Within the world of speech technology there’s a host of acronyms and terminology used. We’ve created a helpful glossary here with those most commonly used.
ACD
It is used to route incoming inquiries such as calls and chats to the appropriate agent. The system helps to make contact centers more efficient by using a set of rules to determine which available customer representative is best qualified to take the call.
AI Customer Service
Artificial Intelligence is a branch of computer science that enables systems to function intelligently and independently. It automates intelligent behavior by utilizing machine learning and natural language processing to replicate human decision making. AI can correctly interpret data and learn from it to achieve defined tasks and goals. It mimics cognitive functions such as learning and problem-solving.
Auto Dialer
A fully featured auto dialer offers a range of pacing options. The best option depends upon the nature of the call campaign and the regulatory environment where the calls are being placed.
Barge in
A feature of the IVR that permits interruption when selecting the right number for the order/intent you would like to make. For example: if you would like to be assisted in English press 1, in French press 2. If right after English you press 1, you don’t have to keep listening to the rest of the commands and the IVR proceeds to the next step.
Call Blending
Enables contact centers to allocate agents across contact channels and through automated multichannel blending defined by business rules.
Call Center Agent Engagement
The focus of Call Center Agent Engagement is to give call center agents a much more engaging work environment. This results in better agent performance, lower turnover and ultimately lower cost, while improving the customer experience.
CCXML
CCXML, also known as Call Control XML, is the W3C standard markup language for controlling how phone calls are placed, answered, transferred and conferenced. CCXML works hand-in-hand with VoiceXML to provide a XML based solution for any telephony application.
Communications-Enabled Business Processes
Communications-Enabled Business Processes (CEBP) is an industry term for processes within workflows that leverage an automated communications channel to perform a specific task with increased efficiency. CEBP can describe a variety of methods for embedding automated communications into existing business processes, often leveraging telecom APIs or SDKs to deliver services such as outbound phone calls, SMS messages, or interactive voice response (IVR).
CTI Technology
Computer Telephony Integration, also called computer–telephone integration or CTI, is the name for any technology that allows interactions on a telephone and a computer to be coordinated. CTI is most commonly used by call centers handling a large number of incoming calls.
Customer Support Chatbot
A chatbot (aka chat bot), chatterbot or bot for short, is a software application used to conduct an on-line chat conversation via text or text-to-speech, leading a conversation with the user using natural language, or a combination of natural language and buttons to advance the dialog.
Dialogic
Dialogic, now a part of Intel, offers a wide range of cards that integrate telephones and computers. These cards are typically used in automated telephone platforms to provide products and services including: Interactive Voice Response, Predictive dialing, PC and Windows-Based PBX systems, Conferencing services, and VOIP gateways.
Enterprise Cloud Contact Center
An Enterprise Cloud Contact Center (ECCC) is a set of cloud-based best-of-breed applications tailored for the needs of large contact centers. The majority of cloud contact center solutions are flexible, able to be quickly deployed and continually updated with new features and capabilities applied by the vendor.
First Call Resolution
First Call Resolution, now often called First Contact Resolution, (expanded to reflect the potential for the use of additional channels to reach a contact center), is commonly used as a key performance indicator of contact center effectiveness. FCR measures the ability of the contact center to resolve the incoming inquiry on the first attempt.
Gamification
Gamification is a popular strategy used by call centers to motivate agents and create a culture where they work to continuously meet and surpass business objectives while providing rewards and recognition.
IVR
Historically, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) solutions have used pre-recorded voice prompts and menus to present information and options to callers, and touch-tone telephone keypad entries to gather responses. Modern IVR solutions also enable input and responses to be gathered via spoken words with voice recognition.
IVR Application Monitoring
IVR Application Monitoring lets you know instantly when your IVR applications are experiencing downtime or quality of service issues. Rapid notification minimizes the impact downtime can have on your business.
IVR Prompt Recording
IVR Prompt Recording is the pre-recorded automated messages that help the caller to access the right information before they speak to an agent.
