This glossary explains terms from the current handbook. The links lead to the relevant instructions; Key terms provides a thematic introduction.
A to D
| Term | Meaning and instructions |
|---|---|
| Abandoned contact | A customer who ends a waiting conversation before an agent accepts it. Wait time and abandoned contacts describe accessibility; see Statistics. |
| ACD | Automatic Call Distribution, the automatic distribution of conversations. In myContactCenter, a skill has an ACD with its distribution rules; see Skills. |
| Activity | An agent state for other work, such as a break, meeting or training. Which conversations are permitted depends on the configuration; see Activities. |
| Administration | The program for configuring and managing the system, including agents, skills, flows and reports; see Administration. |
| Agent | A user who handles customer conversations in the Agent program. In this handbook, “Agent” also denotes that program; see Agent. |
| Agent profile | Settings and permissions for an agent. The settings that actually apply also depend on the assigned groups; see Agent profiles and Groups. |
| Agent script | C# code that reacts to events in the Agent program and requests actions, such as opening a customer record; see Agent script. |
| Alarm | A performance-monitoring notification when a monitored value reaches a defined threshold; see Alarms. |
| Attached data | Information attached to a conversation, such as a customer number obtained by a flow. Individual values are read as text in scripts; see Attached data. |
| Automatic acceptance | A conversation is delivered to an agent without prior manual acceptance by that agent; see Accepting conversations. |
| Automatic report | A report generated by the server at scheduled calendar times, saved as a file and optionally sent by email; see Automatic reports. |
| Availability | Whether, and in what form, an agent can handle further conversations. Being logged in alone is not sufficient to determine this; see Availability. |
| Bandwidth | The amount of data a connection can transmit per unit of time. Planning depends on the simultaneous active streams and their direction; see Bandwidth calculation. |
| Boilerplate | Prepared text that agents can use in emails and chats; see Boilerplates. |
| Business hours | The times when a queue accepts conversations. Manual opening and closing, as well as holidays, also affect acceptance; see Business hours. |
| Callback | A customer retains a place in the virtual queue after the telephone connection ends and is called back later; see Callbacks. |
| Callback scheduler | A flow node that offers the caller times for a callback; see Callback scheduler. |
| Channel | The form of communication: call, email, fax, chat or voicemail. Rules and qualifications can differ by channel; see Channels. |
| Classification | Categorizing a conversation by subject, such as “Order” or “Complaint”, for later analysis; see Classification. |
| Codec | The method for encoding and decoding audio. In telephony, the negotiated codec and packet interval affect bandwidth; see Telephony and SIP media. |
| Conference | A call with several participants who can hear each other. A consultation call can be joined into a conference; see Transfer and consultation. |
| Consultation | A call to a colleague or destination while the original caller is on hold. The call can then be transferred or joined into a conference; see Transfer and consultation. |
| Conversation | A customer contact regardless of channel. In this handbook, conversations include calls, chats and emails; see The path of a conversation. |
| CRM | An application for customer information and cases. A web-based customer record can be opened in Agent’s Browser module; see Browser. |
| Dashboard | An interactive overview of metrics and charts for administrators or supervisors; see Dashboards. |
| Data source | The data underlying a report or dashboard, for example a query of conversation statistics; see Report design data. |
| Dial-in | After an interruption, a customer calls again within a deadline and uses their place in the virtual queue; see Callbacks and dial-in. |
| Distribution scheme | Specifies which agents are eligible based on their skill and language qualifications, and when weaker levels are included; see Distribution. |
| Distribution strategy | Determines the order among suitable free agents using weighted criteria, such as idle time and previous workload; see Distribution. |
| DTMF | Telephone keypad signals used for input in a voice menu. Flow nodes recognize individual keys or digit sequences; see Recognition nodes. |
| Dynamic wrap-up | Wrap-up with a timed end. It differs from wrap-up that is ended manually; see Availability. |
E to K
| Term | Meaning and instructions |
|---|---|
| Effective qualification | An agent’s currently applicable skill and language assignments, including their levels. These may differ from the stored assignments; see Product data in agent scripts. |
