Contact Center Definitions

Admin copilot focuses on providing administrative personnel in contact centers with AI-powered tools to streamline operations. This includes automating scheduling, workforce management, analytics and reporting tasks. By leveraging AI, admin copilot helps in optimizing resource allocation, predicting call volumes and enhancing overall operational efficiency.

The application of sophisticated analytical tools and techniques to glean insights from data, enabling a business to identify and predict trends, understand customer behavior, and orchestrate experiences that satisfy customers and drive revenue.

A person who manages inbound or outbound calls and other customer interactions for an organization. This person might have a wide range of responsibilities involving account inquiries, complaints, or product and support issues. An agent is also known as a customer service representative (CSR).

Coaching is used to give call center agents feedback as part of quality management and employee training. It can be part of regular performance assessments, or done in real time when needed during customer interactions.

Agent copilot refers to an AI-driven feature within contact center software that assists customer service agents by providing real-time information, suggestions and automated actions. It leverages natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to understand customer queries and guide agents with the best responses, knowledge articles or next steps, thereby improving efficiency and customer satisfaction.

This is the percentage of time agents are actively engaged in customer interactions in relation to their available or idle time. As a statistic, it’s used to calculate call center productivity. Agent occupancy considers only live logged-in time, while agent utilization considers total time at work — including logged-out time such as training.

Agent utilization represents the percentage of time agents spend on handling calls and other customer interactions as well as related work. These rates can be used to calculate agent efficiency. Agent utilization considers total time at work — including logged-out time such as training — while agent occupancy considers only live logged-in time.

Companies can enhance customer loyalty over the long term by using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that enable them to personalize experiences, predict needs and engage customers in meaningful ways. With AI-powered technologies, companies can anticipate customer needs and provide personalized services that differentiate their brand across every interaction.

An AI call center agent is a virtual agent powered by AI technologies designed to handle customer service interactions. It can understand and respond to customer queries, resolve issues and perform transactions. This offers a scalable and cost-effective way to handle high volumes of inbound requests without hiring additional human agents.

Leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to coordinate and manage customer experiences across various touchpoints and channels. AI compiles and analyzes customer data, finding patterns and making recommendations on the next best step for a customer based on their needs and prior actions. Using AI, a much higher level of personalization is possible.

AI summarization in contact centers involves the use of AI technologies to automatically summarize customer interactions such as calls, chats and emails. This helps in quickly understanding the essence of customer queries or feedback without going through the entire content, enabling faster response times and more personalized service.

The use of artificial intelligence to drive the gathering and analysis of large datasets, uncovering patterns and insights that can be used to inform business tactics and strategy. AI can be helpful in improving the customer experience, as it can surface the full range of customer data to see where an individual has been, what they’ve done, and then determine what they’re likely to do next.

The application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology to dynamically manage and optimize the customer journey. AI gathers data from each customer touchpoint to discover where the customer has been, and uses that data to determine where they need to go next — working at scale, allowing for a fully personalized experience for every customer.

Using artificial intelligence (AI) to tailor experiences to individual customers. When an organization uses a modern customer experience (CX) platform with embedded AI capabilities, the organization can deliver truly personalized experiences at scale across its global regions. Not only can AI understand and predict a customer’s intent, but it can also help them reach a resolution faster; if an interaction requires human support, the AI can recognize this and pass all the conversational history and context to the agent.

Delivering personalized offers and recommendations to customers at the moment of engagement by using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze customer behavior and context in real time. These precisely timed content offers provide exceptional service and drive sales conversions.

Insights derived from analyzing customer data using artificial intelligence (AI). An example of these insights is AI-powered predictive engagement, which identifies customers’ behavior patterns to predict the segments they fit into and the outcomes that will occur. Those predictions can drive automated offers and more personalized conversations that increase satisfaction and strengthen loyalty.

Platforms that use artificial intelligence (AI) to automate and enhance customer interactions across voice and digital channels. These modern AI-powered platforms enable organizations to surprise and delight their customers with effortless, empathetic experiences. And these platforms enable organizations to compose their ideal solution from a vast array of native components, a broad partner ecosystem and open APIs.

AMD technology, improved through machine learning, accurately identifies whether an incoming call is answered by a human or an answering machine. This enhances agent productivity by reducing the time spent on calls that do not reach a live person.

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think, learn and adapt. It encompasses technologies like machine learning, natural language processing and robotics, among others. AI is used in a wide range of industries and situations, including enhancing efficiency and enabling advanced problem-solving capabilities within customer service software platforms.

An auto dialer is an outbound call center solution that automatically dials customer telephone numbers and can deliver important information through an automated message, or can connect a customer to a live agent once the call has been answered.

Automated call routing uses AI to analyze incoming calls and direct them to the most appropriate agent based on the query’s complexity and the agent’s expertise. This technology improves efficiency by reducing wait times and ensuring customers are connected to the best available resource.

