Presented by:

CALL CENTER TERMS  

   A  COHESIVE GUIDE TO ALL
      THE ACRONYMS YOU
           NEED TO KNOW
   

Prepared by Amy Adams & Tom Laird

Expivia Marketing & Interaction Group © 2020
 CONTENTS

01 02
INTRODUCTION A-B

03 04
B-C C-E

05 06
F-N N-W
 - 01 -

INTRODUCTION

    Here at Expivia Interaction Marketing Group, we have taken

some time to create what we hope is a useful dictionary of the
most used call center terms, acronyms and definitions.
 
   Whether you're new to call center operations or you are a
seasoned associate, manager, or executive, we hope this book is a
useful tool to help everyone in the call center and customer
service space understand the lingo we speak each and every day.
We hope you enjoy and find some value!
 
-Tom Laird
CEO Expivia Interaction Marketing
Host of “Advice from a Call Center Geek!” Podcast
www.expiviausa.com
 - 02
06 -

ACD - Automatic Call Distributor  A telephone device that answers and distributes incoming
calls to a specific group of terminals or agents within an
organization..

ACW - After Call Work The tasks required from a customer service representative
after a call has ended and how long it takes for a
representative to complete their post-call tasks.

AHT - Average Handle Time The average duration of one transaction, typically measured
from the customer's initiation of the call and including any
hold time, talk time and related tasks that follow the
transaction. 

ANI- Automatic Number A service that provides the receiver of a telephone call with
          Identification the number of the calling phone.

API - Application Progamming              A set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software
applications.
            Interface

The percentage of inbound phone calls made to a call center

AR - Abandonment Rate
or service desk that is abandoned by the customer before
speaking to an agent.

ASA - Average Speed of Answer The average amount of time it takes for a call center to
answer incoming calls.

ASR - Automatic Speech Technologies that enable the recognition and translation of
           Recognition spoken language into text by computers.

The average time a customer is left on hold while working on

ATQ - Average Time in Queue
a solution.

The amount of time that an agent spends in handling

ATT - Average Talk Time customer calls and resolving their queries.

B2B - Business to Business A situation where one business makes a commercial

transaction with another.
 - 03 -

The process of selling products and services directly B2C - Business to Consumer
between a business and consumers who are the end-users
of its products or services.

Contracting of non-primary business activities and functions BPO - Business Process Outsourcing
to a third-party provider. BPO services include payroll,
human resources (HR), accounting and customer/call center
relations.

The total number of customers who agree that their CES - Customer Effort Score
interaction was easy (rating of 4 or 5) divided by the total
number of responses.

The joint navigation through the World Wide Web by two or Co-Browsing
more people accessing the same web page at the same time.

Measures the aggregate cost to acquire one paying customer CPA - Cost per Acquisition
on a campaign or channel level.

A call center metric calculated by dividing the total CPC - Cost Per Call
operational costs by the total number of calls for a given
period of time.

A call center metric that tells managers how productive our CPH - Calls Per Hour
contact centers are based on the number of calls our agents
receive in an hour.

To multiply the amount of time it takes to handle one call by

the employee's hourly rate, which includes payroll tax and CPH - Cost per Hour
benefit costs.

An online advertising pricing model where the advertiser

pays for an explicit sign-up from a consumer interested in CPL - Cost per Lead
the advertiser's offer.

To multiply the amount of time it takes to handle one call by

the employee's hourly rate divided by 60 minutes.
CPM - Cost Per Minute

A metric based on the calculation of dividing the calls

handled by the total number of associates taking calls at a
CPP - Calls Per Position
particular time.
 - 04
06 -

CRM - Customer Relationship                An approach to managing a company's interaction with

current and potential customers.
              Management 

CSAT- Customer Satisfaction A measure of how products and services supplied by a

company meet or surpass customer expectation.

CTI - Computer Telephony A common name for any technology that allows interactions
on a telephone and a computer to be integrated or
            Integration coordinated.

CX - Customer Experience The product of an interaction between an organization and a

customer over the duration of their relationship.

DID- Direct Inward Dialing A telecommunication service offered by telephone

companies to subscribers who operate a private branch
exchange system.

A list of home and cell telephone numbers that most

DNC - Do Not Call telemarketers are prohibited from using and must remove
from their existing call lists.

DNIS - Dialed Number A service that identifies the originally dialed telephone
              Identification Service number of an inbound call.

A set of policies, tools and procedures to enable the recovery

DR - Disaster Recovery or continuation of vital technology infrastructure and
systems following a natural or human-induced disaster.

Reflected upon an employee's self-reported contentment

about the business in which they work, in addition to the
ESAT- Employee Satisfaction
extent that their wants and needs are perceived to have
been met by the organization.

