Common WFM Terms
AHT
An abbreviation of "average handle time": the total amount of time it takes for an agent to handle a call. It is calculated by taking the total amount of talk time, hold time, and wrap time (also known as after call time or ACW time).
ASA
An abbreviation of average speed of answer. Indicates the amount of time, on average, it takes for a customer's call to be answered within a particular timeframe.
Example - interval of 2:15 PM
Call 1: 10 seconds to be answered
Call 2: 15 seconds to be answered
Call 3: 18 seconds to be answered
Resulting ASA: 14.3 seconds
If the ASA goal is 20 seconds, all calls were answered within that goal and are considered to be within service level (see service level).
Call Arrival Pattern (also known as a "CAP")
A document that shows the time of day calls arrive within a particular queue. Typically, the document shows the "pattern" in 15 minute blocks of time, referred to as intervals. This is what WFM uses to forecast when calls will arrive, and ultimately, how many agents will be needed for that time of day.
an example of a Call Arrival Pattern
Call Queue
A stage in the life of a call when it has been passed from the IVR to a virtual line. This is where the call would wait until the next agent becomes available to take it.
Example: a call arrives at 2:04 PM to the IVR. The caller selects that they have a Billing question and it is passed onto the Billing Questions queue.
Calls Answered
A term that indicates the amount of calls answered (by an agent) within a particular timeframe.
Calls Arrived
A term that indicates the amount of calls that made it to a phone system. In most cases, it is referring to when a call reached a queue, rather than when it reached the IVR. Should not be used interchangeably with an "offered" call.
Calls Offered
A term that indicates the amount of calls that made it to a phone system, were queued, and were serviced within a particular timeframe.
The difference between Calls Offered and calls arrived is that a call can arrive at 1:30 PM (arrived call) but not be serviced until the next interval, 1:45 PM. In this case, the call would have shown as arrived at the 1:30 PM interval but wouldn't show up in the offered data until the 1:45 PM interval.
It is possible for a call to be both arrived and also offered within the same interval. For this to be true, the call would need to have arrived between 1:30 PM and 1:45, answered by an agent, and disconnected before 1:45 PM.
Hold Time
The amount of time an agent is not interacting with a caller due to placing them on a hold. Typically, there is hold music played to the customer, but the agent's side has been muted. Hold time is a part of average handle time.
HOOPs
An abbreviation of "Hours of Operation": the start and end time that a particular client is open. Typically refers to when their phone systems accept calls for agents, but can also refer to chat/email/back office.
Occupancy
Occupancy refers to the amount of time that agents spend handling customer calls and related activities (like after-call work (ACW) tasks) divided by the amount of time handling calls + the amount of time waiting for calls.
Queue
Usually referring to a phone call queue. A call queue is a business phone system feature that directs inbound callers into a virtual line (queue) based on specific criteria, where they are placed on hold until the an agent to assist them becomes available.
Service Level
Typically expressed as a percentage, this metric measures how many calls were answered in the average speed of answer threshold compared to how many total calls were OFFERED. Sometimes, Service Level is measured as calls answered within threshold / calls answered. WFM will always be referring to the first calculation (calls answered within threshold / calls offered). Can be thought of as "time waiting for an agent after hitting the IVR".
Schedule Adherence
A measurement of how close an employee adheres to their schedule - expressed as a percentage. Essentially, closer the time taken to what was actually scheduled, the better the adherence %.
Example - medium adherence:
Agent A is scheduled to go to break from 09:45 AM - 10:00 AM. Because of a slightly longer call, they are only 5 min late to their break (09:50 AM - 10:05 AM). They would be in adherence from 9:50 to 10:00 AM, and out of adherence from 10:00 AM to 10:05 AM. Another term for this is schedule conformance.
Example - 0% adherence:
Agent A is scheduled to go to break from 09:45 AM - 10:00 AM. Due to taking a long call, they do not take their break until 20 minutes later, from 10:05 AM - 10:20 AM. Unfortunately, this means the agent was not in adherence for the entire period - they did not take their break during the time it was scheduled.
Schedule Fulfillment
Not to be confused with schedule adherence - they are not the same.
A measurement of how many hours were worked vs how many hours were scheduled - expressed as a percentage. It is important to understand what is considered work (could be just phone or could be all work modes - phone + email + chat + back office, etc).
Example: Agent C is scheduled for 8.5 hours, but only works 7.5 (due to a late in, for example). The calculation would simply be 7.5 / 8.5 = ~88%.
Shrinkage
Any amount of time that will reduce your capacity to do work. In most cases, it refers to any off the phones activities like:
- lates
- absences/NCNS/call offs
- break time (and any excess break time)
- lunch time (and any excess lunch time)
- meetings/coachings/trainings
- vacation time, leave of absences, medical leave, etc
Talk Time
The amount of time an agent is interacting with a caller. Talk time is a part of average handle time.
Wrap Time
The amount of time an agent is no longer talking to or on hold with a customer and the call has disconnected. The agent is not considered to be available during this timeframe. Also known as "ACW" or "after call". Wrap time is a part of average handle time.