A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Abandonment rate measures the percentage of customers who disconnect before reaching a human agent. This is calculated by dividing the total number of incoming calls by the number of abandoned calls.
As a general rule of thumb, you should aim for an abandonment rate under 5%.
For contact centers, this rate is a critical indicator of friction in the customer journey, often tied to long wait times or poor routing.
Learn more about why abandonment rate matters.
Adaptive routing is the use of data and AI to direct incoming customer calls and queries to the most appropriate agent, based on factors like:
- Experience
- Skill set
- Availability
- Customer history
- Intent
In call centers, adaptive routing improves first-contact resolution, reduces transfers, and lowers wait time by matching customers with agents who are best equipped to help.
After-Call Work (ACW) includes the tasks an agent completes once an interaction ends, such as updating records, escalating issues, tagging tickets, or writing summaries. In contact center operations, ACW directly impacts handle time, agent workload, and data quality, making it a key area for efficiency and QA optimization.
Here’s how to improve ACW.
Agent burnout describes the emotional and physical exhaustion contact center agents experience from high query volumes, challenging interactions, repetitive tasks, and performance pressure.
For CX teams, burnout often shows up as declining quality scores, reduced efficiency, and lower CSAT, signaling the need for better support and coaching strategies.
Here’s how to curb contact center agent burnout.
Agent coaching is the ongoing process of reviewing contact center agent performance and providing targeted feedback to improve skills, knowledge, confidence, and consistency.
Learn about the skills contact center agents need and how to coach them.
An agent desktop is the unified interface agents use to manage calls, messages, and customer information in one place. In contact centers, it typically brings together CRM data, product information, scripts, knowledge bases, and QA tools.
A well-designed agent desktop should reduce context switching, shorten handle time, and lower cognitive load, enabling agents to focus on the customer rather than navigating multiple systems.
Agent engagement demonstrates how motivated, connected, and invested agents feel in their work. In contact center environments, high engagement is linked to better performance, lower attrition, and stronger CX, while lower engagement can lead to agent burnout.
Engagement can be tracked through surveys, participation in coaching, and retention metrics.
Here’s how to maintain agent engagement in a contact center.
Agent Experience (AX) describes the day-to-day of a contact center agent, including their tools, processes, and environment. AX directly influences performance, engagement, and retention, as a positive agent experience with clear workflows, intuitive systems, and supportive feedback enables agents to serve customers more effectively.
Agent performance management is a system of metrics, evaluations, feedback, and goals that are used to inform agent improvement. In quality assurance, it connects scores, KPIs, and coaching into a continuous loop, ensuring agents understand expectations and business goals, and are provided with clear pathways to grow.
Agent utilization is a metric that measures how much of an agent’s available time is spent actively handling customer interactions or other productive tasks. In contact center operations, this metric helps leaders and decision makers balance efficiency with sustainability.
Agent utilization is calculated by dividing the agent’s total handle time + after-call work by total logged-in time, and multiplying by 100.
Low agent utilization rates? Here’s how to improve productivity.
AI agent assist provides live guidance and support during interactions, such as suggested responses, knowledge base articles, or next-best actions. It can also shorten After-Call Work by summarizing calls and providing notes.
AI auto scoring uses large language models (LLMs) to evaluate interactions against predefined quality criteria without the need for human review. In call centers, it enables quality assurance teams to assess every call for compliance, accuracy, and customer satisfaction.
This ensures consistent scoring at scale, reduces reviewer bias, and provides more comprehensive insight into performance trends.
AI customer service automation uses chatbots and intelligent workflows to handle routine tasks without human involvement.
In a call center, this lowers operational costs, reduces queue volume, and allows agents to focus on more complex, high-value interactions that require empathy and judgment.
Learn more about the future of AI and customer service automation.
An API is a set of rules that enables various contact center systems (such as your phone platform, CRM, QA software, or workforce tools) to integrate and communicate with each other.
This means APIs enable data to flow automatically between tools, connecting call recordings, customer profiles, agent activity, and QA scores across multiple platforms.
