Being a call center agent and building professional skills will expose you to new vocabulary.

Jargons are words that allow people who work in a specific field to communicate with shortcuts.

Different professions have different jargons.

Learning the meaning of these words and how these words are used in day to day call center work will make your life a lot easier.

Different companies have different words for some of the terms so I’ll try to use as many terms as I have.

I’ll add more as I think of more call center words.

I’ll create another directory of words for successful people.

Stay tuned for that.

Agent

This is you. Alternative names are: representative, customer service specialist, sales agent, tech support representative, etc.

Team Lead

Your immediate supervisor.

The person with the power to help you keep your job and the person you need to help the most.

Call Center Virgin

People who are working in a call center.

Also, used in flirting and subtle or low-key sexual harassment.

BPO: Business Process Outsourcing

Outsourcing is allowing another company to execute a task for you and paying them for it.

You outsource something because:

Call centers are just one of the common examples or Outsourcing.Click here to learn more about business process outsourcing

Call Center

Click here to learn more about call centers.

ACD: Automatic Call Distributor

This is an element of the phone system that distributes and transfers calls to different departments and agents.

Skill

Specific training you have received from the company. If you’re a tech support staff, that’s your skill. If you’re trained for billing, that’s your skill. If you’re for retention, that’s your skill.

Escalation

This means the situation requires a representative with more experience.

De-escalation.

This means that even if the customer requests a higher-level representative, you can reassure the customer that you can handle their issue and resolve it. De-escalation is a skill that I have mastered early. And I rarely need a supervisor to take my call.

Retention

This means keeping the customer on. Most call centers have a retention department.

Dialer

A dialer is part of the telephone system that allows the call center to automatically make outgoing calls to a long list of phone numbers.

Account / Program

Usually, used for the clients.

Call Centers do call center work for clients.

For example, Concentrix is doing calls for “Google” or another client like “Sprint” or a different service provider.

IVR: Interactive Voice Response

This is the automated answering machine used by most companies.

This is the annoying, press one for sales and inputs your phone number and all that over the phone before the customer gets to talk to the agent.

This is also 90% of the reason why the customer is extra angry when they call you.

ACW: After Call Work

This is the time you are allowed to do admin tasks or take notes of what transpired during your call.

We are usually not allowed to go on ACW and have to do this as the call is progressing.

Avail

This means your phone is ready to receive a call.

Also used when your call center is not getting a lot of calls and it takes a few minutes to receive the next call.

Queuing

Opposite of Avail. Your call center is receiving a lot of calls so you’ll get another customer as soon as you finish working with another customer.

This is my favorite part of the job.

Everybody hates this.

But I see this as my opportunity to shine.

If you’ve seen action/war movies with armies clashing.

All the soldiers are fighting the enemy one at a time and struggling.

Then the hero is just murdering people left and right and leads the charge to win the battle.

This is me during queuing.

And if you learn from me, you’ll be like this too.

Inbound

This means that you are the one receiving calls from the customers.

Most of the time.

customer service and tech support calls are inbound.

Outbound

This means that you are the one calling the customers.

Most telemarketing and sales calls are outbound.

Auto-in: Automatic in

Calls are coming in automatically.

Floor

Just the work area. Usually used as “Production Floor.”

Area where you need to speak in English all the time.

Training

Classroom training that teaches you about your role, the business process you are entrusted with, soft skills, communication techniques and the product and service that your company provides.

Nesting, Transition or OJT

After classroom training, you’ll start taking calls but still heavily supervised by the trainer so you can master the process.

Production or Operations (Ops)

Next step to Nesting, Transition and OJT.

You are now an agent and under your team leader.

EOP: English Only Policy

You’re only allowed to speak in English.

Metrics and KPI

Key Performance Indicators are used to measure if you are doing your job and doing your job well.

Common metrics are AHT, CSAT, QA and SA for Customer Service and Tech Support. These are often represented by a number.

AHT: Average Handling (Handle) Time

The most common metrics for customer support and tech support.

This measures the average time that it takes you to finish the call.

The computation is usually talked time and hold time divided by the number of calls.

The smaller number is usually better.

But too small can mess up your other stats. Be sure to follow the rules.

CSAT: Customer Satisfaction

I received a lot of money by mastering these metrics.

This means that all customers expressed their satisfaction with MY PERFORMANCE in a Customer Satisfaction Survey or CSAT survey after talking to me.

This is the main reason, I refer to call center income as sweet, sweet call center money.

