If you’re managing a sales team and your call reporting feels like a black hole, you’re not alone. The default call dispositions in most dialer tools—including Kixie—are pretty generic. “No answer,” “left voicemail,” “connected”... Not exactly groundbreaking insights for your next pipeline review.
Custom call dispositions let you track what actually matters to your team. Want to see how many calls end with “Interested, needs follow-up next week”? Or which reps are getting stonewalled with “Gatekeeper only”? That’s what custom dispositions are for.
This guide is for sales managers, admins, and operations folks who want to get their Kixie call reporting working for them, not against them. We’ll walk through setting up custom call dispositions, share some gotchas, and help you keep things simple and useful.
Why bother with custom dispositions?
Before we jump into the how-to, let’s get clear on when custom dispositions are worth your time—and when they’re just another checkbox in your tech stack.
Good reasons to use custom dispositions: - You want to track outcomes that are specific to your sales process (e.g., “Demo scheduled,” “Referral requested”). - You need better data to coach your team or spot pipeline issues. - You’re sick of exporting call logs and guessing what “Connected” really meant.
Bad reasons: - You think more data automatically means better insights. (It doesn’t.) - You want to track every possible outcome. (That’ll just create mess and reporting nobody trusts.)
Bottom line: Custom dispositions are worth it if they help you make better decisions or save time. If not, skip it.
Step 1: Map out what you actually want to track
Don’t open Kixie yet. Grab a notepad or a Google Doc and jot down:
- What questions do you want your call data to answer? (e.g., “How many calls result in a demo scheduled?”)
- What actions or outcomes do you want reps to log? (e.g., “Left detailed voicemail,” “Reached decision maker,” “Call dropped”)
- What’s actually useful for coaching or reporting? (Be ruthless—if you never use it, don’t track it.)
Pro tip: Limit yourself to 5–10 custom dispositions. If you need more, odds are your categories are too granular or you’re trying to track stuff that’s not actionable.
Step 2: Set up custom call dispositions in Kixie
Here’s where you actually build those call outcomes into Kixie. You’ll need admin access.
1. Log into Kixie’s Web App
- Go to your Kixie dashboard. (Don’t try this in the Chrome extension—it’s not there.)
2. Head to the Dispositions Settings
- Click on your account name (top right), then select Admin Settings.
- In the left sidebar, find Call Dispositions. Not “Call Results”—that’s a different thing.
3. Review (and clean up) existing dispositions
- Out of the box, Kixie gives you generic stuff like “No Answer,” “Left Voicemail,” etc.
- Delete the ones you never use. Trust me, less is more. If you’re nervous, export your current list so you can restore it if needed.
4. Add your custom dispositions
- Click the “Add Disposition” button.
- Give it a clear, short name—what shows up here is what your reps will see after every call.
- Optionally, add a description (helpful for new hires).
- Save.
Examples that work: - “Demo scheduled” - “Send pricing” - “Bad number” - “Gatekeeper only”
What to skip: - Dispositions that overlap (e.g., “No answer” and “Didn’t pick up”) - Vague stuff (“Other,” “Follow up”—unless you’ve defined what that means)
5. Set Default Dispositions (Optional)
- Some teams want a default for outbound vs. inbound calls. You can set this under the same settings menu.
- Honestly, most teams don’t need to mess with this unless you have a unique workflow.
Step 3: Roll it out to your team (without causing chaos)
This is where most teams mess up. If you just drop the new list on people without explanation, you’ll get junk data.
How to get buy-in:
- Share the new disposition list in your next team meeting or Slack channel.
- Explain why you made changes and what each disposition means.
- Make it clear that these aren’t just for “Big Brother” reporting—they’re for making everyone’s life easier (including theirs).
Pro tip: For the first week, spot-check call logs. If you see “Other” or “Left blank” used way too often, talk to the team. Usually, it means your categories aren’t clear—or they’re too much hassle to use.
Step 4: Use dispositions in your sales reporting
This is the whole point, right? Here’s how to actually use the data you’re collecting:
1. Pull disposition data from Kixie
- Go to the Call Logs section in Kixie.
- Filter or export calls by disposition.
- If you use a CRM integration (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot), make sure dispositions are syncing over. Sometimes, this takes extra setup—don’t assume it’s automatic.
2. Build simple reports
- Count of calls per disposition (by rep, by week, etc.)
- Conversion rates: e.g., “Calls resulting in demo scheduled” divided by “Total calls”
- Trends over time—are “Bad number” or “Gatekeeper only” rates going up?
3. Don’t overthink it
- Most teams just need to spot bottlenecks and coach reps. Don’t try to build a dashboard NASA would envy.
- If your data isn’t clean, go back and adjust your disposition list. Don’t be afraid to kill off categories that aren’t helping.
What works, what doesn’t, and what to ignore
What actually works: - Keeping your list short and clear. - Reviewing and tweaking categories every few months. - Making sure your CRM integration is actually syncing (test it!).
What doesn’t: - Having 20+ dispositions. No one will use them correctly. - Vague or overlapping categories. - Forcing reps to write detailed notes for every call—most won’t, and it’ll slow them down.
What to ignore: - Fancy AI “call sentiment” tools—at least for now. Most are more hype than help, and don’t replace asking your team what’s really happening on calls. - Default settings. They’re a starting point, not a best practice.
Keep it simple and iterate
Custom call dispositions in Kixie are a great way to turn raw call activity into useful sales insights—if you keep things simple and focus on what you’ll actually use. Start small, check your data after a month or two, and tweak as you go. The best reporting is the stuff you actually look at and act on, not a graveyard of unused categories.
If you get stuck, ask your team what would make their lives easier. Odds are, they’ll tell you—and your reporting will be better for it.