Here’s how to integrate Scorebuddy with tools you already use.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to computers and machines that can learn, reason, analyze, recognize patterns, and make decisions, mimicking human intelligence.
AI in call centers can power routing, transcription, sentiment analysis, conversations, and QA automation.
Attrition refers to the rate of employees that leave your call center (either voluntarily or involuntarily). While attrition rate is often used interchangeably with turnover rate, there is a key difference. If you aim to fill the leaving employee’s position, you’re dealing with turnover. And if you choose not to look for a replacement (for example, if they retired or you removed the position altogether), you’re looking at attrition. Where the former is most likely a reason for concern, the latter can be an effective cost-saving tactic.
To calculate the attrition rate, divide the number of employees who left your call center during a certain period by the average number of employees for that same period and then multiply it by 100.
Automated Quality Assurance uses artificial intelligence to automatically evaluate customer interactions for compliance, accuracy, and experience.
Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) is a technology that routes incoming calls to the most appropriate agents based on their skills, availability, or the caller’s specific needs. If used effectively, ACD can help reduce wait times, improve First Call Resolution (FCR), and improve the overall customer experience.
Average Call Processing Time (ACPT) measures the total time required to handle an interaction, including talk time, hold time, and after-call work.
ACPT is calculated by dividing the total talk time, hold time, and ACW by the total number of calls over a certain period of time.
Average Handling Time (AHT) calculates the average amount of time your agents spend on resolving customer service calls. Aside from the actual interaction, AHT includes hold times, delays, transfers, and follow-up tasks. Once you’ve added all of these together, divide the total by the number of calls.
Learn more about Average Handling Time
Average resolution time tracks how long it typically takes to fully resolve a customer issue. This is calculated by dividing the total time spent resolving tickets by the total number of tickets solved within a specific period.
Average Speed of Answer (ASA) measures how long customers wait before an agent answers. This is calculated by dividing the total wait time before being answered by the total number of answers.
Average talk time reflects how long an agent spent actively speaking with a customer. This is calculated by dividing the total amount of time spent interacting by the total number of calls.
Average time in queue measures how long customers wait before reaching an agent. ATIQ is measured by dividing the total wait time for all customers by the numbers of calls handled.
Average Time to Abandon (ATA) tracks how long customers wait before disconnecting.
This can be tracked by dividing the total wait time spent by customers who abandoned by the total number of abandoned interactions (like calls or live chats).
Average Wait Time (AWT) shows the total time customers spend waiting, including time in the queue and on hold. This is calculated by dividing the total wait time by all customers by the number of customers interacted with.
BPO refers to the practice of hiring a third-party service provider to handle certain business operations. In the context of a call center, BPO means outsourcing customer service and support tasks to an external vendor.
QA calibration is the process of aligning evaluators, managers, and decision-makers on how quality standards are interpreted and applied.
In contact centers, calibration sessions ensure that everyone scores interactions consistently and aligns on business goals; this reduces bias, ensures fairness for agents, and builds trust in scores.
Call auditing is the structured review of customer interactions to assess compliance, accuracy, and CX.
In contact centers, audits help identify risks, training gaps, and performance trends across agents or teams.
A call center audit is a comprehensive evaluation of operations, technology, compliance, and performance.
Unlike individual agent call reviews, it examines the entire system, including workflows, policies, staffing, and tools to uncover inefficiencies, compliance risks, and structural bottlenecks.
Here are 6 things you can’t ignore during a call center audit.
Call center automation uses technology and AI to handle repetitive tasks and routine interactions without human intervention; this may include the use of:
• Chatbots
• IVR flows
• Automated routing
• Workflow triggers
Here’s how automation can be used to reduce call center costs.
Call center coaching is the ongoing development of agents through feedback, guidance, and skill-building.
In quality assurance-driven environments, coaching connects performance data to real behavior, helping agents understand what to improve and how, to increase confidence, consistency, and retention.
Call center compliance ensures that customer interactions meet legal, regulatory, and internal policy requirements.
