Dialogue ABC

The abandon rate is a performance indicator of a contact centre’s reachability. In an inbound environment, it is the percentage of calls lost after going through the call menu. In other words, the percentage of customer calls that are hung up before speaking to an agent. In the case of a predictive dialer, it is the percentage of calls connected to a live person but not connected to an agent.

In an inbound contact centre, an abandoned call is a call (phone call) from a caller who hung up even before the call centre agent could speak to the caller (probably because the caller felt he was waiting too long). In this situation, an abandoned call is also known as a ‘lost call’. In outbound, this is a call set up by a predictive dialer but for which no agent was available.

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) is an automated system applied in inbound contact centres that distributes incoming calls evenly to multiple telephones (control function) and records all relevant traffic data (measurement function). ACD systems can be an integrated part of the switch, ACDs can function as a stand-alone application or linked via CTI to the switchboard. In some cases, ACDs are hosted remotely (externally) and sometimes ACDs function on the basis of VoIP (voice over data channel). ACD systems have existed since the 1970s new calls are assigned to the agent who is available the longest. Calls that cannot be directly assigned to an agent end up in a so-called queue. Thereby, announcements may or may not be played on a regular basis, asking the caller for patience or informing the caller about the waiting time or number of waiting agents. The ACD is powered by the switch or PBX, which assigns calls to the ACD or directly to specific terminals based on origin. The ACD configuration includes settings such as the number of queues, opening times, target service levels, agent logins (making logged-in agents recognisable by name), and important routing issues such as overflows. Through the ACD, one can assign devices to specific ACD groups and thus also swap between ACD groups when groups are over- or underutilised. Standard and custom reports are also defined in the ACD system, with the system independently generating fixed reports at fixed times. ACD systems are often used in combination with shore displays (for visual information at the contact centre on the status of reachability), Faru’s (Flexible Audio Recording Units, for displaying recorded messages, welcome and waiting texts), workflow management (roster planning), routing systems (for overflows between ACD groups or to report texts).

After call work (ACW) also known as wrap time or after-work time, is the time needed immediately after an incoming call has ended to administratively handle the contact. ACW is part of the (average) handling time (AHT). ACW time is the total after-work time of an agent/team/agent group in a given period.

Adherence is a method to check/measure whether an agent is actually performing the task for which he is scheduled the time he is scheduled (in other words whether he adheres to the schedule). For this, it is important that the agent logs on time and logs the correct status.

The current status the agent is in (e.g. on phone, email, social media or training).

The sum of the combination of average call duration and average wrap time. Call duration is basically the speaking time: from greeting to closing the call. In practice, after-work time is almost always added to this. Data regarding AHT are generated by the ACD. For email and web contacts, data are generated by the relevant servers. AHT information can also come from workplace management systems. AHT is a designated measure for tactical planning and is usually not used as a strict standard for agent performance. In general, AHT increases as routine calls are increasingly automated by self-service systems. As a result, other contacts become relatively more complex and longer, also because agents are expected to pay more attention to gathering and recording useful and necessary information and building the customer relationship. AHT, on the other hand, can be further reduced by making improvements in processes, technology and agent skills (training).

A measure of how quickly calls are taken, i.e. indication of how long callers have to wait before being connected to an agent. ASA is the total waiting time of answered calls divided by the total number of answered calls. ASA is generally measured per half hour (and therefore also over longer periods). The longer the time interval (e.g. a day), the less meaningful ASA becomes.

The average call duration of a telephone call. Only the time agents spend in conversation with the customer is included in this.

When an employee leaves an organisation, we call this attrition. There are different causes for attrition, both internal and external. It can be natural turnover, such as retirement or disability. Another form is forced attrition. In this case, an employee is dismissed in connection with reorganisations or performance. In addition, an employee may also leave the company of his or her own accord. In that case, this is called voluntary attrition. Within contact centres, attrition is generally higher than other industries and is seen as undesirable. This is because the costs of attrition can be high. This is because new employees often need to be recruited and then trained. In addition, attrition can also have a negative effect on the working atmosphere. When people regularly leave and new employees need to be trained, it puts extra pressure on the remaining employees.

Time when an agent is temporarily unavailable to receive ACD calls. This is recorded as non-ACD work in the reports.

The time agents are available to speak to a customer. This can be estimated in advance using Erlang waiting time theory or ACD simulation.

Counts the number of seconds the customer waits longer than the average wait time. If a customer waits 30 seconds and the average waiting time is 20, this customer counts for 10. Someone who waits 15 seconds counts for 0. The average of these numbers is the average excess. As a result, this puts the focus on the longest waiting customer.

A measure of how quickly calls are taken, i.e. indication of how long callers have to wait before being connected to an agent. AWT is the total waiting time of answered calls divided by the total number of answered calls. AWT is generally measured per half hour (and therefore also over longer periods). The longer the time interval (e.g. a day), the less meaningful AWT becomes.

Refers to interactions and business between companies.

Refers to interactions and business between companies and consumers.

In most organisations, a back office is where the work that supports the front office is done. The front office is the “face” of the company and consists of all the company’s resources used for sales and interaction with customers. The back office is all the resources of the company used to produce a product or service, such as data entry, payroll, accounting and any other work that is not visible to customers, such as administration or logistics. Generally, back office work includes roles that affect the cost side of a company’s trading account and front office work includes roles that affect the revenue side of a company’s trading account.

Is the comparison of products, services and processes with those of other organisations to identify new ideas and opportunities for improvement and to see how an organisation is doing compared to other kind of similar organisations.

Traditionally, blending meant dynamically assigning both an inbound or an outbound contact. So an agent could either receive an outbound or an inbound call. Today, blending is seen more as dynamically assigning or blending both voice and non-voice streams including e-mai, chat and social media.

Is a process methodology that revolves around optimising business processes. BPM aims to make business processes more efficient. Making processes more efficient and effective is done in combination with a dose of innovation and agility. The essence of BPM is process thinking and the priority organisations give to consciously identifying, managing, executing and adjusting their processes. An important aspect of the BPM philosophy is that it is a continuous process where organisations constantly improve the processes. To achieve this, they use the BPM cycle. Several models of a BPM cycle are available including (1) develop, test and implement, (2) execute, (3) analyse and optimise and (4) design and model.