The use of technology to automatically deliver personalized content and experiences to customers based on data-driven insights into their needs, preferences and behaviors. Smart automation leverages customer, employee and interaction data to drive real-time action and simplify workflows — improving the user experience while increasing efficiency. Modern solutions enable organizations to leverage this real-time automation easily — and clearly understand and optimize outcomes — without a team of data scientists.

Automated speech recognition (ASR) is technology that allows a computer to recognize and process human speech into text. ASR is used in applications such as transcription services and virtual assistants, enabling a bot to communicate with a person by translating the spoken word into a form the bot can understand.

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. The system intelligently routes a call to the most appropriate agent based on the caller’s needs.

Automatic callback

A computer telephony calling feature that permits a customer—when encountering a busy condition or other condition where an agent is unavailable—to instruct the system to return their call when an agent becomes available.

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.”

The use of automation, including conversational AI (bots), to perform certain customer service tasks with limited or no human intervention.

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

This is the average length of time a customer is put on hold before interacting with a call center agent. It’s typically calculated using a large volume of data over a specified period of time.

Back office management is the administration of a company’s human resources, technology and services. The back office typically supports, and works to deliver on, the objectives and promises of the front office team. Back office departments are historically far less efficient than customer-facing organizations or contact center operations. The lack of coordination between various systems causes a maze of disconnected workloads, systems, and people. Without optimal workload management, tasks and customer communication are siloed, resulting in frustrated customers and unmotivated employees. Organizations who manage the back office successfully see an increase in customer and employee satisfaction and overall brand loyalty.

Back-office optimization is the process of streamlining and automating workforce tasks that occur in a contact center, and aligning back office functions with front office workflows in order to improve customer experience (CX) across the customer lifecycle.

Barge-in

A capability provided by Natural Language Speech Recognition that allows callers to speak or enter their responses during the prompt and have those responses recognized. See also echo cancellation.

Blended agent

An employee in the role of contact center agent who divides their time and attention between multiple communication channels (voice, email, SMS, etc.) to service customer needs.

The public’s level of knowledge and perception of a brand, which can be influenced by things like marketing, events and word of mouth. The ability to provide a seamless customer experience is one of the main pillars of a positive reputation.

Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC), also known as “Be Your Own Carrier,” is an innovative communications model based on businesses choosing their preferred telecom carriers to power and manage their Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) or Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions.

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is the practice of outsourcing specific business processes to a third-party provider. Businesses typically outsource functions outside the specific focus of the business, such as HR services or call center operations. Enlisting an outsourced service can boost efficiency, save costs and free up internal resources to focus on more specialized tasks.

A physical location where a high volume of customer and other telephone calls are handled by an organization, usually with some amount of computer automation. Call centers typically provide voice only inbound, outbound and limited self-service customer interactions. See also: Contact Center.

A call center agent scorecard is an important tool for measuring and improving performance in a call center. The scorecard typically includes key metrics like first-call resolution that provide a basis for helping customer service agents set goals and track progress. It can also be used to provide incentives, as part of a gamification strategy, to keep agents engaged and motivated.

Call center agent software is any desktop or mobile application that enables call center agents to effectively manage customer interactions. Most call center agent software includes features such as an integrated dialer, recording capabilities and analytics. Advanced cloud-based applications have automation capabilities that route calls to the right agent or department. They also include chatbots, voicebots and other artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

This represents the percentage of time call center agents spend on handling calls and other customer interactions, and related work. These rates can be used to calculate agent efficiency. In call centers, agent utilization considers total time at work — including logged-out time such as training — while agent occupancy considers only live logged-in time.

Coaching is used to give call center agents feedback as part of quality management and employee training. It can be part of regular performance assessments or done in real time when needed during customer interactions.

Call center customer relationship management (CRM) is a technology solution that stores critical customer information and improves agent access to customer data like account details and interaction history.

The way in which organizations manage the daily operations of the call center, including forecasting, scheduling, employee training, reporting, and all customer interactions. Call center management can be modernized through use of workforce optimization solutions.

Call centers track and report on KPIs and other predefined metrics. These give insights into overall call center efficiency and productivity; customer journeys; and the performance of individuals such as agents. Reports are displayed on dashboards, enabling staff to monitor the call center and take action, as needed.

A request for proposal (RFP) simplifies decision-making by systematizing the evaluation process so you can evaluate the right information to compare vendors and choose the best solution. A company uses the formal RFP framework when decision makers know what they want to buy and are soliciting multiple offers. A formal RFP document specifies your business and technical requirements — comparing the most important vendor capabilities so you can identify and select the best products or services. Check out our handy guide if you need some practical help to start your own RFP process.

A customer experience strategy that modernizes call center technologies and platforms, through the use of digital channels, in order to improve customer satisfaction.

Call center workforce planning addresses all elements of the call center including team scheduling, training and forecasting.

AI enables self-service options for customers, allowing them to complete tasks such as placing orders or checking balances without human agent intervention. Call deflection refers to the strategy of using AI to handle simple requests, freeing agents to focus on more complex interactions.