Through implementing disclosures, consent, data handling procedures, and industry-specific rules, this protects the business from fines and reputational damage.
Here’s how to complete call center compliance training.
A call center dialer is the system that automatically places outbound calls for agents. Dialers manage pacing, connect agents only when a live person answers, and optimize call flow.
Call center efficiency reflects how effectively a contact center uses time, people, and technology to resolve customer needs.
This metric is determined by factors such as:
• Handle time
• Resolution rates
• Queue performance
Learn how to boost call center efficiency.
Call center metrics are the data points used to measure performance, experience, and operational health.
Typical examples include first call resolution, average handle time, CSAT, abandonment, and quality scores.
Learn about metrics for inbound and outbound call centers.
Call center monitoring is the ongoing observation of live and recorded interactions to ensure quality and compliance. In contact centers, it provides real-time and historical visibility into agent behavior and customer experience.
Call center software is the technology stack that supports communication, routing, reporting, and quality management.
In modern contact centers, this often includes cloud telephony, CRMs, analytics, and QA platforms.
Here’s how to pick call center software.
A call center staffing model defines how many agents are needed, when they are scheduled, and how capacity aligns with demand. This staffing tool balances forecasted volume with service-level goals, while preventing overworked or underutilized agents.
Learn how to get call center staffing right.
Call evaluation is the assessment of an interaction against predefined quality standards. Evaluations create clarity around expectations for agents, turning subjective experience into measurable performance.
Call monitoring software allows managers to listen in on live customer-agent calls, and often offers features like being able to take over a call or “whisper” to assist an agent.
It may also have the capability to record, transcribe, and analyze interactions.
Here’s why call monitoring software needs QA.
Call quality measures how well an agent meets service standards during customer interactions. It typically evaluates:
• Communication skills
• Accuracy
• Empathy
• Compliance
• Resolution effectiveness
A call script is a document that contains clear instructions on the best ways for agents to handle customer interactions. It provides them with guidance and precise wording they can use in response to a specific customer question or issue.
Learn more about call center call script
A call transcript is a written record of a customer interaction, generated from call recordings or speech-to-text technology.
Transcripts allow call center teams to review conversations, search for keywords, analyze sentiment, and assess quality, compliance, and agent performance at scale.
Coaching and appeals refer to the process where agents receive feedback on evaluated calls and can challenge or clarify scores. This creates transparency and ensures evaluations are fair.
Coaching effectiveness measures how well feedback and training improve agent performance. It connects coaching activities to outcomes such as higher quality scores, better customer satisfaction, and reduced errors.
This can be tracked by comparing before-and-after scores, reaching goals, and KPIs.
A coaching plan is a structured roadmap for agent development based on performance data. It outlines specific goals, focus areas, timelines, and actions, such as role-play or targeted training, so managers can deliver personalized improvement support.
Here’s how to put together the best call center coaching plan.
Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) connects phone systems with software like CRMs and help desks. It enables features such as screen pops, click-to-call, and automatic data logging to assist call center agents while they work.
Contact Center AI uses machine learning and automation to enhance customer service operations. It employs chatbots, agent assist tools, auto-scoring, conversation analytics, and more.
Check out 9 examples of contact center AI.
Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) is a cloud-based solution that provides companies with the tools and technology needed to effectively manage their customer experience. CCaaS platforms often include features like IVR, call recording, omnichannel support, and more, and help companies reduce costs and scale their operations.
Contact reason identifies why a customer reached out, such as billing, technical support, or order status. Categorizing contact reasons helps teams spot trends, reduce repeat issues, optimize workflows, and align training with the most common customer needs.
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) is an essential metric used to assess how satisfied a customer is with a product or the overall experience. In a call center environment, CSAT would determine how happy a customer is with the provided service. The most common way to determine the level of customer satisfaction is by running a feedback survey.
Conversation analytics is powered by AI and natural language processing, and it examines call and chat data. It detects patterns, keywords, sentiment, and compliance risks across large volumes of interactions, giving leaders visibility into:
• Customer behavior
• Agent performance
• Operational gaps
Conversation intelligence transforms customer interactions into actionable insights.
