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Contact Centre Definitions

Glossary of contact centre, call centre and customer experience terms

 

A

Automatic call distributor (ACD) (What Is An Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)?)

An automatic call distributor (ACD) is a telephony software system that answers incoming calls and routes them to a specific agent or department within a company.

Automatic number identification (ANI)

Automatic number identification. A series of numbers associated with a call. These numbers identify the phone number of the caller. Sometimes referred to as a “caller ID.”

Average handling time (AHT)

The amount of time an agent is occupied on an incoming call.

B

Back office optimization (What Is Back Office Optimisation?)

Back-office optimisation is the process of streamlining and automating workforce tasks that occur in a contact centre.

C

Call center (What Is A Call Centre?)

A call centre is where an organisation handles customer telephone calls. Call centres typically use some amount of computer automation software.

Call center CRM (What Is Call Centre CRM?)

Call Centre Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a call centre technology solution that provides call centre agents with quick access to customer account information and history for great CX. Learn more at Genesys.com now.

Call center management (Call centre management)

The way in which organisations manage the daily operations of the call centre, including forecasting, scheduling, employee training, reporting, and all customer interactions. Call centre management can be modernised through use of workforce optimisation solutions.

Call center workforce planning (What Is Call Centre Workforce Planning?)

Call centre workforce planning is the process of aligning the strategic and operational elements of a call centre workforce with organisational objectives.

Chat messages (What Are Chat Messages?)

Chat messages are a type of communication that occur over the Internet. The most widely known way to use chat messages is on a website that lets you interact with a bot or agent to address a question or concern.

Cloud call center (What Is A Cloud Call Centre?)

A cloud call centre is a web accessible platform where customer calls and interactions are handled.

Contact center (What Is A Contact Centre?)

A contact centre is a modern call centre. It manages inbound and outbound customer communications through a variety of channels.

Contact center CRM (What Is Contact Centre CRM?)

Contact centre customer relationship management (CRM) is a contact centre software solution that provides agents with quick access to customer account information to deliver great customer experience. Learn more at Genesys.com now.

Contact center management

The way in which organisations manage the daily operations of the contact centre workforce, across multiple touchpoints and channels, in order to accommodate omnichannel customer journeys.

Contact center workflow management (What Is Workflow Management?)

Workflow management is the process of optimising a company’s business processes using automation.

Contact center workforce optimization (Contact centre workforce optimisation)

A customer experience strategy that integrates contact centre technologies and processes in order to deliver seamless omnichannel customer journeys in a multi-channel workforce.

Contact center workforce planning (What Is Contact Centre Workforce Planning?)

Contact centre workforce planning is the process of aligning the strategic and operational elements of a contact centre workforce with organisational objectives.

What Is Contact Centre As A Service?

Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) is a cloud-based customer experience solution that allows companies to utilise a contact centre provider’s software.

Customer experience platform (What Is A Customer Experience Platform?)

A customer experience platform is a tool that enables companies or organisations to monitor and manage customer interactions.

Customer journey

The customer journey consists of multiple touchpoints and key interactions each customer or prospect has with a company—including messaging, employees, processes, products or services. Single or multiple interactions can be considered a customer journey and are part of a holistic customer experience lifecycle.

Customer journey management (What Is Customer Journey Management?)

Customer journey management is the practice of using behavioural trends and technology to influence and optimise the customer journey.

Customer journey optimization (What Is Customer Journey Optimisation?)

Customer journey optimisation is the process of connecting & mapping customer interactions, across multiple touchpoints, in order to positively influence CX.

Customer satisfaction (CSAT) (What Is Customer Satisfaction?)

Customer satisfaction is a measure of how well a product or service meets a customer’s expectation.

Customer service

Customer service is the assistance and service provided by an organisation to customers before, during, and after the purchase of products or services.

H

Hosted contact center (Hosted contact centre)

A hosted contact centre is a customer experience solution where an organisation’s central point of inbound and outbound communications are hosted on a service provider’s back-office systems, therefore offering lower cost of ownership.

Hosted dialer (What Is A Hosted Dialler?)

