Contact Center Acronyms: What They Mean & When to Use Them

6 minute read

Team InGenius

A bite-sized breakdown of typical contact center terminology

When you’re working in a fast-paced contact center environment where time is precious, it makes sense to use a set of special words that are going to help speed up communication and keep productivity levels running high – but what are they?

After all, it’s all very well having a set of acronyms at hand to maximize efficiency, but if nobody knows the meaning of these words, then they’re going to cause much more harm than good.

We’ve compiled a list of some acronyms commonly used within the contact center to help you out.

ACD – Automatical Call Distributor

Contact centers use an automatic call distributor (ACD) to automatically route calls to specific agents based on customer data, an agent’s skillset, times of day or IVR selection, to ensure the right person always answers the call.

ACW – After Call Work

After a call is completed, there are tasks that the agent needs to go through, like saving notes and dispositioning the call. These tasks are known as after call work (ACW).

AHT – Average Handle Time

Average handling time (AHT) describes the average period of time in which an agent takes to handle or resolve a customer’s call. It’s used for monitoring agent performance and ensuring that customer issues are resolved within the expected duration – no longer, no less,

ANI – Automatic Number Identification

Automatic Number Identification (ANI) lets agents see the incoming call number as basic caller ID. ANI can also route callers by location and match them to existing contacts.

API – Application Programming Interface

An application programming interface (API) is a software “go-between” that acts like a behind the scenes guide to make it easier to connect two applications.

ASR – Automatic Speech Recognition

With automatic speech recognition (ASR), contact centers can quickly route customer calls to the right agent without human intervention by using computers to analyze the customer’s speech. This way, agents are no longer required to operate the front-end switchboard and calls are routed faster at less cost.

BC/DR – Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery

Whenever disaster strikes, the contact center will have a business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) plan in place to minimize damage and disruption to productivity.

BPO – Business Process Outsourcing

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a term used to describe when a contact center outsources operations or responsibilities to third party service providers, typically cloud service providers.

CRM – Customer Relationship Management

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is a fundamental component of any contact center and is used to manage the relationship and interactions between existing and potential customers in order to improve business relationships.

CSAT – Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction (CSAT) is a measure of how happy a customer is with a product, service or interaction with a company. It can be determined with a simple survey.

CTI – Computer Telephony Integration

Computer telephony integration (CTI) is a type of software used by contact centers to connect their CRM to their telephone system to increase agent productivity, enhance collaboration, aid efficiency and help businesses deliver a higher quality of service to their customers.

DID – Direct Inward Dialing

Direct inward dialing (DID) is a feature that enables contact centers to assign a personal number to each employee without requiring a separate telephone line. This way, it’s much easier to separate and efficiently manage telephony traffic. Some countries use the term direct dial-in (DDI) instead.

DMS – Document Management System

For contact centers that receive a large number of incoming emails, a document management system (DMS) opens and scans each message, and then sorts them for electronic distribution. This way, a task that would take a considerable amount of time if it was done manually can be completed in minutes.

DNIS – Dialed Number Identification Service

Where ANI identifies the incoming call number, dialed number identification service (DNIS) does the opposite – it tells you which number was called. This is helpful for call centers that have multiple numbers that ring the same lines, like different service numbers for each product their company sells.

EWT – Expected Wait Time

When placed on hold a customer will be given an expected wait time (EWT) to let them know how long it will be before an agent is available to take their call.

FCR – First Call Resolution

First call resolution (FCR) is a metric used in contact centers to monitor the quality of service customers receive from agents by measuring how many times their issue was resolved in the first point of contact with the business.

IVR – Interactive Voice Response

Much like voice recognition, contact centers use an interactive voice response (IVR) system to route customers through to the necessary agent or department by asking them to choose from a menu of options or enter information, using their phone keypad.

NPS – Net Promoter Score

The net promoter score (NPS) is a loyalty measurement of how likely a customer is to recommend your company, product or service to a friend. Using a single survey question with a 1-10 scale, customers are grouped into a category: promoter, passive, or detractor. The NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.

QM – Quality Monitoring

In order to ensure that contact centers are continuously providing the best possible experience for their customers, quality monitoring (QM) is carried out in various forms to monitor agent performance.

SBR  – Skill-Based Routing

Skill-based routing (SBR) is an intelligent call routing system that will automatically direct customers with a specific problem to agents with the skills needed to resolve that issue in the fastest possible time, without having to escalate the call any further.

TAPI – Telephony Application Programming Interface

A telephony application programming interface (TAPI) is an API that enables computer telephony integration. It puts call controls in the hands of an application so it can interact with a phone system.

TSAPI – Telephony Server Application Programming Interface

Similar to TAPI, a telephony service application programming interface (TSAPI) is also an API that makes it easier for CTI solutions to integrate telephony and computer systems, except it is server-based.

WFO – Work Force Optimization

Time is money in contact centers and work force optimization (WFO) is a strategy used to ensure that productivity levels remain high and no precious seconds are wasted. Examples of WFO include automating processes, data visibility, compliance on legislation and resolving business problems related to staff.

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