By analyzing tone, intent, and outcomes, it reveals what drives successful resolutions, uncovers coaching opportunities, and informs product, marketing, and CX strategies across the organization.
Here’s how conversation intelligence software brings depth to QA.
Conversation review is the process of examining recorded calls or chats to assess quality, compliance, and effectiveness.
Use this call center QA checklist template for better conversations reviews and quality audits.
Conversational AI (Chatbots & Virtual Agents)
Conversational AI refers to automated chatbots and virtual agents that handle customer interactions through natural language. These tools answer common questions, route requests, and complete simple tasks.
Here’s how to elevate your contact center with conversational AI.
A critical category is a quality assurance scoring area tied to high-risk outcomes, such as compliance, data privacy, legal requirements, and the customer experience.
A CRM is a system that stores customer data, interaction history, and account details. In call centers, it gives agents a complete view of the customer profile, enabling faster resolutions, personalized service, and consistent communication across channels.
CRM integration connects call center tools with the CRM platform. It enables automatic data syncing, screen popups, and activity logging, giving agents real-time context during interactions.
Customer churn measures the rate at which customers stop doing business with a company. In call centers, high churn may signal service issues, unresolved problems, or poor experiences.
This is often expressed as a percentage, calculating the amount of customers lost during a specific period and dividing that by the amount of customers that existed at the beginning of that period.
Customer delight goes beyond customer satisfaction by creating positive, memorable experiences.
In call centers, it’s achieved through empathy, proactive problem-solving, and exceeding expectations by turning routine support interactions into interactions that build loyalty and advocacy.
Customer Effort Score measures how easy it was for a customer to resolve their issue. Lower effort correlates with higher customer loyalty and satisfaction, while high effort signals that there is friction. This score is best measured through a survey.
Customer engagement reflects how actively and positively customers interact with a brand; it goes beyond just one interaction, and encompasses continued engagement for the long term.
Customer Experience (CX) encompasses every interaction a customer has with a company. This is measured by factors such as:
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
• Customer Effort Score (CES)
• Net Promoter Score (NPS)
• Churn rates
• Survey scores
Customer sentiment analysis uses AI to detect emotional tone and attitude in customer interactions. It identifies opinions, frustration, satisfaction, or urgency, helping teams prioritize follow-ups, improve coaching, and better understand how customers feel about their experiences.
Data privacy refers to how customer information is collected, used, stored, and shared in order to maintain compliance. In call centers, it ensures personal customer data from all interactions and records is handled lawfully and ethically.
A data retention policy in a call center defines how long call recordings, transcripts, and customer data are stored before deletion.
This type of policy helps call centers balance compliance and risk, ensuring information is kept only as long as legally and operationally necessary.
Data security are the systems and practices that protect customer information from data breaches, loss, or unauthorized access. In call centers, data security typically involves:
• Encryption
• Access controls
• Secure storage for recordings, transcripts, CRM data, and more
In a call center, dead air refers to a period of silence during an interaction where the customer is left waiting while the agent is looking up information, checking with other team members, dealing with a slow system, or figuring out the best next steps. Some of the reasons for dead air include lack of knowledge, insufficient training, outdated or faulty technology, and inefficient processes.
Learn more about dead air
Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS) is a telecommunication technology that helps identify and route calls based on the dialed phone number. Call centers can use DNIS to better direct the calls to relevant agents through Automatic Call Distribution (ACD).
The opposite of CSAT, DSAT stands for customer dissatisfaction and refers to the percentage of customers that are unhappy with their experience. The easiest way to calculate it is by subtracting the CSAT score from 100 (your ultimate satisfaction score).
Learn more about DSAT score
Empathy statements are phrases used by contact center agents to demonstrate the ability to listen, relate, and sympathize with a customer. Genuine empathy is an essential quality of a good call center agent as it allows them to better understand customers and their needs.
