Dialer
A piece of computer / telephone equipment that dials numbers automatically for an outbound call center. It automatically hangs up on answering machines, voicemail, busy lines, no answers, and telephone company messages (not in service, number changed). Like an ACD working in reverse, the dialer strives to match phone agents with customers as soon as the customers say "Hello?". Dialers try to minimize the phone agents' idle time without "overdialing" so drastically that customers are left saying "Hello? Hello? Hello?" without an available agent to help them. See ACD.
Distribution
The way the calls received (and the overall workload when AHT is factored in) spread out across the day. Easily envisioned if graphed or put in a table. When used with different call volumes, a distribution can rise or fall. For instance, the two following charts use the same distribution, but have different amplitudes, or call volumes.
The same portion of the day's calls is received in each interval. A distribution should be thought of as a percentage split of call volume: in both examples, 5% of the day's calls are received between 08:00 and 09:00. Likewise, the percentages are identical for each of the other intervals.
Erlang
A number that typically represents the number of person-hours of workload. Arrived at by using the Erlang C calculation.
Erlang C
A traffic analysis calculation developed by K. A. Erlang (not K.D. Lang). Given the inputs of call volume, call length, and desired service level, Erlang C provides such outputs as:
- the Base Staff Required to achieve the target
- the likelihood that callers will experience a delay
- the Average Speed of Answer
- the Average Delay experienced by delayed callers
Exception
An exception is any reason that an agent would not be on the phones, such as illness, a meeting, a training session, lateness, etc. The amount of time spent in these different activities is tracked through the use of exception codes. The term "exception" can be confusing because it is also used to refer to "exceptional days" in historical data and "exceptions to the rule". Time Accounting Code (TAC) is a newer, preferred term.
Exception Code
A shorthand for tracking and reporting on the incidences of various exceptions. The exception code for illness might be ILL or SICK in a given call center. Meetings might be indicated as MTG or MTNG. Also known as Time Accounting Codes (TACs).
Full Time Equivalent (FTE)
The number of full time employees needed to perform a certain amount of work. For example, you may have 70 hours of work to schedule for a given day, and in your call center a full time person works 7 hours a day. You have 10 FTEs of work to schedule. This can be filled with 6 full time people, each working 7 hours, and 8 part time people, each working 3.5 hours. Together these 14 people are the equivalent of 10 full time employees. NOTE: Part Time staff are not necessarily 0.5 FTEs. Each call center is different and the FTE "value" of each part time employee should be based on actual historical data on the number of hours worked by part timers.
Headcount
The number of people that are employed in the call center. Not FTEs, but actual individual persons.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR, VRU)
Also known as VRU or Voice Response Unit. An automated service used to provide information to callers (e.g. 1-800-769-2511 for Royal Bank's Direct Banking line) on a self-serve basis through the use of touch-tone phones. The goal of IVR implementation is to offload call volume from the phone agents in the call center wherever possible. One often overlooked side effect is an increased AHT in the call center, as fewer short calls ("What time is it?" or "What's my balance?") come in to agents. Still, well-implemented IVR can reap great benefits, as Canada's big banks have discovered.
Loading Factor
Also known as "shrinkage." These are unavoidable exceptions or planned use of time in addition to the hours spent handling calls. In the long term planning, forecasting, and budgeting process, we may have to take into account all of the following (& possibly more, depending on the call center):
- Meetings
- Coaching
- Paid Breaks
- Schedule Adherence
- Sickness
- Training
- Vacation
These hours are added to the base requirement to arrive at a loaded or total requirement.
Loaded Staff Required
The number of agents required to handle the workload once all loading factors are taken into account.
Manned Over Paid (M/P)
