Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Abandoned calls
Absence
ACD
Adherence
AHT
Announcement
Answered calls
Attrition
Available
Busy tone
CIQ
CLI
Cost per call
Cost per call minute
CRM
Cross selling
CTI
DDI
Erlang
FRE
FTE
Group
Handled calls
Handled first time
Hold time
ICT
Inbound call
Intelligent routing
IVR
KPI
File: call_centre_definitions.doc
Logged on time
Lost calls
LWT
Message
Offered calls
Outbound call
Overflow
Position in queue
Queue
Queue time
Screen popping
Service levels
Shrinkage
SLA
Skills based routing
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Speed of answer
Status
Talk time
Unavailable
Utilisation
Wallboard
Wrap
Term
Abandoned calls
Definition
Calls that arrive at the ACD but terminate before an advisor has
answered. See also answered calls & lost calls.
The call centre SLA for abandoned calls is 5% or less of offered calls.
Call centre management information only reports on calls that
abandon after 15 seconds. Callers abandoning before this time are
generally those whove heard the welcome announcement & realise
theyve called the wrong number, or are organisations testing HDC for
speed & type of response. The time is set at 15 seconds because its
from that time on that the customer is placed with or queues for an
available advisor.
Absence
File: call_centre_definitions.doc
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Term
ACD
Definition
Automatic Call Distributor. Technology that facilitates the handling of
large call volumes by controlling the order in which calls are offered to
advisors, routing calls to particular advisor groups and providing a
wide range of statistical information used in managing a call centre.
Either hardware or software based, the ACD offers sophisticated
options for call handling within a centre.
Adherence
Announcement
File: call_centre_definitions.doc
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Term
Answered calls
Definition
Calls that arrive at the ACD & are answered by an advisor. See also
answered calls & lost calls.
The call centre SLA for answered calls is 95% or more of offered calls.
Call centre management information only reports on calls that
abandon after 15 seconds, so the answered percentage is measured
on offered calls whose call length is at least that length. Callers
abandoning before this time are generally those whove heard the
welcome announcement & realise theyve called the wrong number, or
are organisations testing HDC for speed & type of response. The time
is set at 15 seconds because its from that time on that the customer
is placed with or queues for an advisor.
Attrition
The term used to cover loss of staff from a centre usually described as
an annualised percentage of total staff.
Available
The status of an advisor who is logged into the ACD and waiting for an
inbound call.
AHT
Average handling time. The sum of the average talk time, hold time
and the average wrap for a specified period.
File: call_centre_definitions.doc
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Term
Busy tone
Definition
Callers unable to get through because all lines in are occupied will get
a busy tone (the equivalent of an engaged tone).
The call centre has a total of 60 lines, split between 30 for inbound
calls & 30 for outbound calls. However, calls coming into the call
centre are routed through the switch at Pathfinder House. To some
extent the capacity of the call centre is therefore governed by the
capacity at PFH.
CIQ
Calls in Queue. The number of calls received by the ACD but not yet
connected to an advisor.
CLI
Calculated by dividing the number of calls handled into the full cost of
the entire call centre operation. There can be issues in comparing
costs on this basis unless operational costs are understood across the
comparators.
File: call_centre_definitions.doc
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Term
Cross selling
Definition
Recommending related goods and services to a customer.
CRM
CTI
DDI
Direct Dial Inward. The option to dial directly into a company and
reach a specific extension without going through a switchboard.
Erlang
FRE
Free advisors. The number of advisors who are available to take a call.
File: call_centre_definitions.doc
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Term
FTE
Definition
Full time equivalent. The number of advisors employed or required
expressed in terms of total man-hours required divided by the number
of hours a full time advisor would normally work.
Group
Handled calls
The proportion of calls that are handled by call centre advisors without
the need to transfer the call to the service department. If an advisor
refers to the service department for advice but retains the call this is
counted as first time resolved.
Hold Time
ICT
Inbound call
File: call_centre_definitions.doc
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Term
Intelligent routing
Definition
A process that will take information from callers via auto attendant or
IVR and utilise that information to ensure that calls are directed to the
right group within the call centre.
IVR
KPI
LWT
Logged on time
Lost calls
Calls that arrive at the ACD & are not answered by an advisor.
Message
File: call_centre_definitions.doc
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Term
Offered calls
Definition
The attempts callers make to reach the call centre.
The call centre SLA on offered calls is to forecast within +/-5% of
actual.
Call centre management information only reports on calls that
abandon after 15 seconds, so offered calls reported are those whose
call length is at least that length. Callers abandoning before this time
are generally those whove heard the welcome announcement &
realise theyve called the wrong number, or are organisations testing
HDC for speed & type of response. The time is set at 15 seconds
because its from that time on that the customer is placed with or
queues for an advisor.
Outbound call
Overflow
Calls that flow from one group another after defined criteria such as
queue time.
Position in queue
Queue
File: call_centre_definitions.doc
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Term
Queue time
Definition
The number of seconds a call waits in queue before being handled.
Screen popping
Service levels
A range of performance objectives. The main ones for the calls centre
are offered calls, answered calls, speed of answer, handled first time
and speed of response to emails (for which the service level is within 2
working days)
Shrinkage
SLA
File: call_centre_definitions.doc
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Term
Skills based routing
Definition
Where calls are identified by number called or IVR responses and
routed through to the most appropriate advisor.
Speed of answer
Status
The mode an advisor is in (Available, Talk Time, Hold Time, Wrap &
Unavailable).
Talk time
Unavailable
Advisor status when logged on to the ACD but not available to take
calls, for example during paid breaks or coaching sessions.
Utilisation
File: call_centre_definitions.doc
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Term
Wallboard
Definition
A visual display mounted on the wall that provides real-time and
historical information on queue conditions, advisor status and call
centre performance.
Wrap
The time spent completing work associated with a call after the caller
has hung up. Currently the ACD is set to automatically give HDC
advisors 10 seconds wrap before becoming available again as a
breathing space between calls.
File: call_centre_definitions.doc
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