Learn more about empathy statements
A call escalation is a process where the call is transferred to a supervisor or a different agent, as the original agent is unable to resolve the customer’s issue or complaint.
Learn more about call escalation
A feedback loop is where an output in a system is used as an input to influence or improve future outputs. In a call center, this means putting performance insights into action.
Quality assurance findings can inform coaching, training, and process changes, and results are measured over time, creating continuous improvement across both agent and customer experiences.
First call resolution (FCR) is a metric that estimates the agent’s ability to handle and resolve a customer’s issue during the first call without the need for further follow-up.
To calculate the first call resolution, divide the number of support issues resolved during the initial call by the total number of FCR-eligible support issues.
Learn more about First Call Resolution (FCR)
First Response Time measures how quickly a customer receives an initial reply after reaching out.
This is calculated by taking the total time elapsed between customer inquiries and the first human agent response, and then dividing by the total number of inquiries.
GDPR compliance means following European data protection laws.
For call centers, it governs how personal data is collected, stored, accessed, and deleted, giving customers rights over their information and requiring strict controls around recordings, transcripts, and customer records.
Generative AI creates new content such as text, images, or answers & responses based on learned patterns and training data.
Generative AI for contact centers includes tools like call summaries, agent assist, auto-responses, and knowledge suggestions.
It helps agents resolve issues faster, reduces after-call work, and ensures consistent, high-quality communication across large volumes of interactions.
Here are 9 ways to use generative AI for contact centers.
Grade of Service (GOS) is a percentage of inbound calls answered within a certain time frame.
Hold time (or Holding time) is the amount of time a caller spends ‘on hold’ and waiting for an agent’s response during a customer call.
Inbound calls refer to incoming calls from customers requiring support or assistance from call center agents.
Integrations connect call center software with tools like CRMs, ticketing systems, and analytics platforms. They enable seamless data flow, reduce manual work, and give agents real-time context.
Here’s why integrations are essential for excellent customer service.
Intent detection uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to identify what a customer wants through their inputs, such as billing help or technical support.
ISO 27001 is an international standard for Information Security Management Systems, and it provides guidelines for organizations to manage and protect sensitive information.
For call centers, it provides the framework to protect sensitive customer data through formal controls, risk management, and ongoing audits.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is an automated phone technology that uses pre-recorded responses and allows incoming callers to access information without needing to speak to an agent. IVR call centers use this technology to streamline their operations and reduce waiting times.
Jitter buffer is a tool for managing voice packets on VoIP calls to improve voice call quality and ensure seamless communication with a customer.
Also known as Key Performance Indicators, KPIs are the most critical metrics that reflect how well a call center performs against its key objectives. Most often, call center KPIs are built around customer experience, productivity, agent performance, and generated revenue or accumulated costs.
Learn more about call center KPIs
Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) refers to outsourcing knowledge-based services that require a high level of specialized expertise. KPO can be considered an extension of BPO (Business Process Outsourcing).
LMS is a centralized software solution that automates the training process and learning activities within an organization. In call centers, Learning Management Systems can be used to provide automated training on compliance, customer engagement, soft agent skills, and more.
Learn more about Learning Management System (LMS)
Call center logs are the records of customer calls that usually contain data such as the call time stamp, origin and duration, caller’s number, and other details. Call logs can be essential for call center compliance and quality assurance purposes.
MOS, also known as Mean Opinion Score, refers to a scoring system used to assess the quality of voice communication during calls. Customers are typically asked to rate the quality of the call on a scale of 1 to 5. A higher MOS indicates better call quality, which contributes to overall customer satisfaction.
Natural language compliance uses AI to verify that agents follow required scripts, disclosures, and regulations during conversations. It automatically flags missing statements or risky language, helping contact centers guarantee compliance.
No call, no show refers to a scenario where an employee doesn’t show up for work without informing their employer. In a call center, this most commonly involves an agent failing to communicate their absence to a supervisor. Unlike pre-approved days off, NCNS can cause significant disruption of the call center processes and add extra strain on the rest of the team.