Call time, also known as “talk time,” is the amount of time a call center agent spends on a call with a customer. It is a key performance metric used in contact centers and call centers to measure agent productivity and efficiency.

Allows agents and supervisors to communicate during a contact. Reduces hold times and increase first and final contact resolution.

A web-accessible platform for handling customer calls and interactions. Call centers based in the cloud can be accessed from virtually anywhere, eliminating the need for a physical infrastructure, which may reduce operational costs and increase scalability to support evolving customer experience strategies.

A central point in an enterprise, hosted on an Internet server, from which all inbound and outbound customer communications are handled. Cloud contact centers make interactions through voice, email, social media and the web accessible from virtually anywhere.

Co-browse, sometimes referred to as “screen share,” facilitates a collaborative browsing session between a customer and a contact center agent. Based on the customer’s needs, an agent can see the customer’s screen, move their cursor, highlight or annotate key areas on the screen, and even take full control of the browsing session to help the customer achieve their goals.

AI technologies can ensure compliance by monitoring call interactions for adherence to scripts, regulations and company standards. This reduces the risk of non-compliance and enhances the quality of customer interactions.

Composability is a system design principle in which a solution is composed of components that can be assembled in different combinations to address individual use cases.

Consistency in practice and measurement allows businesses to orchestrate consistent experiences for their customers seamlessly across all touchpoints and channels that a brand offers, regardless of the medium or the platform.

A contact center is a modern call center. It manages inbound and outbound customer communications through a variety of channels. For example, customers could reach out to a company via email or chat with an agent on the company’s website.

Contact center agent

Front office employees that are customer-facing and typically the primary point of human customer contact within an organization.

Contact center artificial intelligence (AI) is the use of advanced machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) technologies to automate and optimize call center operations and improve customer service.

Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) is a cloud-based customer experience solution that allows companies to utilize a contact center provider’s software. A CCaaS model allows businesses to purchase only the technology they need, which reduces the need for internal IT support. CCaaS is an ideal option for many contact centers, offering scalability as operational needs change.

A chatbot is a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the internet.

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

Contact center shrinkage refers to the amount of time that call center agents are not available to handle customer interactions, even though they are scheduled to be working.

Workflow management is the administration of a sequence of tasks and processes throughout an organization’s workforce.

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

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

Providing relevant, effective customer assistance that takes into account the context of the customer’s situation, history and current needs — even anticipating what they might need next. Artificial intelligence (AI) enables this contextual support by listening, understanding and engaging with customers through natural language. And since AI understands and predicts intent, it can help customers reach resolutions faster. It can even recognize when a customer needs human support, and then pass that conversational history and insight to an agent.

Conversant

An old Avaya Hardware Platform on which HTI built software applications for IVR and NLSR.

Conversational AI refers to the use of chatbots and virtual assistants powered by AI technologies to simulate humanlike conversations with customers. In call centers, it’s used to automate responses, handle routine inquiries and provide 24/7 support, improving efficiency and customer satisfaction.

In the context of AI and contact center software, copilot is a general term for an AI assistant that supports various roles (agents, supervisors and admins) by providing real-time assistance, insights and automation capabilities. It enhances decision-making, productivity and customer experiences through intelligent recommendations and actions.

The process of breaking down silos within an organization in order to allow various departments to work together toward common business goals.

CT Connect

A computer telephony call control server software that connects a range of telephone switches to a variety of data processing environments.

CTI

Computer Telephony Integration. Computer control and functionality applied to telephony hardware.

CTI server

House the server software that monitors telephony events (ringing, busy etc.) at the switch.

Customer acquisition cost is the amount of money it takes to convert a potential lead into a new customer. These costs can be incurred in the form of sales, marketing, overhead, time and other resources expended.

The study of consumers’ purchasing patterns and engagement with a brand to better understand their preferences, needs and decision-making processes

The rate at which customers stop doing business with a company. This could be a symptom of dissatisfaction with a product, preference for the experience of buying from a competitor and more. Seamless, individualized customer experiences help to reduce churn by building emotional connections and increasing brand loyalty.

The process of gathering, consolidating and managing customer information from all available sources to provide a single, comprehensive view of the customer across an organization.

The strategic use of customer data to inform business decisions, personalize customer experiences and drive growth. While modern companies find themselves awash in information from various channels, customer journey analytics empowers them to gain the full power of data across previously disconnected business units and channels. By integrating data across all touchpoints, leading organizations can see the complete picture of customer interactions, understand how that affects their bottom line and make improvements accordingly.

Customer effort score (CES)

A measurement focused on service interactions in contact center environments. It provides a way to measure how customer centric channels and touchpoints are in their design and management, and how they promote ease of use, simplicity and effortless interaction.

Customer engagement

The ongoing relationship a customer has with an organization based on relevant, personalized experiences and the anticipation of the customer’s evolving needs.

CX is made of individual customer touchpoints. The sum of all experiences a customer has with a company over the lifecycle of their relationship is called a customer journey.

Customer experience management (CEM)

A strategy that focuses on the operations and processes used to create a positive customer experience with focus on your organization, product, service, or brand.

Contact center infrastructure, available from the cloud or on-premises, that supports the design, orchestration, monitoring, and tuning of customer journeys across voice and digital channels.

Customer feedback is an essential element of customer service. It is any information provided by customers that can help businesses better understand their customers’ needs and expectations. Customer feedback can be gathered in various forms, including surveys, focus groups, customer service calls, online reviews and social media comments. The feedback can provide insight into the customer experience that can help businesses improve customer satisfaction, loyalty and overall performance.

Leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze customer feedback across a variety of channels such as product reviews, social media and emails. This AI-powered analysis enables an organization to extract valuable insights that it can use to improve its products, services and customer experiences over time.

Customer interaction analytics is the process of turning unstructured data found in email, voice, chat and more into structured data that can be searched and analyzed.

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 is the practice of using behavioral trends and technology to influence and optimize the customer experience (CX). Customer journey management aims to minimize the customer effort across all channels and touchpoints, ensuring a seamless experience every time a customer interacts with your company.

A customer journey map is a visualization of the paths customers take across channels and over time. These maps enable teams to broaden their perspective beyond internal goals to include the customer's perspective.

Customer journey optimization is the process of connecting and mapping customer interactions, across multiple touchpoints, in order to direct or influence the end-to-end experience.

Strategies and practices aimed at building long-term relationships with customers, encouraging repeat business and fostering a positive connection between the brand and its customers.

The ability of a company to retain its customers over time, often achieved by providing a customer experience that continuously meets or exceeds expectations.

Approaches and tactics that companies use to keep their customers engaged and loyal over time. These strategies can range from promoting shared values to providing empathetic customer service to fostering word-of-mouth support. Businesses that are effective in retaining their customers over the long term increase their earnings while enhancing their brand recognition and industry prominence.

A measurement that determines how an organization meets the expectations of its customers based on satisfaction. Customers are asked a question following a transaction about their satisfaction with the company, which is then rated from one (very dissatisfied) to five (very satisfied).

Using artificial intelligence to match a prospect or customer to the appropriate segments. These segments can classify intent and priority, identifying the likely interests, shopping preferences and buying behaviors of a customer based on similar previous customers. This enables organizations to personalize experiences by determining when and where to engage customers with an automated content offer, bot or agent-assisted service.

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

A customer service representative (CSR), also referred to as an “agent,” works in a contact center and assists customers in resolving their issues.

Enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of customer service operations to create a more seamless end-to-end experience for the customer. Optimizing customer support and orchestrating smoother experiences improves response times, resolution rates and overall customer satisfaction.

Tailoring educational content and experiences to fit the individual needs of learners. With modern workforce engagement management capabilities, businesses can empower each employee with a personalized development hub that puts them in control. They can manage their performance and access assigned learning content and coaching sessions — all while staying on top of their work. And the business can build learning modules to train or inform its employees, and assign assessment modules to better evaluate their knowledge and skill levels.

Database

A structured set of files, records, or tables. Often abbreviated DB. A collection of information organized in such a way that a computer program can quickly select desired pieces of data. You can think of a database as an electronic filing system.

Dialed number identification service (DNIS)

A feature of 800 or 900 lines that identifies the phone number the caller dialed to reach the attached computer telephony system.

Dialogue management is the component of a voicebot or chatbot that manages the flow of conversation, ensuring responses are coherent and contextually appropriate. It plays a crucial role in maintaining natural and effective interactions between the user and the system by handling multiple conversational turns and context shifts.

The design and delivery of online shopping experiences that are personalized, engaging and convenient for customers. When a company uses a modern customer experience (CX) platform, it can enhance interactions across various digital touchpoints, providing the right web content that offers the right next steps based on a customer’s individual needs, preferences and experiences.

Direct inward dialing (DID)

Dialing within a company without going through an operator.

Disaster recovery (DR) refers to the measures, policies and tools implemented to restore, repair or maintain critical business technology processes and systems following a disruptive event, such as a natural catastrophe, health crisis, extreme climate event, cyberattack, massive hardware failure or even human error.

Dual tone multi frequency (DTMF)

Touchtone dialing. In DTMF, pushing the button sends a combination of two tones’ one high frequency, one low frequency.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) defines E.164 as a globally recognized standard for assigning telephone numbers across public switched telephone networks (PSTN) and various data networks.

Echo cancellation

The process of making the channel quiet enough so that the system can hear and recognize Natural Language inputs during the prompt. See also barge-in.

Electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) refers to Protected Health Information (PHI) that is produced, saved, sent or received electronically.

An Emergency Location Identification Number (ELIN) is a 10-digit Direct Inward Dialing (DID) number sourced from a local exchange carrier (LEC).

