Glossary

Helpful A-Z glossary listing key terms, acronyms and their definitions.

R

Ramp-up

A term used to describe a large increase in the amount of product or services provided by a business or company. In economics, ramp-up is used to increase production in order to meet the increase in product demand.

Random Call Arrivals

Describes the manner in which the flow of incoming calls is received by call centers. Random call arrivals do not consider specific patterns or interval systems.

Reader Boards

AKA display boards or wall displays, reader boards are visual communication tools that convey real-time and historical information on queue conditions, agent status, and call center performance.

Ready State

Refers to the status of a call center agent or representative, who is ready and available to take calls.

Real-Time Adherence

Real time adherence is a metric used to analyze an agent's current status, as well as measure the extent to which an agent adheres to the planned work schedule. Real-time adherence is determined by comparing scheduled work time and current status of agents.

Real-Time Alerts

Immediate notifications delivered by various systems, used to provide insight into a process or system at the right time.

Real-Time Data

Real time data refer to the information requested and delivered immediately after collection without any delay. Real-time data based on current and ongoing conditions, helps in gaining actionable insights by collecting data from diverse sources such as emails, chats, SMS, social media, inquiries or calls in queue.

Real-Time Management

A management technnique that helps managers determine staffing requirements, and adjust scheduling, based on queue levels, in order to improve call center performance.

Received Calls

The term refers to incoming calls that are received by the trunk. It includes both answered and abandoned calls.

Recorded Announcement

A variety of pre-recorderded announcements or messages that are played to a caller while waiting in queue to talk to a live agent. These announcements may help in keeping callers engaged by conveying general information about the business or product, indicating heavy call volume, and providing estimated wait time, or requesting for call backs.

Recruiter

Describes the position of an employee who is responsible for hiring staff by finding qualified candidates, evaluating resumes, performing background checks, negotiating salaries, and conducting interviews.

Redial

The process of dialing a phone number again when the previous attempt to connect fails.

Re-engineering

Refers to making radical changes to a process or system in order to enhance operational efficiency.

Remote Agent

Refers to a call center agent or representative who works remotely from a location outside of the contact center office. Remote agents usually use a cloud-hosted contact center solutions to interact with customers and team members.

Reporting Analyst

An employee responsible for constructing and preparing reports, by utilizing and analyzing data collected from various sources in the call center's system.

Request for Proposal (RFP)

Refers to a request made by an organization or company, for a seller or supplier to submit a business proposal that provides details, and information about specific products or services they are interested in procuring. This helps with comparing similar products and services, or simplifying bidding processes.

Response Time

The amount of time it takes a customer service agent to respond to a customer's request for service. Response time is the service level for the contacts that do not have to be answered immediately, and can be expressed as: X percent of contacts are answered in Y seconds.