Glossary of Industry Terminology
Below is a list of terminologies or jargon used in the BPO/Telemarketing world.
| Sl. No. | Terminology | Explanation |
| 1 | Abandoned Call | A call terminated by the caller prior to being answered |
| 2 | Abandoned Call Rate | A measurement of abandoned calls usually expressed as a percentage of total calls received. |
| 3 | ACD – Automatic Call Distributor | A telephone system that distributes calls to agents according to predefined business rules. |
| 4 | ACW – After Call Work | The time taken by an agent to complete the transaction after the caller hangs up, is also referred to Wrap up time |
| 5 | Adherence to Schedule | Refers to the adherence of staff to their rosters or hours of work. |
| 6 | Agent | The person who handles the call |
| 7 | AHT – Average Handling Time | The average time taken to handle a call, can include actual talk time and after call work. |
| 8 | ASA – Average Speed of Answer | A measurement expressing the time taken for a call to be answered either by an agent or Auto Attendant. |
| 9 | Auto Attendant | A telephony facility that routes calls according to the selections made by the caller pressing the keys on the telephone. |
| 10 | Availability | A measurement covering an agent who is available to handle the next call. |
| 11 | Blending | A process where individual agents are able to operate across multiple function calls at the one time i.e. an agent that processes inbound service calls and outbound sales during their shift. |
| 12 | Call Demand | Estimated number of calls that are expected to be received by the centre. |
| 13 | CLI- Call Line Identification | An ISDN facility that displays the callers number. |
| 14 | Cold Calling | Telemarketing to prospects with whom there is no established relationship. |
| 15 | Cost per Call | A measurement of the financial cost of each call, usually calculated by the centre costs being divided by the number of calls received. |
| 16 | CRM – Customer Relationship Management | A process that records customer contacts and information to allow for an enhanced relation with the customer. |
| 17 | CSR – Customer Service Representative | An alternative name for an agent |
| 18 | CTI – Computer Telephony Integration | A function that provides for the telephony and customer information to be aligned. This allows for such functions as screen popping. |
| 19 | Erlang C | A formula used in centres to calculate staff needs based upon historical call trend data. |
| 20 | FCR – First Call Resolution | A measurement of the number of calls that are resolved during the first contact with the caller. |
| 21 | FTE – Full Time Equivalent | An expression of staff numbers calculated on the number of hours a full time staff member would work. |
| 22 | Intelligent Routing | The routing of calls through predefined business rules that are based upon the expected characteristics of the caller. |
| 23 | IVR – Interactive Voice Response | A system that interacts with callers using predetermined menus and telephone key input, or speech recognition software. |
| 24 | Logged On | Where an agent is logged into the phone system |
| 25 | Mystery Shopping | Where performance is measured through the use of dummy calls, usually conducted by a third party. |
| 26 | Occupancy | A measurement of the time actually spent by an agent handling calls against the total time available |
| 27 | PABX – Private Automatic Branch Exchange | the switch which manages calls with an organization. |
| 28 | Predictive Dialler | A system that automatically initiates outbound calls and presents the call to an agent on connection to a called party. |
| 29 | Queue | A bank of calls waiting for an agent to become available. |
| 30 | Roster | A schedule of time to be worked. |
| 31 | Scorecard | A group of performance indicators that reflect the operations of the centre. |
| 32 | Shrinkage | An allocation of time from rosters that accounts for unscheduled breaks, i.e. unplanned leave |
| 33 | Talk Time | Measurement of time that an agent spends talking to callers. |
| 34 | Thru Call Per Hour | The actual number of calls handled by an agent in an hour |
| 35 | UPS – Uninterrupted Power Supply | Systems in place that cover normal power supplies i.e. battery, generators. |
| 36 | Voice Response | Use of a pre-recorded message to answer incoming calls |
| 37 | VOIP – Voice Over Internet Protocol | System that enables voice calls to be carried over a data network. |
