Call Center Glossary

ABA   Abandonment Rate   

A measurement of callers who disconnect before connecting with the agent or outbound announcement. Also referred to as a Lost Call. The abandon rate is the percentage of calls that are abandoned compared to calls received.

Acquisition Cost   

The cost to acquire a new customer.

ACW   After Contact Work   

Work that is done after hanging up a call such as finishing forms, updating a database, entering call notes or sending information. Also referred to as Wrap-up and Post Call Processing (PCP). During this time the agent is not available to accept a new inbound call or make the next outbound call.

ADE   Automated Dialing Equipment   

In most B2B campaigns, this equipment is needed only when call lists exceed 10000 records.

Agent
A trained telemarketer who makes or receives calls on behalf of a Telemarketing Company.


AHT   Average Handle Time   

The total of the Average Talk Time and Average.  After Contact Work for a designated time period.

Appointment Setting
This is one of the tasks of an Outsourced Telemarketing team working on a B2B campaign or project. The aim is create leads for the client’s sales staff to convert by setting appointment times for them to call or visit.

ASA   Average Speed of Answer   

The total delay time divided by the total of all calls. Also referred to as Average Time to Answer (ATA).

ASR   Automatic Speech Recognition   

Technology that converts voice signals into text.

ATT   

Average Talk Time

Attrition Rates   

measurement of people leaving a company or becoming less useful.

AUX   

Auxiliary Time

Blended Agent   

A contact center agent who performs both inbound and outbound duties.

Blockage or Blocked Call   

Calls that are blocked from entering a queue, perhaps because all lines are busy or there is a technical error.

BPO   Business Process Outsourcing   

Using external service providers to free up a company's time and energy for their core business. Typical BPO functions are financial and administration (F&A) processes, human resources (HR) functions, call center and customer service activities, accounting and payroll. Subsets of this industry are Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) and Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO).

Call Center or Call Centre   

A hub of sales, telemarketing, customer service, administration, management, measured performance and technological coordination. Staff handle a high volume of inbound and (or) outbound phone calls.

Calls in Queue   

Calls waiting to be handled.

Cold Call   

An outbound call an agent makes to speak to a potential customer who has not requested any information or may be unaware of the company's product or service.

Or

The practice of making calls to potential customers with whom you have no prior relationship.

Cold List
A list of people to call who have no prior relationship with your organization, product or service.

Contact Center or Contact Centre   

A business that can perform call center functions along with additional forms of communication such as faxes, letters, live chat and email.

Contacts per Agent   

A measurement of agent productivity.

Conversion Rates   

A measurement of agent success, usually between prospects and sales.

CPC   Cost per Contact   

The sum of all costs for running the call center for a specified time period divided by the number of calls handled in the call center for the same period. This would include all calls for all reasons whether handled by an agent or technology, such as IVR.

CPH Calls per Hour   

The average number of calls that an agent handles per hour. This figure is equal to the total calls handled during a working shift divided by the total time (in hours) logged in a system.

CPO  Cost Per Order   

(Sales Per Hour times Average Value of Sale) minus (Average Hourly Rate divided by Contact per Hour)

Data Scrubbing or Data Cleansing   

A process, which scrapes through a database to remove information which is either untimely or inappropriate. People who register themselves on a DNS list need to be removed from call lists, and data cleansing accomplishes this tasks. Neglecting to scrub data can lead to costly fines and a bad reputation.

DN   

Dialed Number

DNC   Do Not Call or Do Not Contact   

Individuals or companies on this list have specified that they do not want to receive cold calls.

DNS   Do Not Solicit   

Individuals or companies on this list have specified that they do not want to receive any forms of advertising or marketing that they have not previously expressed an interest in or given permission to be contacted.

FCR   

First Contact Resolution

HT   Hold Time

The total length of calls during the busiest hour divided by the total number of calls.

IT   

Idle Time

Inbound Calls   

Calls made by customers to your help desk or call center. Inbound services include customer care, technical support or message taking.

IVR   Interactive Voice Response   

Technology that speaks to the incoming caller and gives them a list of menu items to choose from which directs their call or performs database lookups.

LDQ   Longest Delay In Queue   

A worst-case scenario figure that measures the longest time a caller waited before being handled.

OCC   Occupancy   

Calculated as a percentage of time that an agent spends actively working.

Outbound Calls   

Calls made by agents from your call center to your customers, employees or other business partners.

Predictive Dialing   

Technology used for inbound and outbound purposes to automatically connect calls to agents.

RT   Response Time   

The amount of time it takes from when the caller dials into the contact center to the time they are connected with the appropriate agent.

SLA   Service Level Agreement   

A contract that defines the levels of service expected. Typical service level agreements include the number of calls made or answered within a specified time period.

TR   Transfer Rate

TT  Talk Time   

The total number of seconds the caller was connected to an agent.

Telemarketer   

A person who acts as the voice of a company, working either internally within the company whose products or services he is selling, or in a call center, contact center or virtual call center. This person can initiate or receive calls.

Virtual Call Center or VPA   

Virtual Personal Assistant  geographically separated groups of sales agents or customer service representatives who act as one unit even though they are all sitting anywhere in the world to perform various duties such as lead generation, appointment setting, telesales, market research and customer support.

VoIP  

Voice over Internet Protocol   

Technology that allows voice phone calls to be sent via the internet.

Web Enabled Software   

web-based interface to a company's products and services that can support features like online chats, Voice Over IP, web callbacks, collaborative browsing and e-mail automation.