Performance measures (KPIs)
Abandon rate — The percentage of callers who hang up before reaching an agent. Usually measured after a short threshold (for example five seconds) to exclude misdials.
Adherence (schedule adherence) — How closely agents follow their planned schedule: logged in and available when they are meant to be.
Average handle time (AHT) — The average duration of a contact, including talk or chat time, hold time and after-contact work.
Average speed of answer (ASA) — The average time callers wait in the queue before an agent answers.
Customer effort score (CES) — A survey measure of how easy it was for the customer to get their issue resolved.
Customer satisfaction (CSAT) — A survey measure, usually on a 1–5 scale, of how satisfied the customer was with the interaction.
First-contact resolution (FCR) — The percentage of issues resolved on the first contact, with no need for the customer to contact you again.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) — A loyalty measure based on how likely customers are to recommend the organisation, from −100 to +100.
Occupancy — The share of agents’ logged-in time spent handling contacts or doing related work, as opposed to waiting. Very high occupancy for long periods increases burnout.
Quality score — The result of evaluating a contact against a quality framework. See measuring call quality.
Service level — The percentage of contacts answered within a target time, for example 80% of calls answered within 20 seconds (“80/20”).
Shrinkage — The share of paid time when agents are not available to handle contacts: leave, training, coaching, meetings, breaks and absence.
Technology
ACD (automatic call distributor) — The system that queues incoming calls and routes them to the right agent based on rules such as skills, priority and availability. Today it is usually part of a cloud contact centre platform.
Agent assist — AI that supports agents during live contacts with transcription, suggested answers, knowledge, compliance prompts and automatic summaries.
CCaaS (contact centre as a service) — A cloud-hosted contact centre platform combining routing, IVR, dialler, recording, digital channels and reporting, paid by subscription.
Call recording — Automatic recording of calls (and often screens) for compliance, dispute resolution, training and quality evaluation.
CRM (customer relationship management) — The system that holds customer records and interaction history, giving agents a single view of the customer across channels.
CTI (computer telephony integration) — Integration of telephony with business systems, enabling features such as screen pops (showing the customer’s record when a call arrives) and click-to-dial.
Dialler (predictive, progressive, preview) — Outbound calling software. A predictive dialler places calls automatically and connects only answered calls to agents; progressive and preview diallers dial one call per agent, giving more control and compliance.
IVR (interactive voice response) — An automated phone menu using keypad or speech input to identify callers, provide self-service and route calls. Conversational AI IVR lets callers speak naturally.
Knowledge base — The searchable library of answers, processes and policies agents (and often customers) use.
Omnichannel — Handling voice, chat, email, messaging and social in a connected way, so context follows the customer across channels.
Speech analytics — Software that transcribes and analyses recorded conversations to find reasons for contact, sentiment, compliance risks and trends.
Virtual agent / bot — AI that handles conversations by voice or text without a human agent, typically for simpler requests, handing over to a person when needed.
Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) — Remote desktops hosted in a secure data centre or cloud, so agents access systems without data being stored on local devices. Common in offshore outsourcing for security.
WFM (workforce management) — Software for forecasting contact volumes, scheduling agents and tracking adherence.
Outsourcing and operations
BPO (business process outsourcing) — Contracting business processes, such as customer service, to an external provider.
Blended agent — An agent who handles more than one channel or both inbound and outbound work.
Build-operate-transfer (BOT) — A model where a provider sets up and runs an operation, with an option for the client to take ownership later.
Calibration — Sessions where client and provider quality teams score the same contacts to align standards.
Captive centre — An offshore centre owned and operated by the client itself.
Dedicated vs shared team — A dedicated team works only for one client; a shared team handles several clients’ work.
FTE (full-time equivalent) — A unit of staffing equal to one full-time person; used for staffing and pricing.
GBS (global business services) — The wider industry of services delivered to international clients, including contact centres, back office and IT. The term commonly used in South Africa.
Mystery shopping — Trained auditors contacting a centre as customers, using set scenarios, to assess the service from the outside.
Nearshore / offshore / onshore — Onshore means the same country as the customer; nearshore means a nearby country or similar time zone; offshore means a distant country.
Nesting — A supervised period after training in which new agents handle live contacts with extra support.
RFP (request for proposal) — The document inviting providers to bid. See writing an RFP.
Service credit — A fee reduction when a provider misses an agreed service level.
SLA (service level agreement) — The part of the contract that defines the services, performance measures and targets.
Span of control — The number of agents per team leader.
Transition — The move of work to a new provider, including recruitment, training and go-live. See transition.
Data protection and compliance
IDTA (International Data Transfer Agreement) — The UK’s standard contract for restricted transfers of personal data outside the UK.
UK Addendum — An addendum that adapts the EU Standard Contractual Clauses for UK transfers.
SCCs (Standard Contractual Clauses) — EU-approved contract clauses for transferring personal data outside the EU/EEA.
POPIA — South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act. See compliance and security.
PCI DSS — The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard for handling card data.
SOC 2 — An independent audit report on a service organisation’s controls for security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy.