Concepts and Terms

Following are common terminology and features associated with Customer Interaction Center’s Automatic Communication Distribution.

ACD

Automatic Communication Distribution (called an Automatic Call Distributor in more limited systems). A system that intelligently routes interactions (calls, and in Customer Interaction Center’s case, Internet chat sessions, email messages, and other interactions) to available agents. You can configure Customer Interaction Center’s ACD to distribute interactions to agents based on:

• Agent skills

• Agent cost

• Time an agent has been available

• Interaction skill requirement

• Interaction priority level

• Time an interaction has been in an ACD Queue

• Time an interaction has been in CIC

ACD Queue

A container for interactions flagged for ACD processing. Agents are members of the ACD workgroups and manage the interactions as they appear in the ACD Workgroup queue. You can have as many ACD queues as you like. There is no limit to the number of agents who can be members of an ACD queue.

If the Workgroup has Queue box is selected in the Workgroup Configuration page in Interaction Administrator, then you must select a queue type. This queue type determines how ACD Server routes the incoming interaction.

Agent

An agent is someone who receives incoming interactions. Agents have attributes such as skills, costs, and the amount of time since they last answered an interaction. An agent can be a member of any number of ACD queues.

Agent Score Formula

The agent score formula is the configurable formula that calculates an agent’s score. If there are agents available when an interaction arrives in an ACD queue, the agent with the highest score receives that interaction. Agent scores take into account an agent’s skills, cost, amount of time that agent has been available, and other custom attributes you define.

Attributes

Attributes are agent and interaction characteristics such as skills, cost, and priority. An administrator can assign agent attributes in Interaction Administrator. You can also use handlers to assign and modify interaction attributes. Each attribute has an associated weight that determines how that attribute affects the agent or interaction score. With Customer Interaction Center, you can define your own custom agent attributes.

Cost

Cost is an agent attribute. Agent cost can be used in calculating an agent’s score. You can configure your ACD to prefer agents with low cost or high cost. While cost can be an agent’s salary, you can assign a high cost to agent’s that takes longer to determine a solution. It can also be cost to the customer.

Handlers

Handlers are the programs that define how Customer Interaction Center manages interactions. ACD handlers define how interactions are processed before they arrive in an ACD queue and after they leave an ACD queue. Both interaction scores and agent scores are configured and calculated in handlers. You can use Interaction Designer to create and modify handlers.

Interaction Score Formula

The interaction score formula is the configurable formula that ACD Server uses to calculate an interaction’s score. Interaction scores take into account interaction skill requirements, priority, the amount of time an interaction has been in the ACD queue or the CIC system. If there are many interactions waiting and an agent becomes available, a score is calculated for each interaction. The interaction with the highest score goes to that agent.

Interactions

Interactions are telephone calls, chat calls, email messages, social media conversations and direct messages, generic objects, and work items. For purposes of ACD processing, interactions can be assigned priorities and skill requirements. Times are also recorded. Times include both the length of time an interaction waits in an ACD queue and the length of time an interaction has been in the CIC system.

Skills

A skill is an agent attribute, and each agent can have one or more skills. (Agents can also inherit one or more skills when they become a member of a certain workgroup.) Along with each skill is a proficiency level. ACD uses proficiency levels in calculating both agent and interaction scores. Interactions can require minimum proficiency levels for one or more skills. For example, an agent can have a Microsoft Word skill with a proficiency of 50. That agent cannot be assigned to any interactions with a Microsoft Word proficiency requirement greater than 51.

Associated with each skill is a measure of that agent’s desire to use that skill. (This factor can also be the organization’s desire for an agent to use that skill.) This value can also be used to increase an agent’s score, and therefore increase their chance of receiving an interaction that requires that skill.

Weights

Weights are part of both the agent and interaction score formulas. Both formulas contain several elements and a weight associated with each element. Assigning an element a weight of zero means that you do not want that element to impact the score. Assigning an element a positive or negative weight means that you want that element to influence the score.