Every queue is one card. When a lead has used every dial in a queue, choose **\+ Next step** on that card and the lead moves to the next queue with a fresh round of dials.
Before, a lead that used up every dial in one queue was marked _done_ and stayed there. Most floors work leads in stages: fresh leads get fast dialing, older leads a slower pace, then a long-term follow-up. Next step lets you build those stages once and have leads move through them without anyone exporting or re-importing a list.
Owners and admins can change queues. Everyone else sees the queues they work in the Calling window as before.
## The board: every queue at a glance
Call Queues opens on a board. Queues are grouped by purpose (**Leads**, **Confirmations**, **Rehash**) and joined by an arrow when one queue really hands its leads to another.
New Leads → Aged Leads → Long-term Nurture, with the Resets queue below. Sample data.
| On the card | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| **Who is in it** | The statuses and rules that put a lead in the queue, in plain words, for example "New Lead · created in the last 3 days" or "created between 7 and 15 days ago". |
| **Ready now** | Leads an agent can be handed this minute. This is the big number. |
| **Waiting** | Leads that were dialed and are waiting for their next try. |
| **Done** | Leads that booked, asked not to be called, or used every dial. |
| **After 8 dials** | What happens when a lead uses its last dial: an arrow to the next queue, or _stop_ if no next step is set yet. |
| **8 dials · 11d 4h** | The dial pace: how many dials a lead gets, and how long the whole schedule takes. |
| **Initials** | The agents who work the queue. "No agents" means nobody can dial it. |
| **On/off switch** | Pause a queue without deleting it. Click anywhere else on the card to open it in the builder. |
The totals above the cards count each queue separately, so a lead that sits in two queues is in both numbers. A plus sign means at least one queue could not be counted. Use **Detailed** to see the full settings list, and **Lanes** to come back.
## The needs-fixing list
If something would stop a queue from working, it appears in a short list above the cards. Each line takes you to the queue when you click it.
- **No agents:** nobody can dial the queue.
- **No criteria:** the queue selects nobody until you pick who belongs in it.
- **Behind its target:** ready leads have waited longer than the time you set.
- **A next step that leads nowhere:** the status it moves leads to is not used by any active queue, or the queue has no status of its own.
- **Could not count:** the number failed to load. The queue may not be empty.
## Next step: what happens when dials run out
On any card that has a dial limit and no next step, choose **\+ Next step**. You get three choices:
The + Next step menu. Sample data.
1. **Create the next queue.** Opens a new queue already set up to receive these leads, with the same agents and a slower suggested pace. When you save it, the first queue is linked to it.
2. **Send to an existing queue.** Pick one of your queues. The leads take that queue's status, so it picks them up. Queues that also filter by age or another rule are marked, because they take only the leads that match.
3. **Set it up in the builder.** Choose the status and the wait yourself.
Once a next step is set, an arrow joins the two cards: _after 8 dials → Aged Lead_. A dashed **\+ Next step** shows exactly where leads still stop.
A queue that splits by result lists both lines on its card. The arrow between cards follows the branch that lands in the next queue.
## In the builder: When dials run out
Open a queue and look for the **When dials run out** card, between _After each result_ and _Who works it_. The first chip picks the mode.
1. **One next step for every lead:** pick the status the lead takes and how long it waits before its first dial in the next queue (default one day). Queues select leads by status, so the queue that lists that status picks the lead up with a fresh round of dials.
2. **Split: reached someone vs never reached:** two rows. _Reached someone_ means a person was on the line at least once during this round of dials (any result except no answer, busy, voicemail or dropped). _Never reached_ means nobody picked up all round. Each row has its own status and wait; the defaults are 2 days after a conversation and 14 days after silence. Both rows may point to the same status, and a row left empty keeps those leads done.
3. Read the summary on the right. It ends with "Out of dials? Move them to …" or, for a split, "reached someone → …, never reached → …".
Split by result: the same queue, different waits. A lead you talked to is rested for two days; a lead that never picked up is nurtured for two weeks.
**Why split?** A lead you reached three times and did not sell is a different lead from one that never answered. Call centers rest the first for a few days and rehash it; they nurture the second for weeks. One next step for both forces them down the same path.
**The next queue must select by status.** A queue defined only by lead age, with no status, cannot receive a hand-off. Give it a status, for example _Aged Lead_. The card tells you when no active queue selects the status you picked.