A hosted dialler is a contact centre cloud-based technology that enables cross-channel contact strategies to maximise the time agents spend on the phone.

M

Mobile voice (What Is Mobile Voice?)

Mobile voice is the emerging technology that combines recent advances in mobile and voice recognition.

Modern contact center (What Is A Modern Contact Centre?)

A moderns contact centre is a central point in an enterprise from which all inbound and outbound customer communications are managed.

Multi-channel Cloud Call Center (What Is A Multichannel Cloud Call Centre?)

A multichannel cloud call centre is a CX platform that integrates multiple touchpoints while reducing incremental costs to modernising call centre capabilities

Multichannel cloud contact center (Multichannel cloud contact centre)

A multi-channel cloud contact centre is a customer experience (CX) solution that integrates multiple touchpoints – including voice, text, social media and the web – making them accessible via an Internet server. A multi-channel cloud contact centre can be accessed from virtually anywhere, eliminating the need for increased physical infrastructure while meeting the evolving demands of today’s customer communication preferences.

O

Omnichannel cloud call center

An omnichannel cloud call center is a multi-channel contact center that delivers seamless customer experiences across all touchpoints leveraging modern cloud based infrastructure and services. In a cloud-based contact center, the company does not actually own, host or operate any equipment that the call center runs on; rather a third party service provider hosts the call center infrastructure in their own data center and the company will pay a monthly or annual service fee for hosting the infrastructure.

Omnichannel cloud contact center (What Is An Omnichannel Cloud Contact Centre?)

An omnichannel cloud contact centre is a multichannel customer experience strategy that seamlessly connects all touchpoints and is available via an Internet server.

Omnichannel customer journey

An omnichannel customer journey consists of key interactions over multiple touchpoints between customer or prospect and a company during the point of sale and throughout the customer lifecycle.

Omnichannel customer service (What Is Omnichannel Customer Service?)

Omnichannel customer service consists of numerous interactions across multiple touch points between a customer, or prospective customer, and product or service provider.

P

Predictive dialing (What Is Predictive Dialling?)

Predictive dialling is a method of making several automated outbound calls without using agents. Answered calls are then passed to agents.

Private branch exchange (PBX) (What Is A Private Branch Exchange (PBX)?)

Private branch exchange (PBX) is a private telephone network used within a company. Users can communicate internally and externally using different communication channels like VoIP, ISDN or analogue.

R

Revision Of: Auto Dialer (Revision Of: What Is An Auto Dialer?)

An auto dialer is an outbound call centre solution that automatically dials customer telephone numbers and can deliver important information through an automated message.

Revision Of: What Is Call Centre Management?

Call centre management is the way in which organisations manage the daily operations of the call centre, including forecasting, scheduling, reporting & training.

T

Trunk (What Is A Trunk)

A trunk is a communication line or physical link, such as a wire or optical line, designed to carry multiple signals simultaneously.

V

Virtual agent (What Is A Virtual Agent?)

A virtual agent is a contact centre capability that uses a virtual character, created through computer generation, animation and artificial intelligence, that acts as a virtual customer service agent.

Virtual call center (VCC) (What Is A Virtual Call Centre?)

A virtual call centre is a solution that supports contact centre agents who are dispersed geographically to provide customer service interactions.

Virtual contact center (VCC) (What Is A Virtual Contact Centre?)

A virtual contact centre (VCC) is a solution that supports contact centre agents in various geographical locations instead of a single physical location.

Voice over IP (VoIP) (What Is VoIP?)

Voice over IP (VoIP) is a technology that converts your voice into a digital signal, allowing you to make a call directly from a computer, a VoIP phone or another data-driven device.

Voice platform (What Is A Voice Platform?)

A voice platform executes the commands and logic specified by a voice application, provides speech processing capabilities and enables application creation.

W

Workforce optimization (WFO) (What Is Workforce Optimisation?)

Workforce optimisation is a strategy used to integrate siloed technologies and automate processes to reduce operational costs.

Workforce planning (What Is Workforce Planning?)

Workforce planning is the process of aligning the operational and strategic elements of a workforce with organisational objectives.