Predicts the amount of time a conversation has to wait in a

EWT - Expected Wait Time
queue before being answered.
 - 05 -

A contact center's ability to resolve customer problems, FCR - First Call Resolution
questions or needs the first time they call, with no follow-up
required.

The time taken by the agent to respond to a ticket the first FRT - First Response Time
time.

Units or equivalent employees working full-time. FTE - Full-Time Equivalent

The probability of a call in a circuit group being blocked or GOS - Grade of Service
delayed for more than a specified interval.

Point in time between the creation of an incident message IRT - Initial Response Time for Chat
and the first reaction by the associate.

A telephony technology that can read a combination of

touch-tone and voice input. A typical IVR system has several IVR - Interactive Voice Response
menus of prerecorded options that the caller can choose
from.

The process of creating, sharing, using and managing the KMS - Knowledge Management 
knowledge and information of an organization.             System

A type of performance measurement that evaluates the

KPI- Key Performance Indicator
success of an organization or of a particular activity.

The available agent with the lowest percentage of work time LOA - Least Occupied Agent
since login.

The available agent with the highest skill level who has been
MIA - Most Idle Agent
idle the longest since their last call.

A management tool that can be used to gauge the loyalty of NPS- Net Promoter Scoring
a firm's customer relationships. It serves as an alternative to
traditional customer satisfaction research.
 - 06 -

The percentage of time that call agents spend handling

OCC - Occupancy incoming calls against the available or idle time, which is
determined by dividing workload hours by staff hours.

A multiline telephone system typically used in business

PBX - Private Branch Exchange
environments, encompassing systems ranging in technology
from the key telephone system to the private branch
exchange.

PDS- Predictive Dialer System An outbound calling system that automatically dials from a
list of telephone numbers.

PFP - Pay for Performance The concept that higher performance is rewarded with
higher pay.

Measuring the output of a particular business process or

PIP - Performance Improvement procedure, then modifying the process or procedure to
          Plan increase the output, increase efficiency, or increase the
effectiveness of the process or procedure.

POC - Point of Contact A person or a department serving as the coordinator or focal

point of information concerning an activity or program.

A policy that provides a bank of hours in which the employer

PTO - Paid Time Off pools sick days, vacation days, and personal days that allows
employees to use as the need or desire arises.

A process that ensures that your results in terms of customer

QA - Quality Assurance service match your desired outcome. Satisfied customers and
great customer service result from a cycle of data collection,
analysis, training, and improvement.

RPA - Robotic Process Automation A form of business process automation technology based on
metaphorical software robots or artificial intelligence
workers.

Calculates the effort of a representative with respect to

RPC - Revenue Per Call
increasing sales.

call-assignment strategy used in call centres to assign

SBR - Skills-Based Routing incoming calls to the most suitable agent, instead of simply
choosing the next available agent.
 - 07 -

Defines the level of service expected by a customer from a

supplier, laying out the metrics by which that service is SLA - Service Level Adherence
measured, and the remedies or penalties, if any, should the
agreed-on service levels not be achieved.

A metric that shows how full your pipeline is relative to your SPC - Sales Per Call
sales quota.

The gross dollar amount of sales, minus any sales SPH - Sales Per Hour
commissions due, and divided by the number of hours
worked.

The TCPA (1991) limits the use of automatic dialing systems, TCPA - Telephone Consumer
artificial or prerecorded voice messages, SMS text messages,
and fax machines. Protection Act

Telephone numbers with a three or four-digit distinct code

that can be dialed without any charge incurring to the person TFN - Toll Free Number
placing the call.

Evenly distributes incoming calls among a group of

UCD - Uniform Call Distribution
telephone numbers, queues calls, and provides
announcements while callers wait for staff assistance.

The in-depth process of capturing customer's expectations,

preferences and aversions based on the sound of their voice.
VOC - Voice of Customer

A method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice

communications and multimedia sessions over Internet VOIP - Voice Over Internet Protocol
Protocol networks, such as the Internet.

An institutional process that maximizes performance levels

and competency for an organization. WFM - Workforce Management

A business strategy that integrates contact center

technologies for customer experience to promote WFO - Workforce Optimization
operational efficiency. The strategy involves automating
processes, data visibility, compliance on legislation, and
solving business problems related to staff.

The amount of time that a call center agent spends doing WT  - Wrap Time
follow up tasks in order to complete a customer interaction.
 - 08 -

 
    Want more call center operations content? Head over to our
weekly call center operations podcast “Advice from a Call
Center Geek!” at:
expiviausa.com/call-center-geek-podcast/
 
Advice from a Call Center Geek is a weekly podcast with a focus
on all things call center and contact center. We discuss topics
such as call center operations, hiring, culture, technology, and
training and have fun doing it!
 
Visit our website at www.expiviausa.com