The dial limit that ends a round is the **per-result rules limit** when you use per-result rules, and the Pace card limit otherwise. A queue can have up to 50 dials.
## An example ladder
| Queue | Takes | Pace | When dials run out |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **New Leads** | New Lead, New | 8 dials over 11 days | Move to _Aged Lead_ |
| **Aged Leads** | Aged Lead | 6 dials over 16 days | Move to _Nurture_ |
| **Long-term Nurture** | Nurture | 4 dials over 74 days | Stop (or start a follow-up flow) |
| **Resets** | Cancelled | 5 dials over 4 days | Move to _Nurture_ |
A lead that ignores all eight fresh dials moves to Aged Leads for a slower rhythm, then to long-term follow-up. If you want a text or email at the point a lead reaches a status, build a flow that starts when the lead status changes to it.
Contact age can be a band. **Created in the last 6 days**, then **created between 7 and 15 days ago**, then **created more than 15 days ago** cover every lead of those statuses once. The days roll from the moment the queue is opened, so the three lists meet with no gap and no overlap.
**Confirmations** work differently: they move by the calendar. _Conf – 2 Days Ahead_ and _Conf – Day Before_ sit side by side, and an appointment slides from the first to the second as the day gets closer. No arrow is needed.
## What a hand-off never moves
A hand-off only ever acts on a lead that has really used its last dial, and it waits for the customer's word:
- **Do-not-call.** A lead marked do-not-call is never moved, and a lead is never moved _into_ do-not-call.
- **A booked or changed status.** If the lead's status changed in the meantime (booked, cancelled, moved by your CRM), the new status wins.
- **A callback the customer asked for.** The lead stays until the callback.
- **A result waiting for manager review.** It stays on hold.
- **Loops.** A queue cannot send leads back to its own status, and a lead stops after five moves.
A corrected or repeated call result never moves a lead a second time.
## Moved this week
A queue with a next step shows what actually happened in the last 7 days, for example **5 leads moved · 1 skipped this week**. Hover for the reasons. A queue that splits by result also says how many took each branch: _Moved: 8 reached someone, 15 never reached_.
Hover the line to see why a lead was held back. Sample data.
| Reason shown | What happened |
| --- | --- |
| a callback was pending | The customer asked to be called back, so the lead stayed. |
| status changed first | The lead was booked, cancelled or otherwise updated before its last dial finished. |
| waiting for manager review | The result needs a manager before the lead moves. |
| do-not-call | The lead is marked do-not-call. |
| already moved 5 times | The lead hit the limit that stops loops. |
| this queue has no status | The queue has no status of its own, so there is nothing to leave. |
| no branch matched (no default set) | The queue splits by result and the branch for this lead is empty, so the lead stayed done. |
The line stays quiet until a lead has run out of dials, and if the count cannot be read it shows nothing rather than a false zero. A lot of skips for _status changed first_ usually means leads are being booked before the round ends, so the round may be too long.
## Questions
### What if I set no next step?
Nothing changes. A lead that uses every dial is done and stays done, exactly as before. An admin can still reset a lead.
### What counts as "reached someone"?
Any call in the current round whose result says a person was on the line: info provided, callback scheduled, customer or agent hang-up, appointment set, transferred, or a custom result that counts as one of those. No answer, busy, voicemail and dropped calls are "never reached". Call length is never used, so a long voicemail is not a conversation. Only this round counts: a conversation before the lead moved into this queue does not carry over.
### Does the lead's history disappear?
No. Call history stays on the contact. The lead gets a fresh round of dials in the next queue, and the caller IDs it has already seen are still avoided.
### Can I undo a next step?
Yes. Open the queue and clear the status on the _When dials run out_ card. Leads already moved keep their new status.
### Where are queues from my CRM?
Open the **Suggested** tab at the top of Call Queues. Approve a suggestion and it appears on the board like any other queue.
### Does a status change run my automations?
Yes, it is a normal status change. Flows that start when the lead status changes will run when a lead moves, which is how you can send a text at that point.
### How often should I look?
Weekly is enough: read the needs-fixing list, then glance at the moved and skipped lines on each ladder.
Channel Automation · Help · Last updated 2026-10-04.
Questions? Ask your account manager, or open **Help Docs** inside the app — the same guidance lives there.
Source: https://guides.channelautomations.com/calling/call-queues/index.mdx