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- These terms will give you a firm grounding in call center lingo, particularly from a scheduler's perspective. These terms (and variations on them) are used throughout the call center industry.
See also: Glossary Terms D - M
See also: Glossary Terms N - Z
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Glossary Terms A - C
Abandonment Rate (AR)
The percentage of callers who hang up (abandon hope) before their call is answered by an agent or before they make a selection in an IVR unit. Arrived at by dividing NCA by NCO.
Attrition Rate (Attr)
The rate at which sales that agents make are canceled. Arrived at by dividing the number of cancels by the number of sales. If I sell ten chocolate bars, and one customer later changes his mind and cancels, my attrition rate is 10%.
Automated Call Distributor (ACD)
A computer that allocates incoming calls evenly between a group of agents. Incoming calls are held in queue and are connected to the first available agent. Examples: Rockwell Galaxy, Meridian MAX, Aspect. See also: Dialer.
Average Delay to Abandon (ADA)
The time the average caller who abandoned waited before abandoning.
Average Handle Time (AHT)
The total time required to handle a single call, on average. In an inbound call center, includes ATT, AWT, and the amount of Outbound Time spent on the average incoming call. Note: most call centers completely miss the outbound time component of AHT and simply use (ATT + AWT) = AHT. A more accurate calculation is:
(TTT + TWT + TOT) / NCH = AHT
Even this calculation isn't perfect, due to the fashion in which some ACDs count an agent's time in each state. WIS and our partners have further guidelines for determining the true AHT for any call center. Contact us for more details on this critical piece of efficiently staffing your call center.
Average Out Time (AOT)
In an inbound call center, the average amount of time spent on each outbound call. Arrived at by dividing TOT by NOC.
Average Speed of Answer (ASA)
Depending on the ACD and the call center's policy, there are two possible definitions:
The time the average caller had to hold before being answered. Callers who are answered immediately are factored into the calculation with a 0 ASA.
The time the average caller who was not answered immediately had to hold. Callers who are answered immediately are excluded from the calculation.
If our call center received only three calls, and we took 20, 10, and 0 seconds to answer each of them, the first definition would give us an ASA of (20 + 10 + 0) / 3 = 10 seconds.
The second definition would give us an ASA of (20 + 10) / 2 = 15 seconds. The second definition ignores the third caller, who did not have to wait at all. This definition provides a more usable profile of caller delay. See also: Total Delay.
Average Talk Time (ATT)
The average time spent talking to customers per call. In an inbound call center, includes only inbound calls handled by the employee. In an outbound call center, includes only outbound calls handled by the employee. Arrived at by dividing TTT by NCH.
Average Work Time (AWT)
The average time spent working on issues related to a single call. While working on, or 'wrapping up' the call after letting the customer go, the agent is unavailable for other calls. Arrived at by dividing TWT by NCH.
Base Staff Required
The number of people required to handle the workload, always more than a 1:1 ratio with the workload in Erlangs. The base staff is the number of FTEs required before loading factors are taken into account.
Calls Per Hour / Contacts Per Hour (CPH)
A simple measure of productivity in a call center. Arrived at by dividing NCH by Phone Time. If an agent handles 20 calls in 2 hours, she is handling 10 calls per hour.
Cancellation (Canc)
Very simply, the act of cancelling a sale. Customers may change their minds, or may not have agreed to the sale in the first place. There are as many reasons for cancellation as there are customers. Used in calculating an attrition rate.
Conversion Rate (Conv)
The percentage of contacts made that become sales. Arrived at by dividing the number of Sales into the number of Contacts. If I talk to 100 customers in a day and sell to 13 of them, my conversion rate is 13%. To Top
See also: Glossary Terms D - M
See also: Glossary Terms N - Z |