Building meaningful relationships with customers based on empathy and feeling. A smooth and seamless customer journey that serves your customers in the way they’re looking for displays empathy and builds that connection.

Designing customer interactions and experiences that demonstrate an understanding of and care for the customer’s needs and feelings.

Employee engagement

The extent to which employees are actively engaged in their work and supporting their customers. It can be a key driver of motivation, retention, performance, customer experience, and business success.

Enterprise relationship management (ERM)

Relates to solutions allowing an enterprise to share customer, product, competitor and market information to accomplish goals of meeting long-term customer satisfaction and increased revenues

The practice of designing, developing and deploying artificial intelligence systems in a manner that is morally responsible and aligns with ethical values. Ethical AI should follow strict guidelines that safeguard businesses by applying AI with a purpose, adhering to data standards and addressing bias. There should be privacy design principles that protect customer and employee data along with intellectual property. Explainability and transparency should offer insight into how algorithms are applied, enabling comprehension of operational impacts while maintaining control over the outcomes.

Strategies used to customize individual touchpoints for customers based on knowledge of their needs, preferences and behaviors. Personalizing events is an important part of the process of experience orchestration, which intends to personalize entire experiences for customers. This increases customer engagement and satisfaction alike.

Experience as a Service® (EaaS) ist ein Ansatz für das Management von Kundenerlebnissen, der darauf abzielt, personalisierte, nahtlose Erlebnisse über alle Berührungspunkte und Interaktionen zwischen einem Kunden und einem Unternehmen zu liefern.

Experience as a Service® (EaaS) is an approach to customer experience management that seeks to deliver personalized, seamless experiences across all touchpoints and interactions between a customer and a business.

Experience orchestration enables you to coordinate technology based on the experience you want your customers to have across all channels of engagement. Businesses use it to build deeper, more loyal relationships as part of a guided process for consistent service. It also helps derive valuable context for the business. It works by using automation to create real-time insight about customer interactions. You can use this for proactive decision-making, taking action when it will be most impactful and appropriate.

First-contact resolution (FCR)

The ability to address the customer’s need the first time they call or connect with an agent, thereby eliminating the need for the customer to follow up with a second interaction. Contact center managers carefully monitor follow-up calls because follow-up calls create an overall increased call volume which, in turn, requires more agents. In general, a contact center manager will accept an increase in talk time, as long as the first call resolution rate increases as well. Follow up calls can also be an indication of customer dissatisfaction. Also referred to First Call Resolution.

GrXML

XML format of a syntax for representing grammars for use in speech recognition so that developers can specify the words and patterns of words to be listened for by a speech recognizer, as defined by the W3C forum The other format defined by the W3C forum, for representing these grammars is an Augmented BNF Form.

A hosted call center is a customer experience solution where an organization’s inbound, outbound, and voice-based self-service customer interactions are handled. Customer interactions are hosted on a service provider’s back-office systems, therefore offering lower cost of ownership.

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

A hosted dialer is a contact center cloud-based technology that enables cross-channel contact strategies in order to maximize the time agents spend on the phone, while accurately predicting agent availability, optimally pacing dialing, and filtering out unproductive calls.

Hosted services are software applications, compute resources and other information technology (IT) services that reside and are managed remotely, usually in the cloud. A third-party provider typically hosts these services and maintains and manages the necessary infrastructure. Hosted services can be used for a variety of purposes — from running an online store to running a contact center.

An advanced level of personalization that leverages real-time data and artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver highly relevant and individualized customer experiences. It’s both an art and a science that requires sharing information and context across voice and digital channels. And this requires the deployment of a modern customer experience platform that breaks down silos across channels, departments and touchpoints to create seamlessly connected experiences, journeys and relationships.

Identity resolution, sometimes known as “identity stitching,” is the process of aggregating disparate identifiers into a unified customer profile in order to identify an individual in real time across various digital touchpoints. 

An inbound call center is a customer service function dedicated to receiving incoming calls from customers or potential customers. The inbound call center handles a variety of customer calls, ranging from product questions to technical support to sales inquiries. Customer service representatives who understand the company’s products and services — and can provide helpful advice and solutions — typically staff inbound call centers.

Creating unique customer experiences that cater to the specific needs and preferences of the individual customer. An individualized customer experience that’s orchestrated by your business to meet your customer’s goals can help build a deeper connection — as well as customer loyalty.

IVAs are AI-powered agents capable of managing two-way text conversations in addition to voice interactions. They can set sales appointments, schedule callbacks and handle customer service inquiries, allowing human agents to focus on more complex tasks.

A system that uses responses from a touch tone telephone to gather and store data. An IVR is automated telephone information system that speaks to the caller with a combination of fixed voice menus and data extracted from databases in real time. The caller responds by pressing keys on the telephone keypad or speaking words or short phrases. This can also be used for voice self-service which can used to escalate customers to human-assisted service. It uses a human voice to read back. When set up with voice recognition software, data can be gathered through voice instead of touch tone. See also VRU.