| Escalation | Extending distribution for conversations that have waited longer, for example to other qualification levels; see Distribution. |
| Extension | A user’s internal number on the phone system. Administration assigns it to the agent; see Login and Phone system. |
| Filter | A condition that limits data or matches. VIP filters identify senders; dashboard filters limit displayed data; see VIP filters and Dashboard filters. |
| Flow | A graphically designed procedure for handling an incoming conversation, such as announcements, prompts and decisions; see Flows. |
| Flow assignment | Connects a flow with its trigger, such as a phone number, mailbox address or a chat combination of skill and language; see Assignment. |
| Flow variable | A value within a conversation’s flow, such as a customer number or counter. Each conversation has its own values; see Variables and attached data. |
| Hold | Temporarily interrupting an ongoing call and retrieving it later. The customer hears music on hold in the meantime; see Handling a call. |
| Holiday | A date or recurring day that affects whether a skill accepts conversations; see Holidays. |
| Hub | A SignalR interface for communication between a website and the Routing Service. Chat, callback and ACD hubs have different tasks; see Website integration. |
| Idle time | For the distribution strategy, the time since the last conversation of the type considered. It can be weighted to select the next agent; see Distribution strategy. |
| IVR | Interactive Voice Response, an interactive voice dialog. A flow can include such a dialog but is not limited to voice menus; see Flows. |
| Known agent | An agent the customer recently spoke to and who is preferred when the customer contacts the system again; see Key terms. |
L to R
| Term | Meaning and instructions |
|---|---|
| Language | An additional responsibility used in conversation distribution. An agent needs the relevant language qualification; see Languages. |
| License | Authorization to use product features. Agents occupy the licenses required for their login; permissions alone do not replace a license; see Roles and licenses. |
| Manual wrap-up | Wrap-up that the agent starts or ends manually. A configured maximum duration can also end it; see Availability. |
| Minimum qualification | The weakest qualification level that still receives conversations automatically after escalation; configurable separately for skill and language; see Distribution scheme. |
| Monitoring | A supervisor listens to a call. When whispering, only the agent hears the supervisor; in a conference, all participants hear the supervisor; see Monitoring. |
| Node | An individual building block of a flow. Nodes are connected into a procedure in the Flow Designer; see Flow nodes. |
| Parallel handling | Handling several conversations simultaneously. The agent profile limits the total number and the number per channel; see Availability. |
| PBX | The phone system connected to myContactCenter. Among other functions, it provides extensions and telephony connections; see Phone system. |
| PCM | An audio format whose payload rate is calculated from sample rate, channel count and bits per sample; see PCM audio. |
| Performance indicator | A value that performance monitoring compares with thresholds, such as the number of waiting conversations; see Performance indicators. |
| Pickup | An agent takes a waiting conversation from a list instead of waiting for automatic assignment; see Accepting conversations. |
| Placeholder | A marker replaced by a value when text is processed, such as %AGENTNAME%. Available placeholders depend on where the text is used; see Placeholders. |
| Playback call | A call through which an agent listens to a recording or voicemail. It is for playback and is not distributed as a customer conversation; see Key terms. |
| Preferred agents | Agents specified by the flow who have priority in distribution for a defined period; see Key terms. |
| Presence state | A user’s state in the phone system, such as available, away or do not disturb. Presence and conversation state are different information; see Agent overview. |
| Priority | Determines the order of waiting conversations. The skill’s priority is considered first, followed by VIP class and wait time; see Key terms. |
| Private call | A call started by an agent without an assigned skill. A qualified call, by contrast, is associated with a skill; see Making calls. |
| Qualification | A named level describing suitability for a skill or language. Lower valid level numbers indicate better qualifications; see Qualification levels. |
| Qualified call | A call started by an agent and assigned to a skill, unlike a private call; see Making calls. |
| Queue | The area where conversations wait to be assigned to an agent; see Queue. |
| Reachability | A metric for the proportion of connected conversations. Which contacts enter the denominator depends on the report template; see Service level and reachability. |