Learn more about no call, no show
Net Promoter Score, commonly known as NPS, is a standard metric used to assess customer experience and loyalty. It is based on the customers’ answers to a single post-interaction question: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our company/product/service to a friend or colleague?”
Based on their answers, responders are grouped into: Promoters (score 9-10) - highly satisfied and loyal customers likely to recommend your brand; Passives (score 7-8) - customers who are less enthusiastic and are unlikely to have an impact on your company; and Detractors – dissatisfied customers who can potentially harm your brand’s reputation and hinder growth. To calculate NPS, you need to subtract the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters.
Learn more about call center NPS
An outbound contact center focuses on initiating calls to customers for sales, surveys, reminders, or follow-ups, as compared to inbound contact centers, which are focused on receiving customer-initiated queries.
In a call center, an outgoing call refers to proactive communication initiated by an agent. Unlike an incoming or an inbound call, where a customer contacts the center to resolve their query, an outgoing call usually involves agents reaching out to customers to generate leads, gather feedback, or provide important updates.
An omnichannel or multichannel contact center provides customers with a seamless experience across various communication channels, offering them the flexibility to interact with the company in the way that suits them. Unlike traditional call centers that mainly rely on phone calls, omnichannel centers also offer centralized support via email, live chat, social media, and SMS.
Learn more about omnichannel contact center
PCI DSS compliance is a set of 12 requirements that ensures that payment card information is handled securely.
In call centers, it governs how credit card data is collected, stored, and masked during calls, reducing fraud risk and meeting industry security standards.
Here’s how to ensure call center PCI DSS compliance.
PII (Personally Identifiable Information) and PHI (Protected Health Information) refer to sensitive customer data such as names, addresses, and medical details. Call centers must safeguard this information through:
• Strict access controls
• Encryption
• Compliant handling practices
Check out our call center compliance checklist template.
A predictive dialer automatically places outbound calls based on agent availability and call patterns.
In a call center environment, probing questions refer to specific questions agents use during an interaction to get a deeper understanding of a customer’s needs, issues, or concerns.
Probing questions are typically open-ended and encourage customers to elaborate on or clarify their inquiries so that agents can identify the root cause of the problem, offer an appropriate and personalized solution, and enhance customer satisfaction.
Learn more about probing questions
QA (quality assurance) sampling is the method of selecting a subset of customer interactions for evaluation. Instead of reviewing every interaction, call center teams often sample strategically to represent agent performance, risk areas, and call types.
Learn how AI can help call centers sample 100% of all calls.
A QA (quality assurance) score is the numerical result of a call evaluation, often represented as a percentage. It reflects how well an agent met quality, compliance, and performance criteria, providing a standardized way to track performance over time and compare results across agents or teams.
A QA (quality assurance) scorecard is the framework used to evaluate agent performance during customer interactions.
It defines categories, criteria, and weighting for scoring calls, aligning quality assessments with business goals, compliance needs, and customer experience standards.
Here’s how to build a call center QA monitoring scorecard.
Quality Assurance (or QA) is a systematic approach that ensures that a company maintains a certain performance level and meets established customer standards. QA programs focus on monitoring and evaluating interactions between agents and customers to ensure that the former deliver excellent customer experience, remain compliant and efficient, and achieve the set KPIs.
Quality Management (QM) is the comprehensive system for monitoring, evaluating, and then improving the customer experience through setting standards, designing scorecards, analyzing trends, coaching agents, and tracking outcomes.
Quality monitoring is the ongoing review and evaluation of customer calls and chats to assess agent performance, accuracy, and compliance. It helps identify risks, uncover trends, and guide coaching.
Learn about 6 call center quality monitoring best practices to follow.
A call center queue forms when a customer is put on hold while waiting for an agent’s response. Typically, contact centers use the automatic call distributor (ACD) to direct incoming calls to the most suitable agents. Most modern call centers use virtual queuing, where a caller remains on a virtual “waiting list,” without having to physically stay on the phone. Once an agent becomes available, they can call the customer back, minimizing the waiting times.
