Call Center Terminology from H-Z

Note: Please refer to call center terminology from A-G if you are looking for a term that begins with those letters.

Hunt Group is a call center terminology which is basically a directory of destination numbers.

Inbound campaign is devoted to answering calls coming in

Interactive Voice Response or IVR is a sound recording to let the caller to verbally give out some information to the system. This is usually used to gather what service or support the caller is calling about.

Location- based routing are the rules programmed to route the call to different destinations depending on the location of the caller

Monitoring is also called service observation that refers to the practice of listening to telephone calls received by an agent to evaluate the quality of how the call was handled. This may be done in silent, announced, remote, side-by-side, or recorded for later review.

Outbound campaign is composed of representatives making an outside calls. Call centers usually bring inbound and outbound activities to maximize the use of available agents.

Private Exchange Branch or PBX is a general term which refers to manually operated switching equipment as against computer operated switching that provides telephone communications between internal stations and external networks.

Quality Assurance or QA is a call center language that refers to the internal assessment of the quality of calls received and delivered by agents. Assessment is based on scoring forms.

Queue is the implementation of an inbound campaign. The queue receives calls and route them to available representatives according to first in first out order. In call center terminology, this process is often called ACD or Automated Call Distribution.

Recorded Announcement or RAN is an option that plays a recorded announcement for callers waiting on queue. An example will be “Your call is important to us. Please remain on the line and your call will be answered by the next available agent”

Screen pop is a function of CTI that automatically display the caller’s account to the agent’s computer screen. This function of CTI also permits the transfer of data screen to another agent when a call is transferred

Skills Based Routing or SBR is a method of routing calls wherein the call is routed to the best agent who will be able to meet the caller’s needs as defined by competency, rather than simply routing the call to the next available agent.

Switch is another term for PBX. See PBX for definition.

Talk Time is the elapsed time from the moment an agent answers a call until it was disconnected from the agent.

Time and Date-based routing are also rules programmed to route the call to different destinations depending on the time or date of the call

Translation is the automatic routing of inbound calls from one telephone number to another

Turnover is call center dictionary that refers to staff leaving the company to work somewhere else.

VRU stands for Voice Response Unit. See IVR for definition.

Workforce Management or WFM is the science of having the right number of agents at the right time to answer the forecasted volume of incoming calls cognizant to the service level set by the call center.

Wrap Time Work or After Call Work (ACW) refers to the task involve following an inbound call. If work must be completed before an agent handles the next call, then it is factored into average handle time or AHT. The work may involve keying activity codes, updating database, filling out forms, or placing an outbound call.