CALL CENTER DICTIONARY

A

Abandoned Call. The caller hangs up before a call center agent was able to answer the call.

Adherence To Schedule. Usually part of a call center's metric that refers to how well an agent adheres to their schedule which includes how much time they are available to take in calls, handle calls, and waiting for calls.

After-Call Work (ACW). Additional work necessary after each call which may include data entry to complete the transaction. A call center agent on ACW is unavailable to take inbound call at this time.

Agent. The person who handles incoming or outgoing calls. Also referred to as customer service representative (CSR), telephone sales or service representative , technical support representative (TSR), rep, operator, technician, account executive, team member, customer service professional, staff member, attendant and specialist.

Agent Group. A number of agents grouped together by common skills.

Agent Out Call. An outgoing call placed by an agent.

Agent Status. The mode an agent is in (Talk Time, After-Call Work, Unavailable, on training, on break, etc.).

All Trunks Busy (ATB). A term that specifies how busy a trunk group is.

Analog. Telephone transmission is one way. Or telephone switching that is not digital. Signals are analogous to the original signal.

Answered Call. Refers to the number of calls that successfully reached a call center agent.

Application Based Routing and Reporting. The process of routing and tracking the type of calls (service, sales, billing, etc).

Audiotex. Also known as Voice Processing. An automated voice system informing callers about a pre-recorded announcements.

Auto Available. An ACD feature whereby the ACD is programmed to automatically put agents into Available after they finish Talk Time and a call is disconnected. If a call center agent need to go into After-Call Work, they have to press a button or key to make themselves unavailable to take calls at a particular moment.

Auto Greeting. Call center agent's pre-recorded greeting that plays automatically when a call comes in.

Auto Wrap-up. An ACD feature whereby the ACD is programmed to automatically put call center agents into After-Call Work after they finish Talk Time and disconnect calls, making them unavailable to take in calls. When the agent have completed any After-Call Work required, they press a key to put themselves back into Available.

Automated Attendant. An automated system that prompts caller to respond to choices offered (e.g., press 1 for billing, press 2 for product inquiry, etc.). The system then coordinates with the ACD to send callers to specific destinations. This function can reside in an on-site system or in the network.

Automatic Call Distributor (ACD). The specialized telephone system used by incoming call centers. It is a device that may be programmed to automatically answers calls, queues calls, distributes calls to different agents, plays delay announcements to callers and provides real-time and historical reports on these activities.

Automatic Number Identification (ANI). A North American term which is also called Calling Line Identification. A telephone network feature that passes the number of the phone the caller is using to the call center, real-time.

Auxiliary Work State. An agent work state that is typically not associated with handling telephone calls (on training, on breaks, meeting, coaching sessions, calibration sessions). When a call center agent is in an auxiliary mode, he will not receive inbound calls.

Available State. Call center agents who are signed on to the ACD and waiting for calls to arrive.

Available Time. Refers to the amount of time that an agent or agent group waited for calls to arrive, for a given period of time.

Average Handle Time (AHT). The sum of Average Talk Time (time consumed on call) plus the Average After-Call Work for a period of time.

Average Holding Time on Trunks (AHT). The average time inbound transactions occupy the trunks. It is calculated by the Talk Time + Delay Time divided by Calls Received by a call center agent.

Average Number of Agents. The average number of agents logged in for a specific period of time.

Average Speed of Answer (ASA). Also called Average Delay. The average amount of delayed calls. It is the total Delay for all calls divided by the number of calls that had to wait in queue.

Average Time to Abandonment. Calculated by the average time that callers wait in queue before abandoning the attempt to call.