Calls
Run your first calling campaign in nine steps
20 Oct 2026 · 7 min read
The short answer
A calling campaign dials a list of numbers for you. Set it up in nine steps: pick your goal, choose pre-recorded, progressive or predictive, set your caller ID and hours, add your list, say what people hear or who handles the calls, decide about answering machines, set what happens when nobody is free, set a budget, then review and start.
A calling campaign is a list of numbers that SautiDesk dials for you, inside the days and hours you choose. Some campaigns play a message to everyone. Others offer each person who answers to a free agent. The setup is the same nine steps either way, and nothing is dialled until you press start. If you want the idea first, read the calling campaigns page.
What do you need before you start?
- A list of numbers. A spreadsheet saved as CSV works. Add a name column if you want to greet people by name.
- A number to call from. This is the caller ID your customers will see. It must be one of your SautiDesk numbers.
- Money in your balance. Campaign calls are outgoing calls, charged by the second from your prepaid balance.
- For Progressive or Predictive: the Pro plan, and the people or queue who will take the calls.
Step 1: What do you want to do?
Pick the goal that fits: reminders, announcements, confirmations, surveys, collections, follow-ups, sales, or something else. The choice does not lock you in. It lets the setup suggest the calling type that usually suits that goal, and you can overrule it in the next step.
Step 2: Choose how calls are made
This is the most important choice. There are three types, and the setup shows all three side by side.
| Type | What happens | Pick it when | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-recorded | Everyone who answers hears a recording or a message you typed. No agent is needed. | You only need to deliver a message: a reminder, a notice, a confirmation. | Every plan |
| Progressive | One call is placed for each free agent. When someone answers, a free agent is offered the call. | Each conversation matters and nobody should wait on the line. | Pro |
| Predictive | A few more numbers are dialled than you have free agents, because many calls go unanswered. It slows itself down if answered callers start to wait. | The list is long, most numbers do not pick up, and you want agents to wait less. | Pro |
On the Basic plan, Progressive and Predictive show as locked. Pre-recorded is always open.
Step 3: Who is calling, and when?
Choose the caller ID, the days of the week and the hours the campaign may dial. Outside those hours nothing is dialled, and people still waiting stay in line for the next window. You can also mark days off, such as a public holiday.
Two pace settings sit here too. Calls per second is how fast new calls start. At once is the most calls on the line together. The defaults are gentle on purpose. Raise them once you have seen a first run. Dial in the hours your customers expect a call, not the hours that suit you.
Step 4: Add your list
Upload your CSV or paste the numbers in. SautiDesk tells you what happened to the list: how many were added, how many were refused, how many were already there, and how many are on your do-not-call list. A number appears once in a campaign, and numbers on your do-not-call list are never dialled.
Step 5: What do people hear, or who handles the calls?
This step depends on the type you chose in step 2.
- Pre-recorded: upload a recording (MP3 or WAV, up to two minutes) or type a message. In a typed message, write {first name} or {amount} where you want each person’s own details read out.
- Progressive or Predictive: choose a queue, or pick people. You do not have to ask anyone to join. An assigned person who is set to Available is offered the next answered call. On a break or away, they are offered none and take normal calls as usual.
Step 6: What about answering machines?
Some calls are picked up by voicemail. You can turn on answering-machine detection and choose what happens when one is found: hang up, or leave your message. Detection is optional and costs KES 0.50 for each detection, on any campaign that has it turned on. If you leave it off, voicemail calls are treated like any other answered call.
Step 7: What happens when nobody is free?
This step only appears for Progressive and Predictive campaigns. If a person answers and every agent is busy, they hear your hold message first. Set how long they may wait, and whether to offer a callback when the wait runs out. Short is kind. A caller who waits a minute in silence will often hang up.
Step 8: Set a budget and see the price
Set a total budget and a daily budget. Choose how many tries each number gets, how long to wait between tries, and which results earn another try, such as no answer or busy. Then read the estimate. It shows the worst case for the whole list: every number tried as many times as you allowed. Real cost is usually lower, because not every try is answered.
You also choose when to be warned. At the percentage you pick, you are alerted before the budget is used up. When the budget is reached, the campaign pauses by itself.
Step 9: Review and press start
The last screen lists every choice in one place. If something is missing, such as an empty list or no message, it tells you which step to fix. Press start, and the first calls go out.
After you start
- Live board. See who is being called now, who is next, who will be tried again, and who is done.
- Pause and resume. A supervisor can pause at any time. Calls already connected finish normally.
- Contacts. Look up any number and see what happened to it.
- Reports. See how many answered, how calls ended, what was spent and each recent try. Download the full list of tries when you need it.
- Webhooks. Send each call’s result to your own systems through the standard Webhooks in Settings.
Once a campaign is running, the same habits apply as on any phone line: look at the board often in the first hour, and check missed calls the next morning so people who called back are not left waiting.