- Average Handle Time (AHT)
- The average duration of a customer interaction from greeting to wrap-up, including hold time and after-call work — a primary call center efficiency metric.
- Service Level Agreement (SLA)
- A contractual commitment between a call center and its client or internal stakeholder specifying minimum response time, quality, and availability thresholds.
- FLSA Exempt Classification
- A US designation under the Fair Labor Standards Act indicating that an employee meets salary and duties tests to be excluded from overtime pay requirements — applicable to most director-level roles.
- Workforce Management (WFM)
- The process of forecasting call volume, scheduling agents, and managing intra-day staffing to meet service level targets at minimum cost.
- First Call Resolution (FCR)
- The percentage of customer issues resolved on the first contact without a follow-up call or escalation — a primary quality metric for call center operations.
- Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
- A survey-based metric measuring customer satisfaction with a specific interaction, typically scored on a 1–5 or 1–10 scale.
- Attrition Rate
- The percentage of agents who leave the call center in a given period, calculated as departures divided by average headcount — a key indicator of workforce stability.
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
- A loyalty metric derived from asking customers how likely they are to recommend the company, scored from -100 to +100.
- Escalation Management
- The process by which calls or cases beyond a front-line agent's authority are routed to a supervisor or director for resolution.
- Quality Assurance (QA) Calibration
- A structured process where call center evaluators score the same interaction to align scoring standards, ensuring consistent quality measurement across the team.
- Omnichannel Operations
- A contact center model supporting customer interactions across voice, chat, email, social media, and SMS within a unified routing and reporting platform.