Customer journey analytics is the science of analyzing customer behavior across touchpoints and over time to measure the impact of customer behavior on business outcomes.

Journey mapping is the process of visually illustrating the actions and perceptions customers take or have as they achieve their goals throughout a relationship with your company. Journey mapping helps cross-functional teams align on ideal journeys that can improve the customer's experience.

A technology platform that enables businesses to design, manage and optimize customer journeys across multiple channels and touchpoints. Most effective journey orchestration engines will use artificial intelligence (AI) to surface and analyze customer data, delivering the best next step toward the goal the customer wants to achieve.

In AI and contact center contexts, knowledge management refers to the systematic management of information and resources through AI to support agents and customers. This includes creating, curating and delivering the right information at the right time, improving resolution rates and self-service capabilities.

Live sentiment analysis employs AI to gauge the emotional tone of customer interactions in real time. By analyzing the words and phrases used during a call, this technology helps supervisors identify and intervene in calls where customers may be dissatisfied or experiencing issues.

Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) that involves developing algorithms that allow computers to learn from and make predictions based on data. Through techniques like neural networks and deep learning, machine learning enables systems to improve their performance over time without being explicitly programmed. Machine learning is widely used in applications such as predictive analytics, allowing a business to quickly uncover changes in customer data.

Mobile voice is the emerging technology that combines recent advances in mobile and voice recognition. The combination of the two technologies results in users being able to talk to their mobile devices, be understood by the device, and accomplish tasks.

A modern contact center is a central point in an enterprise from which inbound and outbound customer communications—including voice calls, email, social media, and Web chat—are managed and supported to continuously meet the adoption of new customer experience (CX) channels. The contact center plays a critical role in today's customer experience. As customer expectation and demands have changed, contact center modernization has become a key differentiator. Genesys Customer Experience Platform provides solutions in the cloud, on premises or a hybrid deployment to enable companies like yours to deliver an optimal omnichannel customer experience.

A multi-channel cloud contact center 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 center can be accessed from virtually anywhere, eliminating the need for increased physical infrastructure while meeting the evolving demands of today’s customer communication preferences.

Natural language processing (NLP) is a branch of artificial intelligence that enables computers to understand, interpret and generate human language. It involves breaking down language into smaller pieces; analyzing grammar and semantics; and understanding context.

Interactions with a brand that fail to solve a customer’s problem, make an issue worse or create a new concern.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Both a loyalty metric and a discipline for using customer feedback to fuel profitable growth in your business. Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a macro metric based on the single question and has been adopted by leading companies worldwide as the standard for measuring and improving customer loyalty.

Next-best action is an AI-driven recommendation system that analyzes customer data and interaction history to suggest the most appropriate action an agent should take next. This could involve offering a specific product, resolving an issue or providing personalized advice, thereby enhancing customer engagement and satisfaction.

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.

An omnichannel cloud contact center is a multichannel customer experience strategy that seamlessly connects all touch points and is available via an internet server.

An omnichannel customer experience is made up of individual customer touchpoints, over a variety of channels that seamlessly connect, allowing customers to pick up where they left off on one channel and continue the experience on another.

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 consists of numerous interactions across multiple touchpoints between a customer, or prospective customer, and product or service provider during the time of sale, and throughout the customer lifecycle.

An outbound call center is a central point where call center agents contact current or prospective customers on behalf of an organization. Outbound calls are conducted for many purposes, including but not limited to: sales calls to prospective customers, debt collection, customer surveys, or for proactive customer service.

An Outbound IVR is a contact center solution used to proactively distribute communications to customers. This technology allows an organization to automatically engage customers through multiple channels such as automated voice calls, SMS messages, email or social media posts using personalized notifications.

A performance management system is a software solution that helps contact center leaders track individual and team performance, pinpoint individual development needs, and improve employee engagement. Through personalized dashboards, gamification and recognition opportunities, performance management systems enable employees to contribute to a culture of continuous improvement.

Marketing efforts that are tailored to the individual preferences, behaviors and needs of specific customers. Personalization helps ensure every part of a customer’s experience is relevant to their goals, removing unnecessary friction and improving engagement and conversion rates — along with customer satisfaction.

Promotions or deals created for individual customers, based on their preferences, purchase history and behavior. Personalization helps to ensure a business offers specific customers things that they want, thereby improving their buying experience.

Contact Center-Infrastruktur, die in der Cloud oder vor Ort verfügbar ist und das Design, die Orchestrierung, die Überwachung und das Tuning von Customer Journeys über Sprach- und digitale Kanäle unterstützt.

Using data analytics and machine learning to predict future customer behaviors and the goals they’re trying to achieve based on information such as their past interactions. With these predictive insights, organizations can engage the customer at the right time and in the right way. For example, a company could proactively offer a precisely timed chat that’s personalized using insights from the data analysis. Over time, machine learning can iterate and improve the predictive model based on additional customer interactions.