| Recording | Recording a telephone conversation; see Recording. |
| Regular expression | A search pattern for text, phone numbers or addresses, such as banned contacts, VIP filters and recognition nodes; see Regular expressions. |
| Report | An evaluation with a report design and saved parameters, for example for a period or skill. A calendar enables automatic generation; see Reports. |
| Report design | A report’s layout, data query and parameters. A design can be created from a template and edited in the Report Designer; see Report designs. |
| Report parameter | A value that limits an evaluation or determines its presentation, such as the period, skills, languages or agents; see Parameters. |
| Report template | A supplied starting point for a report design with defined data and metrics; see Templates. |
| Restriction | A rule that, for example, permits, restricts or prevents an activity or logout depending on the situation in the skill; see Restrictions. |
| Routing group | Combines skills for the distribution strategy. Workload is then considered jointly across their conversations; see Routing groups. |
| Routing Service | The service for conversation routing and media processing. It also provides the website hubs; see Architecture and Website setup. |
| RTP | Packet-based transport of telephony audio. Network load includes protocol overhead as well as codec payload; see Telephony and SIP media. |
S to Z
| Term | Meaning and instructions |
|---|---|
| Server | The central service for configuration, distribution, agent states, licenses, statistics and scheduled reports. The Routing Service performs different tasks; see Architecture. |
| Service level / SL | A metric for the proportion of calls connected within a specified time. The time basis, thresholds and included contacts differ by template; see Service level and reachability. |
| Severity | A level for categorizing an alarm, with its associated display and handling; see Severity levels. |
| Signaling | Offering a new conversation to an agent. If it is not accepted in time, it can return to the queue; see Accepting conversations. |
| Signaling time | The period in which an agent should accept an offered conversation. When it expires, the conversation can return to the queue; see Accepting conversations. |
| SignalR | The communication interface through which a website exchanges messages with the Routing Service hubs; see Website setup. |
| SIP | The protocol for establishing and controlling telephony connections; see Phone system and Ports. |
| Skill | A subject or responsibility, such as sales or technical support. It connects qualifications and distribution rules; see Skills. |
| Skill (API identifier) | The English term and API identifier for the German term “Wissensgebiet”; see Skills. |
| Softphone | The phone integrated into Agent, which registers with the phone system using the extension and handles calls through a headset; see Calls. |
| Statistics | Stored data about completed conversations, agent actions and alarms, used by reports and dashboards. Ongoing conversations are not yet included; see What statistics count. |
| Supervisor | An agent with additional control and monitoring permissions, for example to support other agents; see Supervisor. |
| Text-to-speech / TTS | Converting text into spoken announcements. The Text to speech flow node uses the language appropriate for the conversation; see Media nodes. |
| Ticket | The case file that bundles related conversations and their data; see Tickets. |
| Transcription | Converting a conversation into written text. It is stored with the case file; see Recording and transcription. |
| Transfer | Passing a conversation to another agent, skill or external destination; for calls, directly or after consultation; see Transferring. |
| VIP class | A level used to give conversations preference in the queue. With equal skill priority, the higher VIP level comes first; see VIP classes and filters. |
| Virtual queue | Waiting without a continuous telephone connection, using a callback or dial-in; see Distribution. |
| Voicemail | The conversation type for a recorded voice message; see Voicemail. |
| Wait time | The time a conversation spends in the queue. Statistics distinguish it from ringing time and time until connection; see Statistics. |
| Wallboard | A display of metrics and states in real time; see Wallboards. |
| Web chat | A chat between a website visitor and an agent, connected through the chat hub; see Web chat. |
| WebCallback | A callback request submitted through a website form. This does not create a browser audio stream; see WebCallback. |
| Whispering | A supervisor speaks to the agent during a call without the customer hearing the supervisor; see Monitoring. |
| Wrap-up | Time for completing a conversation, such as adding notes. It affects availability for further conversations; see Availability. |