What is an ACD?
In telephony, an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) is a system that distributes incoming calls to specific agents or groups of agents. It is often part of a computer telephony integration (CTI) system.
Routing incoming calls is the task of the ACD system. ACD systems are often found in offices and/or contact centres that handle large volumes of incoming phone calls from callers who have no need to talk to a specific person but who require assistance from any of multiple persons (e.g., customer service representatives) at the earliest opportunity.
ACD (Automated Call Distributor)
Introduction
The ContactWorld ACD (Automatic Call Distributor) provides a facility that manages incoming calls and handles them based on the number called and associated call handling instructions.
The ACD will always route the longest waiting call to the longest waiting ‘Ready’ agent. It is straightforward to set-up skills-based routing regimes and/or integrate CRM databases so the caller CLID can be used to look any information held on the callers' history to create a ranking score that dynamically changes the call routing. (click for more information on ContactWorld CTI).
One strong benefit of the ContactWorld ACD is that the end-user can set-up and make changes to the ACD themselves uses a simple web browser. There is no need to involve expensive system integrators: after a brief training course even non-technical staff can do everything themselves. This means that the contact centre manager can respond to day-to-day changes in the business in minutes. For example, to add a new agent working from home will typically take a couple of minutes to set-up and execute. Even better, you don't have to inform NewVoiceMedia that you are adding (or removing) an agent beforehand.
ContactWorld's ACD can be used to:
- manage the routing of calls to agents. Agents can work from any location (multiple call centres, from home etc)
- route calls only to those agents logged in and ready to respond to a call
- manage the queue length according to the load the agents can handle
- create and manage queue announcements
- implement on-queue music
- play the callers queue position
- manage voluntary queue breakout to allow a caller to escape from a queue at any time
- queue to an allowed call path
- set the time (timeout value) that the ACD queue will ring an agent before trying another agent
- warn (e.g. by SMS or e-mail) or take automated action (route to another ACD) if no agents are logged in to receive calls.
- handle callers who have been on the queue too long
- manage agent audio options for calls (hold, ringing, call whispers)
- manage the overspill of the ACD at peak times
- gather important statistics\agent statistics about the activity on the queue like ACD call connection information; connection failure information when the agent is engaged, does not answer, or is away;
- Voluntary Queue Breakouts; Queue Failure - Max Calls Exceeded, Max Timeout Exceeded, No Agents Logged In, All Queue Breakouts and Failures.
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Although the ACD has an extremely large feature set that is capable of meeting most call centre needs, the capability of the ACD applet can be extended further by placing other applets before or after the ACD to create even more possibilities. ContactWorld has a suite of nearly 40 other applets that can be used to create a call flow that matches the needs of the business and to enhance the caller experience.
The Call Plan Architect is used to create more complex call flows. The Call Plan Architect is made up of a series of modules that can use the vast range of CTI capabilities (applets) to queue calls in an ACD (as described above), to make announcements, route calls according to the time of day, callers CLID, geographic region, to collect information using the IVR capability, take messages, send SMS and e-mails. The Call Plan Architect is used to design call flows using these applets to create an enjoyable and efficient caller experience.
Where first line agents are not available, callers are transferred to the Take message applet where a message from the caller can be collected and then e-mailed to agents. Alternative applications can route a call to an IVR that can be used to collect caller data.
Features
- Geographic and non-geographic numbers
- Call treatment scheduler
- Recorded announcements
- Tone IVR menu
- Intelligent call router
- Voice messaging
- Voice IVR Menu (can be used as automatic operator)
- CLID Router - calls treated according to dialling code or predefined list)
- Call Recording (voice+call data+CRM data APIs)
- Web Based Power Dialler
- Mobile Caller Interactions (SMS, vCard, Images)
- Percentage Based Routing
- Repeat Caller Treatments
- Post Code Recognition
- Location Based Services
- PSTN or VOIP Call Delivery
- Custom Built Routing Applications
- Custom Built IVR Applications
- Custom Built Speech Applications