Predictive dialing is a method of making several automated outbound calls without using agents. Answered calls are then passed to agents. A computer makes dialing decisions based on certain algorithms to support business objectives.

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

Prompt

A message played to a caller that gives the caller a choice of selections in a menu and asks for a response.

Public switched telephone network (PSTN)

Public Switched Telephone Network. The public telephone network to which telephones, ACDs, and PBXs are connected.

A quality management calibration is a process used by call center quality management teams to ensure consistency and accuracy in the evaluation of customer service interactions.

A quality plan is a document or set of procedures that outlines how a call center will measure and maintain quality standards in its customer service operations.

The ability of a business to rapidly assess, address and solve customer service issues. Customer journey management allows a business to predict potential issues and either eliminate them preemptively or solve them more quickly on a case-by-case basis.

Real-time adherence (RTA) is a call center workforce management process that allows managers to monitor and track agent adherence to their schedules in real time.

The practice of monitoring and influencing a customer’s journey as it happens, using data analytics and automation to orchestrate experiences that align your actions with your customer’s goals.

Powered by AI, real-time data and analytics provide instant snapshots of business operations, customer behavior and market trends at a moment in time, allowing businesses to react to changes in the customer experience immediately and solve issues quickly.

Tailoring the customer’s experience in real time, based on live interactions and instant data. As a part of the experience orchestration process, this is typically accomplished with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). Real-time personalization allows a business to enhance the relevance of every customer interaction and increase engagement, helping each customer achieve their distinct goals.

Reports agent

Allows agents to view team statistics as well as their own call log.

Screen pop

A method of delivering a screen of information to a telephone operator at the same time a telephone call is delivered. This is accomplished by a complex chain of tasks that include identifying the calling party number, using that information to access a local or remote ORACLE database, and pulling a form full of information from the database using an ORACLE database utility package.

Dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers with different needs, characteristics or behaviors who might require separate products or marketing approaches. Leading companies now use artificial intelligence (AI)-powered insights to segment their customers based on their behavior and surface cross-channel histories of their interactions. With these insights, these industry leaders can increase satisfaction and loyalty by showing how deeply they know the customer, predicting intent, delivering precisely-timed actions and more.

Semantic understanding is the process of comprehending the meaning and context of words in a conversation. It enables systems to interpret and generate responses that are relevant and appropriate, playing a critical role in natural language processing and conversational AI applications.

Sentiment analysis, also referred to as opinion mining, is the process of analyzing speech or text to identify the emotional tone. The process uses artificial intelligence (AI)-powered natural language processing (NLP) to determine how the customer feels throughout an interaction. This information is an important component of Voice of the Customer (VoC) analysis.

Server

A provider of resources.

An advancement in call routing, skills-based routing uses customer data and AI to match callers with agents best suited to address their needs. This method considers the agent’s skills and the nature of the request, enhancing customer satisfaction by providing more personalized and effective service.

A softphone is a software application that allows you to make phone calls over the internet. This type of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) software is installed on an internet-connected device and doesn’t require a traditional telephone.

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a software licensing model in which software applications are centrally hosted by a provider and delivered to customers via a web browser. SaaS is typically licensed on a subscription basis. SaaS is a viable option for many contact centers wishing to improve profitability and customer experience without increasing operation costs. By reducing hardware and software support and maintenance costs by moving to the cloud, contact center executives can focus more time and resources on delivering exceptional customer experiences Genesys Customer Experience Platform is a cloud-based solution that helps businesses deliver exceptional customer experiences while leveraging a SaaS model to reduce the total cost of ownership.

Speech analytics uses artificial intelligence (AI)-powered natural language understanding (NLU) to analyze voice recordings or live customer calls. The analysis can spot topics or key phrases; identify customer intent and sentiment; and help contact centers assess both agent performance and drivers of inbound interactions.

Speech recognition is a technology that enables machines to identify and process spoken language, converting it into text. It is used in various applications, including virtual assistants and other customer service tools, allowing for efficiencies like rapid transcription of customer interactions and more powerful voicebots.

Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. It converts written text into spoken words using text-to-speech technology, providing a voice to digital content and enabling interactions with systems through auditory feedback in applications like virtual assistants and accessibility tools. Speech synthesis allows a person to converse with voicebots, making the interaction more natural and empathetic.

Supervisor copilot is an AI tool designed to aid supervisors in monitoring and managing the performance of agents in a contact center. It offers insights into call quality, agent productivity and customer satisfaction metrics. By analyzing interactions, it can identify coaching opportunities and recommend interventions to improve team performance and ensure compliance with service standards.

Customizing communications between a business and a customer so that each customer’s unique needs are met.

Talk time

The average time an agent spends on each call, a common call center performance metric. In general, fast talk time averages are desirable. However, fast talk time averages accompanied by poor first call resolution rates are a sign that customer calls are not being answered satisfactorily.

