CALL CENTER DICTIONARY

B - C

Base Staff. The minimum number of agents required to achieve a specified service level and response time objectives for given period of time. Base Staff calculations assume that agents will be in their seats for the entire period of time. Therefore, schedules need to accommodate extra people considering breaks, absenteeism and other factors that will keep agents from the phones.

Beep Tone. Also called zip tone which is an audible sound that signals the arrival of a call. Beep tone can also refer to the audible sound that a call is being monitored

Benchmark. A standard task to compare services with other units for the purpose of identifying new ideas for improvement.

Blockage. An incident where callers are blocked from entering a queue. See Blocked Call.

Blocked Call. Normally happens when the volume of calls goes beyond the threshold. Calls cannot be connected immediately because of various reasons such as: unavailability of circuit at the time of call, or the ACD was programmed to block calls beyond the threshold.

Busy Hour. Refers to the hour of time in which a trunk group carries the most traffic during the day.

Call Blending. A process of combining inbound and outbound agents into one group, where each agent handles both inbound and outbound calls. Usually necessitated by a system depending on the incoming call load.

Call By Call Routing. The process of routing each call to the optimum destination according to real-time conditions.

Call Center. Refers to customer service, reservations, technical support centers, help desks, or information lines.

Call Control Variables. A set of criteria that includes routing, overflow parameters, announcements, and timing thresholds.

Call Detail Recording. The capability of an ACD to record important data for every call such as trunk used, time in queue, agent who received the call, and the number dialled if there was.

Call Forcing. One feature of ACD to deliver a call automatically to an available agent.

Call Load. The product of Average Talk Time plus the Average After Call Work multiplied by the call volume in a particular time.

Caller ID. Automatic number identification.

Calls In Queue. A real-time report referring to the number of incoming calls or calls waiting to be received by a call center agent.

Carrier. A company that provides telecommunications circuits. Carriers include both local telephone companies and long distance providers.

Collateral Duties. Non-phone tasks by a call center agent like data entry.

Computer Simulation. A way to predict the outcome of an event, generated by a computer system.

Computer Telephony Integration (CTI). The software, hardware and programming necessary to integrate computers and telephones.

Conditional Routing. A condition that may be applied or programmed for the ACD. Usually to instruct ACD where and when to route a call to a specific unit.

Controlled Busies. Busy signals generated by ACD when the queue has reached its threshold.

Cost Center. Refers to a department that does not generate profit.

Cost of Delay. The cost for toll-free services, in terms of money that a call center pays for callers on queue.

Cost Per Call. Total costs divided by total calls for a given period of time.

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.