Call Center Terminology –2

“In the previous blog, we covered the first part of the most important call center terms. In this one, we continue by clarifying and explaining the second part.”

Is the average time a call center agent takes to handle a single call, from the moment the call is received to the completion of all tasks related to the call. It includes: Time spent talking to the customer + any hold time. AHT is considered a key indicator of both the call center’s operational efficiency and the individual agent’s performance.

A call that a customer ends (hangs up) before being answered by an agent, often due to a long wait in the Call Queue. A high rate of abandoned calls is an indication of issues such as slow response times or insufficient staff.

Expected Wait Time in call centers refers to the estimated amount of time a customer can expect to wait before speaking to a customer service agent, and a high expected wait time level is considered a sign of an issue with the speed of response to customers.

Call escalation occurs when a customer requests that their call be transferred from a customer service agent to a higher level within the organizational or technical hierarchy,, such as to a supervisor or a specialised department, when the agent is unable to resolve the issue or the issue is complex beyond the agent’s authority, or when the customer requests to speak to a higher level manager.

FCR is a key performance indicator of efficiency, measuring whether the customer’s inquiry is fully resolved by the end of the first call, eliminating the need for follow-up calls.

SLA is a call center performance metric that defines the percentage of incoming calls that must be answered within a predetermined timeframe. It is a target that a company sets for itself (or an agreement with an external client) on how quickly and efficiently it responds to callers. A common example used by companies is “80/20” which means that 80 % of calls should be answered within 20 seconds. The service level metric is generally used to monitor a customer service department’s compliance with established performance standards.

Is a visual dashboard that displays current and up-to-date performance data of the call center in real time. This data is continuously updated, often every few seconds or minutes. Examples of the data it shows: Number of ongoing calls, number of calls in queue, current expected wait time, number of available/busy agents, and missed call rate. The overall purpose is to enable supervisors to make quick decisions and optimise team management during operations.

Quality Assurance (QA) is a process for evaluating the performance of call center agents to ensure that they adhere to standards and procedures, and deliver high quality customer service. This process typically involves reviewing customer interactions (recorded calls, chat conversations, emails). The quality review is done by listening to call recordings, evaluating them based on specific evaluation forms, and providing guidance feedback to agents.

Measurable metrics used to evaluate the performance of the call center, employees or agents in achieving the company’s strategic and operational goals, using several sub-metrics such as: Average Handling Time (AHT) – First Call Resolution (FCR) – Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) – Abandonment Rate.

Omnichannel in call centers aims to provide customer service and support through all possible customer communication channels to make it easier for the customer, examples of communication channels:

The CRM system aims to enhance the customer experience, provide a more personalised service, and maximise the efficiency of the sales and support teams, by enabling quick access to information such as Purchase history, call records, previous orders, and internal notes.

Benefits of Using CRM in the Call Center:

It is a system that automatically distributes incoming calls to available agents based on specific criteria such as skills, call priority, or agent availability. The main goal is always to utilise this feature to achieve the fastest possible response and distribute calls load amongst agents fairly.

A system that allows callers to interact with an automated voice menu using keypad inputs or voice commands, in order to route them to the appropriate department without human intervention. For example, when you call a company and hear a like: for sales press “1” for technical support press “2” for customer service press “3” – The main goal of IVR is to provide a faster experience for the customer and reduce the workload on agents.

Auto Dialer is an automated system that places outbound calls automatically to predefined list of phone numbers on behalf of call center agents. It plays a pre-recorded message to the customer, the main purpose is to increase agents’ efficiency in outbound calls, boost productivity and speed up outbound calling campaigns (such as marketing or sales).

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Call Center Terminology– Part 1

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