DSAT: Dissatisfaction

This means you failed a CSAT survey.

Because you didn’t do well with a customer.

I don’t get this very often.

I usually convert the angriest customer to my biggest supporter.

QA: Quality Assurance

This is a common metric in Tech Support and Customer service.

This measures how accurately you followed the script and talking points of the call.

This is graded by a QA analyst and submitted to your supervisor.

SBS: Side-by-side Call Listening

Someone sits next to you and attaches a headset to your phone system to listen to your call.

Remote Call Monitoring

This is the remote version of SBS.

You don’t know that someone else is listening to your call.

Usually used to evaluate your performance.

SA: Schedule Adherence

This measures how well you follow your schedule.

The main reason you keep your job.

And the usual reason why agents are fired.

This covers the start of your work, breaks and time out.

Upsell

This means you’re offering a product with a higher value to a customer who inquired about a lower-tier product.

This is a lot like offering “add ons” to the customer.

Conversion

Converting the customer call to take a positive action, like buying from you, upgrading their plan, or subscribing to an email newsletter.

RTA: Real-Time Analyst

Operations staff tracking schedules and KPI of all the agents on the floor.

Graveyard

The most common call center schedule.

Attrition

Ratio of agents quitting the job or are dismissed within a specific time period.

90% of agents quit within one year.

Mostly because they can’t handle the job.

Cold Transfer or Blind Transfer

Transferring the call without waiting for another party to answer and explaining the situation.

The most common reason why you get a bad CSAT or a DSAT.

Also the most common call center rules that I break because I am only interested in collecting that sweet, sweet call center money.

Warm Transfer

Transferring the call to another agent who can help the customer and waiting for that agent to answer, explaining the situation and confirming they can help the customer, and introducing the customer before doing the transfer and hanging up.

This is a best practice.

Some companies don’t allow this or discourage this.

But if the company gives you an incentive or extra money for good customer service then I’ll break the rule and warm transfer all the time.

Sup Call

Supervisor call or escalated call.

Also happens when the Customer is asking for an American agent because of poor handling of the previous agents.

This happens when the customer requires assistance with a complex issue.

90% of people who ask for a supervisor do not need to talk to a supervisor because I have mastered my English skills.

Escalation/s

A specialized group of agents that handle complex calls or requests that you aren’t trained for.

If you want to earn more money, you need to understand escalation procedure.

Frontliner

The first line or point of contact.

Like a receptionist after the automated system.

The job usually involves the transfer of calls to different departments.

Most boring job.

Incentives

Bonuses for doing a great job. Also referred to as performance or attendance bonus, or any type of bonus that your company provides.

I call this sweet, sweet call center money.

This usually means a 30-50% pay increase.

SLA: Service Level Agreement

This is the agreement between the call center company and the client to make sure that the calls are processed based on the rules agreed upon.

Appraisal or Evaluation

Company is evaluating your performance for endorsement to production, a new department, promotion, pay increase or other reasons.

Night Differential

Bonus pay for people who work nights.

Usually 10% or more and is required-by-law for employees who work between 10PM and 6AM.

Hazard Pay

A provision for call center agents to acknowledge the fact that they are working in hazardous conditions.

I don’t really care about this. But more money is more money.

VTO: Voluntary Time Out

Usually allowed with low call volume.

You can go home early.

SL: Sick Leave

A paid-time-off you are entitled to take when you’re sick.

Agents who get fired call this the sinungaling leave.

VL: Vacation Leave

A paid-time-off you are entitled to take.

If you want to become a top performer, you need to take this regularly and you’ll need to reserve two of these for emergencies.

NCNS: No Call No Show

This is a major offense that gets people fired.

No show means you didn’t show up. And no call means you didn’t inform the company.

This often kills your call center income because it’s the easiest way to terminate an agent.

Call-in

Informing the production that you’ll be absent or late before your shift. Calling in has helped me during emergencies.

AWOL: Absence Without Official Leave

You left without any notice, without a resignation letter, and clearance.

Bio breaks or Restroom breaks

Usually ten minutes per shift.

Short Breaks

Usually twice a day, 15 minutes each.

This is when I eat lunch.

I use the other one for a short nap.

If you go down to smoke and chat, you are a loser.

I’m sorry, you are just dumb or uneducated.

Lunch Breaks

One hour.

This is when I take my longer nap.

This is a long list.

I’ll add more as I remember more words.

You need to buy me three steaks for this.