Call Centre Jargon Explained
Call centres are littered with buzzwords, jargon and abbreviations. We explain here all of the common buzzwords that will be found as soon as people start talking about call centres.
It can be very confusing to the novice, so we have started to build a glossary of all the call centre buzz words. We have also built a definition of what they really mean in normal words. For example you could look up DPNSS and see the answer Digital Private Network Singnalling System and be none the wiser. We hope to be able to put these terms into normal language.
The type of telephone system used in most call centres. Sometimes called a call centre it is used to queue callers and distribute the calls to agents. It usually includes the ability to generate statistics. Manufacturers include Aspect, Avaya (used to be called Lucent), Cisco, Nortel and Rockwell. It may be a dedicated telephone system or part of an office telephone system.
The average time (typically in seconds) for calls to be answered in the call centre. This needs to be treated carefully since it deals with the arithmetic mean. For example if 9 calls were answered immediately and at a very busy period one call waited for 10 minutes to be answered - it would treat the average speed of answer at one minute - even though 90% of calls were answered immediately.
A scorecard that shows a range of measures - typically based around graphs or traffic lights - that shows on a single sheet of paper how a call centre is performing.
B2B is a short version of Business to Business. In effect it generally involves one company trying to do business to another company- for example Dell selling to ICI. It could just as easy be shortened to Business - so "B2B Sales" could become "Business Sales"
B2C is a short version of Business to Consumer. In effect it generally involves one company trying to do business to the general public. It could just as easy be shortened to just "Consumer - so "B2C Sales" could become "Consumer Sales"
Taking a business task and getting another company to deliver it. This term is typically used to mean moving call centres and other business functions to India and other lower cost countries.
These days the telephone number of the caller travels ahead of most calls. This is known as Calling Line Identity (CLI) or by BT as Caller ID. You will probably most often see this when someone calls your mobile phone. This is also known in the USA as Automatic Number Identification or ANI.
A person employed in a call centre to answer the phone. Another name for this is Agent or Advisor. Care should be taken using this term as it also can be used as
This term is widespread in business and means "The ethics of a company" e.g. do they pollute the environment etc. It is also confused with CSR describing and agent in the call centre.
A method of connecting your telephone system to your database. Most commonly this will allow you to pop your callers details up on to the agent's screen when the call connects (Screen Pop). CTI can be used for a variety of applications such as call routing. Despite huge business advantages is often requires quite complex integration and its deployment has been limited.
A widely abused term that is about developing better relationships with customers. It has widely been high jacked by suppliers to mean a customer database, most frequently one that combines all customer data onto one database, giving a single view of the customer.
It is a type of digital telephone line that connects between that call centre and the telephone exchange in the UK.
It is sometimes called ISDN 30 and it allows 30 telephone calls to be carried on one set of lines.
Empathy
The ability for an agent to put themselves into the customer's shoes. Many call centres lack empathy. The caller is just another caller and although the agent deals with the call as best as they can. With empathy the agent feels the same concerns as the caller "I know how you are feeling because I too...." would be a common phrase that perhaps shows empathy. It is also commonly confused with sympathy which is more of an "I hear what you are saying..." type of communication, but perhaps without the shared experience of what it is like to go through this condition. Empathy was a concept developed by the psychologist Carl Rogers (1902-1987)
This web post on http://www.able2know.com/forums/about29102.html is a good example of the difference between empathy and sympathy.
The difference between empathy and sympathy is perhaps demonstrated by the expression of pity or sorrow to the distress of another.
"I offered my sympathy when I learned that Jane's father died."
Empathy, on the other hand, is usually meant to indicate that the person who is empathizing, knows what the other person is going through, and can identifies with the person.
"I can empathize with how Jane is grieving over her father's death. I know exactly how she felt, because I went through the same thing when my father died".
To me, the big difference between empathy and sympathy is that the person who empathizes can feel the distress on a personal level, whereas sympathy is less personal.
IMS stands for IP Multimedia Subsystem.
IMS - enables the convergence of data, speech and network technology over an IP-based infrastructure. It is the operator choice of control and service logic for IP/packet based person-to-person communication.
For users, IMS-based services will enable communications in a variety of modes - including voice, text, pictures and video.
It is not quite clear how this could be used in a call centre environment. Does anyone have any ideas?
A telephone system that lets callers interact with your company through either touch tone or speech recognition. While most systems are only programmed to give callers menus (press one for sales, two for support...) they can also be programmed to interact with a database top provide status information or to give you your account balance.
Screen pop describes the ability for a screen to arrive on an agent desktop at the same time as a call
SIP is a signaling system that enables a whole range of applications to be integrated. This includes voice, data, video, pictures and online games.
It allows the user to be able to switch between one mode and another. A good example would be online gaming through a mobile phone, where while playing you would be able to use a "push to talk" button.
The telephone set used by an agent in a call centre. It often has other functions (the ability to log on etc) to a normal telephone set. The term TeleSet was first termed by Aspect but has more recently come to be used as any agent telephone set.
This is one of the most baffling uses of jargon in a call centre, but effectively means an agent telephone set. This term was commonly used in the 1980s and 1990s but is not so widespread today. Usually the term teleset is used these days.
Not the storage area of a car, but a word to describe the telephone lines coming into a call centre. The word "trunk" could easily and less confusing be replaced by the word "telephone line"
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