Touchpoint

Each impression a customer has of an organization (be it advertising, product, email, etc.) can be called a touchpoint. These touchpoints can spurn an interaction with the organization, which in turn creates a customer experience.

A trunk is a communication line or physical link, such as a wire or optical line, designed to carry multiple signals simultaneously. A trunk provides network access between two points. They often connect switching centers in a communication solution.

TTS

Text-to-Speech – An optional feature that allows an application to play speech directly from ASCII text by converting that text to synthesized speech.

Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) is a collection of cloud-based solutions that consolidate real-time and asynchronous communication tools such as email, text messaging, voice and web conferencing into a single interface or platform.

Selling a customer either a superior/higher-priced version of a product, or a product from a different category that complements their original purchase.

A virtual agent is a contact center capability that uses a virtual character, created through computer generation, animation, and artificial intelligence, as a customer service agent via chat bot functionality. A virtual agent may also refer to a contact center or call center customer service agent that works from a remote location outside of an organization’s physical building.

A  solution that supports contact center agents who are dispersed geographically instead working from a single physical location to provide customer service interactions.

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

Voice authentication

A biometric used to verify who the speaker says he or she claims to be.

Voice biometrics is a technology that uses the unique characteristics of a person’s voice to identify and authenticate them. It analyzes voice patterns to provide secure and convenient user verification, and is commonly used in customer service for things like matching a caller with an existing customer profile or to verify a customer’s identity before accessing private information.

A voice command is a spoken directive given to a voicebot or virtual assistant to perform a specific task. Voice commands enable more natural interactions between customers and bots, enhancing convenience and accessibility by allowing users to control systems through speech to approximate a conversation with a human.

Voice extensible markup language (VXML)

Voice XML (extensible markup language) – VXML is similar to HTML in that it enables users to interact with the Internet through voice-recognition technology. It relies on a voice browser and/or the telephone to access information. VXML handles input and output audio dialog, dialog sequencing, error handling and client-side scripting.

Voice interaction refers to the act of communicating or interfacing with a system or device using spoken language. It involves the use of voice commands and responses, enabling natural and intuitive user experiences in applications such as virtual assistants and customer service.

Voice of internal customer (VOIC)

Voice of internal customer.

Voice of the customer (VOC)

A measurement used to describe the in-depth process of capturing a customer’s expectations, preferences and aversions. Specifically, the Voice of the Customer is a market research technique that produces a detailed set of customer wants and needs, organized into a hierarchical structure, and then prioritized in terms of relative importance and satisfaction with current alternatives.

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.

A voice platform executes the commands and logic specified by a voice application, provides speech processing capabilities (e.g., speech recognition, text-to-speech, voice authentication) and enables application creation. They also interface with back-end systems (e.g., databases, CRM applications, legacy systems) and call center infrastructure (i.e., computer telephony integration), and provide system management and administration capabilities.

Voice print

A set of features extracted from a sample of a person’s voice that are stored in a speaker authentication system.

Voice response unit (VRU)

A software system that uses responses from a touch tone telephone to gather and store data. It uses a human voice to read back. It is sometimes referred to as the Interactive Voice Response.

Voice services, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or Voice as a Service (VaaS), are telecommunications technologies that convert voice into a digital signal and route conversations through digital channels.

A voicebot is an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven software application that interacts with users through spoken language using voice recognition, natural language processing (NLP) and speech synthesis technologies. It converts spoken words into text, understands the user’s intent and generates spoken responses, facilitating seamless, hands-free interactions. Voicebots are widely used in customer service to provide quick and accurate responses, enhancing user experience and operational efficiency.

A Wide Area Network (WAN) is a telecommunications network extending over a large geographical area and designed to connect computers or networks in distant locations

Workforce engagement describes the level of commitment and enthusiasm employees feel for the work they do, the customers they serve and the company that employs them. Workforce engagement is tightly aligned with the quality of the customer experience. A highly engaged workforce is more likely to align individual professional growth with company goals and values, resulting in a stronger voice for the organization’s brand.

Workforce engagement management (WEM) is a software solution that helps contact centers understand and improve employee engagement. Using artificial intelligence (AI)-powered capabilities, the solution simplifies workflows, boosts individual and team performance, informs professional development, and improves the employee experience.

Workforce management is the process of strategically optimizing the productivity of employees, ensuring that all resources are in the right places at the right times. A workforce management strategy typically includes scheduling, forecasting, skills management and employee empowerment. Complexity increases with the need to ensure that customer service supports omnichannel customer engagement.

Workforce optimization is a strategy used to integrate siloed technologies and automate processes in order to reduce operational costs and to better manage employee performance, resulting in greater efficiency and higher customer satisfaction.

A systematic, ongoing process of effective planning, forecasting, and scheduling to provide more efficient distribution of interactions and work across channels.

Workload management is the process of strategically distributing work throughout the workforce in order to maximize employee or application skill and performance.