Reference
BPO Glossary of Terms
Plain-English definitions of the contact-centre and BPO vocabulary used across FrontLine, from AHT and shrinkage to nesting and multi-tenant operations.
BPO business model
- BPOBusiness Process Outsourcing
- A firm that runs contact-centre operations on behalf of other brands.
- Captive centre
- An in-house contact centre a brand runs itself rather than outsourcing to a BPO.FrontLine for captive operations
- LOBLine of Business
- A distinct client program or queue within an operation.The multi-client architecture problem
- Multi-tenant
- One platform that serves many isolated clients, each seeing only its own data.The multi-client architecture problem
- Onshore, nearshore, offshore
- Where the work is delivered relative to the client: the same country, a nearby region, or a distant lower-cost geography.
- P&LProfit and loss
- The statement of a business's revenue and costs.
Performance metrics
- Abandonment rate
- The share of queued contacts that hang up before reaching an agent.
- AHTAverage Handle Time
- The mean duration of a customer interaction.
- ASAAverage Speed of Answer
- The average wait before a queued contact reaches an agent.
- Cost per contact
- The fully loaded operating cost of a single handled interaction.
- CSATCustomer Satisfaction
- A post-interaction score for how satisfied a customer was.
- eNPSEmployee Net Promoter Score
- How likely employees are to recommend working somewhere.
- FCRFirst Contact Resolution
- The share of contacts resolved on the first interaction, with no callback or transfer.
- NPSNet Promoter Score
- How likely a customer is to recommend the brand.
- Service Level
- The percentage of contacts answered within a target time, written as 80/20 (80% within 20 seconds).
- SLAService Level Agreement
- A contractual performance target, e.g. answering X% of calls within Y seconds.
Workforce management
- Erlang C
- The staffing formula that estimates how many agents a queue needs to hit a service level at a given volume.
- Forecast accuracy
- How close predicted contact volume comes to what actually arrives.
- FTEFull-Time Equivalent
- A unit of staffing equal to one full-time agent, used to size headcount independent of shift length.
- Intraday management
- Real-time adjustments to staffing and breaks as the day's actual volume diverges from forecast.
- Occupancy
- The share of logged-in time agents spend actively handling contacts rather than waiting.
- Schedule adherence
- How closely agents follow their published schedule, minute to minute.
- Shrinkage
- The portion of paid time agents are not available to handle contacts, from breaks, training, meetings, and absence.
- Utilization
- The share of paid time agents spend on productive work, after shrinkage.
- WFMWorkforce Management
- Forecasting, scheduling, and adherence.
Quality & coaching
- ACWAfter-Call Work
- The wrap-up tasks an agent completes after a contact ends, before taking the next one.
- Auto-fail
- A critical scorecard error, such as a compliance breach, that zeroes the whole evaluation regardless of other points.
- Calibration
- A session where evaluators score the same interaction to align on standards and reduce scoring drift.QA as a retention lever
- Disposition code
- The wrap-up tag an agent applies to classify a contact's outcome.
- PIPPerformance Improvement Plan
- A structured, time-boxed plan to lift an underperforming agent.
- QAQuality Assurance
- The program that scores and reviews agent interactions.QA as a retention lever
People & operations
- Absenteeism
- Unplanned missed shifts, a primary driver of intraday shrinkage.
- Attrition
- The rate at which agents leave, voluntarily or not, over a period.Why your stay bonus didn't work
- Nesting
- The sheltered transition phase where new hires take live contacts with extra support before full production.A defensible nesting graduation
- Ramp
- The period after training during which a new agent's productivity climbs toward the team standard.
- Speed to floor
- How quickly a new hire moves from training onto live production.A defensible nesting graduation
- T&ATime and Attendance
- Clock-in/out and worked-hours tracking.
Channels & telephony
- ACDAutomatic Call Distributor
- The system that queues inbound contacts and routes each to the right available agent.
- CTIComputer Telephony Integration
- The link that pops customer records on screen as a call connects.
- IVRInteractive Voice Response
- The automated phone menu that routes or self-serves callers before an agent.
- Omnichannel
- Handling voice, chat, email, and social in one connected agent experience with shared context.