Learn more about call center queue
Repeat calls refer to the instances where a customer reaches out to the call center for the same or related issue shortly after their initial inquiry. Repeat calls severely impact customer satisfaction and can indicate existing product/service problems, an agent’s lack of skill or appropriate training, operational inefficiencies, and more.
Learn more about repeat calls
Retention rate refers to the percentage of customers who continue doing business with the company (buying its products or using services) after their initial interaction. This call center KPI is essential for measuring customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Learn more about retention rate
Schedule adherence measures how closely agents follow their assigned hours, tracking how much time agents actually spend working and are available when planned.
Service level measures how quickly customer queries are answered in a certain amount of time. This is often defined as a percentage, such as “90% of calls were answered in 15 seconds.”
Soft skills are traits and non-technical, interpersonal abilities such as empathy, active listening, emotional intelligence, and clear communication. In contact centers, strong soft skills improve rapport, de-escalation, and customer satisfaction.
Here’s how you develop customer service soft skills.
Call center speech analytics refers to an advanced technology that analyzes the recorded contact center calls to determine patterns and gain insights into customer behavior and agent performance.
Learn more about speech analytics
Speech-to-text converts spoken conversations from customer calls or recorded audio into written transcripts using artificial intelligence and machine learning.
In a call center, skill-based routing refers to a method used to direct incoming calls to the most suitable agent based on their specific skills, knowledge, and expertise. Assigning a customer query to a relevant agent helps improve metrics like first call resolution (FCR) and average handling time (AHT), as well as enhance customer satisfaction.
TCPA compliance ensures outbound calling practices follow the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
It governs consent and regulates dialing methods and contact timing, helping call centers avoid legal risk while protecting customers from unwanted or abusive communications.
Read about 15 TCPA rules.
A trouble ticket, also known as a support or service ticket, is a record linked to a customer request or query and describing the issue, customer details, and other relevant information. In a call center, the ticket can be assigned to an agent who can address the query or, if needed, forward it to a relevant technician.
The turnover rate refers to the percentage of employees who leave an organization or are replaced during a specific time period. Call centers are notorious for having a high turnover rate of 30% to 45% on average, which leads to increased hiring and training costs, reduced productivity, and potentially decreased customer satisfaction.
Upselling is a sales technique where an agent attempts to persuade a customer to purchase a premium and more expensive version of the product or service they currently use or intend to buy. Unlike cross-selling, where a customer is encouraged to buy complimenting products, upselling specifically targets upgrades, enhancements, and higher-tier offerings.
Voice of the customer (also known as VOC) refers to the process of capturing and analyzing customer feedback to assess customer expectations, needs, and preferences, as well as their customer experiences, attitude towards the company, and the overall satisfaction. Collecting VOC information is essential for streamlining call center operations, improving agent performance, and enabling informed business decisions.
VoIP caller refers to a person who is using the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to make a phone call. Instead of the typical cell towers, wires or fiber optic cables, VoIP calls are routed using internet connection, which means that VoIP callers can make calls directly from their computers, smartphones or other data-powered devices.
Workforce engagement management (WEM) refers to a comprehensive, employee-focused approach to creating a working environment that helps enhance agent performance, engagement, and productivity. WEM uses various strategies, including workforce scheduling, performance management, quality monitoring, quality assurance, and more. Engaged agents are much more likely to be more productive, committed and satisfied, and WEM directly contributes to decreasing turnover rates and improving customer satisfaction.
Call center workforce management is a strategic approach to ensuring that agents are in the right place at the right time, delivering optimal performance and meeting customer expectations. WFM goes beyond scheduling shifts and assigning tasks, and also involves components such as forecasting, skill based routing, determining optimal workload, performance management, and more.
Learn more about call center workforce management
Workforce Optimization (WFO) is the process of aligning staff, skills, and scheduling to ensure the right agents are available at the right time. Tools like forecasting, quality assurance, and analytics are typically used for WFO.