Glossary of Telecommunications Terms - T

Telecommunication Glossary - T

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• Talk Time: The time an agent spends with a caller during a transaction. Includes everything from "hello" to "goodbye."
• Team: A user-defined group of agents, usually collected under a group specific label (such as French, Spanish, East, West, etc.).
• Tandem: Switch that sorts calls for transmission to Customer Service Centers or to other switches if agent assistance is not required.
• Telephone Service Factor (TSF): The TSF measures how quickly incoming calls are answered. The customer specifies the time (in seconds) in the programming of the telephone system. The percentage of incoming calls answered or abandoned before that time (in seconds) is the TSF. A value of 100 means all calls were answered or abandoned within the customer-defined time threshold. Calls Time Overflowed and calls answered by target agents (TOF In Calls) are included in these calculations because TOF In Calls accumulate a Before Time Threshold value. However, TOF In Calls do not last in the target queue long enough to accumulate an After Time Threshold value. Calls Time Overflowed from a source ACD queue (TOF-Out) are not counted in this field because the TSF factor does not apply to calls answered by the source agent.
• Timed Overflowed In: ACD calls that hit the call's primary ACD target and then are either assigned to an ACD agent as an Overflow ACD target or are assigned to an ACD agent in an ACD queue where the group is defined as an Overflow ACD target. The source and target queues must have the Timed Overflow option turned on for accurate reports. For example, the source ACD queue has the option turned off and the target ACD queue has the option turned on. When an overflowed call is answered by the target queue, that call is pegged as answered for the target queue but not for the source queue, resulting in an inaccurate report.
• Timed Overflowed Out: ACD calls that hit the call's primary ACD target and then are either assigned to an ACD agent as an Overflow ACD target or are assigned to an ACD agent in an ACD queue where the group is defined as an Overflow ACD target. A call is also counted as Overflowed Out of the ACD queue when it is assigned (by the Northern telephone system) to an extension or when the call is routed off-site. Calls answered by voice mail are counted as Overflowed Out. The source and target queue must have the Timed Overflow option turned on for accurate reports. For example, the source ACD queue has the option turned off and the target ACD queue has the option turned on. When an overflowed call is answered by the target queue, that call is pegged as answered for the target queue but not for the source queue, resulting in an inaccurate report.
• TOF: see Timed Overflow In or Timed Overflow Out
• Toll-Free Service: A telephone number that enables callers to reach a call center out of their local calling area without incurring charges. 800, 866, 877, and 888 are toll-free numbers. In some countries, there are also other variations of toll-free service. You have your carrier point the toll free number to ring on specified line. You get a Toll Free Number from your long distance carrier, you pay a per-minute charge to your long distance carrier when the line is used. (Make sure you have the long distance carrier that has low rates and small billing increments.)
• Tour: The time scheduled for an employee to be on duty on any day. It includes relief periods and meal breaks. A tour consists of one or more sessions.
• Transferred Internal DN Calls (IDN): The Transferred IDN number is the sum of all the calls the agent Transferred or Conferenced while on an active Non-ACD call. The number increases when the Transfer or Conference is complete.
• Trended Data File: An historical record of call volume by half-hours used to forecast half-hour volume for tour schedules; file constantly evolves as data is added every week and weighted to favor most recent information.
• Transferred ACD Calls: The Transferred ACD number is the sum of all the calls the agent Transferred or Conferenced while on an active ACD call. The number increases when the Transfer or Conference is complete.
• Trunk: Trunks are the physical links that enable telephone communication. A trunk route carries calls from outside to answering positions in your ACD queue.
• TSF: see Telephone Service Factor