IVR Specification
Clear IVR specifications are key to successful IVR application design and delivery. These specifications identify the various ways callers can interface with an IVR application to achieve their goals.
Natural Language Understanding (NLU)
NLU helps machines to understand and interpret human language by addressing the elemental pieces of speech. Speech recognition captures spoken language in real-time, transcribes it, and returns text and NLU goes beyond recognition to determine a user’s intent- adding additional meaning and value.
Omni-Channel Customer Service Experience
Customers now expect to receive service from your organization on the channel of their choice, which might be voice, email, SMS/text, web, mobile or social media. Companies are beginning to provide service on all of these channels – but too often, those channels may exist in silos. This multi-channel service can be taken to the next level with an omni-channel solution that integrates channels to provide a consistent customer experience.
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard
(PCI-DSS) is a proprietary standard designed by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council to control payment card data and reduce incidents of credit card theft. Sensitive data can include not just credit card numbers, but also expiration dates and CVV numbers, customer names and addresses, PIN codes, account numbers and other data related to financial transactions.
Predictive Dialers
Make an outbound contact center more efficient by automating the process of placing outbound calls. The dialer algorithmically predicts when agents will be available and how long it takes calls to be answered and adjusts the dialing rate. Agents get more live connections, increasing productivity.
Quality Management
Contact center quality management is a continuous process of call center agent interaction, monitoring, and insights that allow the agent to improve the quality of interactions with your customers continuously.
Robotic Process Automation
It can make intelligent routing decisions to help ensure that your customers have the lowest wait times, take care of simple transactional issues, and perform automated administrative tasks. These all have the effect of optimizing your call center agents – letting them spend more time helping customers and less time putting them on hold. Meanwhile, you save money through a lower total cost of operations (TCO), retain highly-skilled employees and improve customer CX.
Skills-Based Routing
A technique used to get customers to the right call center agent to address their queries. While simple automatic call distributor (ACD) systems might route calls to the next available agent irrespective of that agent’s expertise, skills-based routing allows contact centers to designate call center agents as specialists in certain products or issues.
Speech Recognition
Speech Recognition is the process by which a machine listens to, identifies and interprets sounds produced in human speech.
Text-to-Speech
Text-to-Speech also known as Voice Synthesis is the artificial production spoken word through digital written text.
Virtual Call Center
Virtual Call Center is often used to describe a cloud-based contact center deployment that requires no specialized hardware and allows call center managers and agents to be geographically dispersed; often this includes agents who work from home. With web-based agent and call center manager desktops and softphone technology, a computer and internet connection are all your contact center team needs.
Voice Biometrics
Voice Biometrics is a technology that can recognize and identify users by collecting sound data from a person’s voice. Voice as a biometric identification is as unique and specific to that individual person as a fingerprint, iris or their face.
VoiceXML
VoiceXML is the W3C standard XML format for creating an interactive voice response dialogue. VXML provides a framework for building standards-based voice applications, with tags that support automatic speech recognition (ASR), speech synthesis, dialog management and audio playback
WebRTC
Web Real-Time Communications is a communications standard developed by the W3C in close cooperation with the RTCWeb standard developed by the IETF. RTCWeb functions at a lower protocol layer; WebRTC enables the embedding of this functionality in applications and websites.
WFM Software
Workforce Management Software simplifies the task of ensuring a contact center has the right call center agents available at the right time, across multiple channels, with information about shifts and types of expertise, to achieve its expected service levels.
Workforce Engagement Management
Workforce Engagement Management (WEM) is an approach for increasing customer service agent engagement. Workforce Engagement Management makes it easier to create great employee experiences. Engaged agents help the organization meet its business objectives. In a contact center, this typically means providing outstanding customer service and meeting individual KPI targets.
Extensible Markup Language (XML)
XML is a flexible and structured way to define documents and information. XML is similar to HTML, the markup language used to define web pages. The XML standard is a foundation that can be extended to create other document and information standards.
