Agent. The customer service person who handles incoming or outgoing calls. Person may also be referred to as customer service consultant, customer service engineer, customer service operator, customer service technician, customer service professional, customer service attendant, customer service specialist.

Analog. Telephone transmission or switching that is not digital. Signals are analogous to the original signal.

Automatic Call Distributor (ACD). The specialized telephone system used in incoming call centers. It is a programmable device that automatically answers calls, queues calls, distributes calls to agents, plays delay announcements to callers and provides real-time and historical reports on these activities. May be a stand-alone system, or ACD capability built into a CO, network or PBX.

Automatic Number Identification (ANI). A telephone network feature that passes the number of the phone the caller is using to the call center, real-time. ANI may arrive over the D channel of an ISDN PRI circuit (out of band signaling), or before the first ring on a single line (inband signaling). ANI is delivered from long distance companies. Caller ID is the local phone company version of ANI, and is delivered inband. ANI is a North American term, and Calling Line Identification (CLI) is an alternative term used elsewhere.

Call Center. Generally refers to reservations centers, help desks, information lines or customer service centers.

Call Detail Recording. Data on each call, captured and stored by the ACD. Can include trunk used, time in queue, call duration, agent who handled the call, number dialed (for outgoing), and other information.

Computer Telephony Integration (CTI). The software, hardware and programming necessary to integrate computers and telephones so they can work together seamlessly and intelligently.

Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS). A string of digits that the telephone network passes to the ACD, VRU or other devise, to indicate which number the caller dialed. The ACD can then process and report on that type of call according to user-defined criteria. One trunk group can have many DNIS numbers.

Interactive Voice Response Unit (IVR) An IVR responds to caller entered digits or speech recognition in much the same way that a conventional computer responds to keystrokes or clicks of a mouse. When the VRU is integrated with database computers, callers can interact with databases to check current information (e.g., account balances) and complete transactions (e.g. make transfers between accounts).

Monitoring. Also called Position Monitoring or Service Observing. The process of listening to agents' telephone calls for the purpose of maintaining quality. Monitoring can be: A) silent, where agents don't know when they are being monitored, B) side by side, where the person monitoring sits next to the agent and observes calls or C) record and review, where calls are recorded and then later played back and assessed.

Outsourcing. Contracting some or all call center services to an outside company.

Predictive Dialing. A system that automatically places outbound calls and delivers answered calls to agents. When the dialer detects busy signals, answering machines or ring no answer, it puts the number back in queue.

Primary Rate Interface (PRI). One of two levels of ISDN service. In North America, PRI typically provides 23 bearer channels for voice and data and one channel for signaling information (commonly expressed as 23B+D). In Europe, PRI typically provides 30 bearer lines (30B+D).

Screen Monitoring. A system capability that enables a supervisor or manager to remotely monitor the activity on agents' computer terminals. Also known as Screen Capture

Screen Pop is A CTI capability. Callers' records are automatically retrieved (based on ANI or digits entered into the IVR) and delivered to agents, along with the calls.

SMDR. Station Messaging Detail Record is a way to record activity in a telecom system, also known as call detail record or (CDR).

Speech Analytics. Speech Analytics is a process of analyzing recorded human speech in order to collect information about what was said. In contact center environments, Speech Analytics is used to mine recorded phone conversations between agents and their customers. By carefully “listening” to hundreds or even thousands of calls, Speech Analytics automatically identifies important business intelligence that helps managers reduce contact center costs, increase customer retention and satisfaction, and improve agent performance.

TDM. Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) is a technology that transmits multiple signals simultaneously over a single transmission path. Each lower-speed signal is time sliced into one high-speed transmission. In the simplest example, three incoming 1,000 bps signals (A, B and C) can be interleaved into one outgoing 3,000 bps signal as ABCABCABCABC. The receiving end divides the single stream back into its original signals. TDM enabled the telephone companies to migrate from analog to digital on all their long distance trunks, and later to the local loops. TDM is widely used to combine multiple 64 Kbps streams into the 1.544 Mbps capacity of a T1 channel. For example, a channel bank converts 24 analog voice conversations into digital and then multiplexes them via TDM onto the T1. Contrast with FDM. See TDMA, circuit switching, channel bank and DS.

Trunk. Also called a Line, Exchange Line or Circuit. A telephone circuit linking two switching systems.

Virtual Call Center. A distributed call center that acts as a single site for call handling and reporting purposes.

VoIP. Voice over IP. A telephone service that uses the Internet as a global telephone network.

Workforce Management Software. Software systems that, depending on available modules, forecast call load, calculate staff requirements, organize schedules and track real-time performance of individuals and groups.

Sources:
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ICMI