Glossary
Outbound Dialer & Contact Center Glossary
Clear, plain-English definitions of the terms outbound teams, BPOs, collections, and telecom resellers use every day — from dialing modes and routing to telephony, channels, AI, compliance and the metrics.
Quick answer
This glossary defines the core outbound calling and contact center terms — the four dialing modes (preview, progressive, power, predictive), answering machine detection (AMD), routing and queueing (ACD, IVR, skills-based routing), telephony (SIP trunks, BYOC, DIDs, caller ID, STIR/SHAKEN, MOS), channels (omnichannel, WhatsApp Business API), AI (voice agents, agent assist, speech analytics), compliance (DNC, consent management), platform models (multi-tenant, white-label, BPO), and the metrics that matter (contact, connect, answer and abandon rates, service level, ASA, AHT, occupancy, FCR, CSAT, NPS, RPC) — with a deeper explainer for each.
Abandon Rate
The share of connected calls dropped with no agent available — a key predictive-dialing and compliance metric.
Read definition →ACD (Automatic Call Distribution)
The system that queues inbound calls and hands each one to an available agent.
Read definition →After-Call Work (ACW)
The wrap-up tasks agents complete after a call — notes, dispositions, and follow-ups.
Read definition →Agent Assist
Live support for a human agent: building summary, sentiment and suggestions.
Read definition →Agent Occupancy
The share of logged-in time agents spend actively handling work vs waiting.
Read definition →AI Receptionist
An AI that answers a business's calls, answers questions, books appointments and hands callers to staff.
Read definition →AI Voice Agent
Software that holds a spoken conversation with a caller inside configured limits.
Read definition →Answer Rate
The share of dialed calls that get answered, driven heavily by caller-ID reputation and timing.
Read definition →Answering Machine Detection (AMD)
How AMD detects voicemail vs live humans — and why transcript-based AI beats legacy beep detection.
Read definition →Auto Dialer
The umbrella term for systems that dial automatically — preview, progressive, power, and predictive.
Read definition →Average Handle Time (AHT)
Talk + hold + after-call work per interaction — the core agent-efficiency metric.
Read definition →Average Speed of Answer (ASA)
The mean queue wait before an agent answers, and why the average hides the tail.
Read definition →Barge, Whisper and Listen
The three levels of supervisor intervention on a call that is already happening.
Read definition →BPO Contact Center
Running contact operations for client companies, and what that demands of a platform.
Read definition →BYOC (Bring Your Own Carrier)
Connecting your own SIP trunks to a platform instead of using bundled telephony.
Read definition →Call Center Shrinkage
The share of paid, scheduled agent time in which agents are not available to handle contacts: breaks, training, leave, absence and downtime.
Read definition →Call Disposition
The coded outcome recorded at the end of a contact, and everything that reads it.
Read definition →Callback Scheduling
Booking a return call at an agreed time instead of holding the customer in a queue.
Read definition →Caller ID (CLI) and Local Presence
The number a recipient sees, and how local-presence selection picks it at dial time.
Read definition →CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service)
Contact center software a vendor hosts in the cloud and rents per agent per month: queues, dialers, channels, recording and reporting, with no hardware to run.
Read definition →Connect Rate
The share of dial attempts that result in a connected call, and how it differs from contact rate.
Read definition →Consent Management
Recording, checking and revoking permission to contact, by channel and purpose.
Read definition →Contact Rate
The share of dialed records where you reach the intended live party — and how to improve it.
Read definition →Conversational AI
Software that understands people speaking or typing in their own words, replies naturally and completes tasks within limits the business sets.
Read definition →CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score)
The share of survey respondents who rate one interaction as satisfactory.
Read definition →DID (Direct Inward Dialing)
A number that routes straight to a queue, a user, an IVR flow or a campaign.
Read definition →Do Not Call (DNC) List
Registries and internal lists of numbers that must be suppressed before dialing.
Read definition →First Call Resolution (FCR)
The share of contacts fully resolved on the first interaction, with no repeat contact.
Read definition →IVR (Interactive Voice Response)
Automated voice menus that route callers or provide self-service.
Read definition →MOS (Mean Opinion Score)
Call audio quality rated 1 to 5, estimated from packet loss, jitter and latency.
Read definition →Multi-Tenant Architecture
One platform instance serving many customers with isolation enforced by the system.
Read definition →NPS (Net Promoter Score)
Promoters minus detractors on the zero-to-ten recommendation question.
Read definition →Omnichannel vs Multichannel
Several channels, or one conversation across them: the difference that matters.
Read definition →Power Dialer
An auto dialer that dials a fixed ratio of lines per agent for higher throughput.
Read definition →Predictive Dialer
An auto dialer that dials multiple numbers using real-time pacing algorithms.
Read definition →Preview Dialer
An auto dialer that lets agents review the contact before each call — full control.
Read definition →Progressive Dialer
An auto dialer that places one call per available agent — near-zero abandonment.
Read definition →Right Party Contact (RPC)
Reaching and verifying the intended person — critical for collections effectiveness.
Read definition →Service Level (SL) and SLA
The share of contacts answered inside a target time, and the contract built on it.
Read definition →SIP Trunk
A virtual voice connection over the internet between a phone system and a carrier.
Read definition →Skills-Based Routing
Matching a call to an agent by language, product or qualification rather than by turn.
Read definition →Speech Analytics
Turning transcripts into searchable data: summaries, sentiment, keywords and flags.
Read definition →STIR/SHAKEN
The caller-identity framework where carriers attest to the number presented.
Read definition →UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service)
Cloud business phone, video meetings and team chat for every employee, and how it differs from CCaaS and CPaaS.
Read definition →Virtual Receptionist
A remote human receptionist, usually from an answering company, who answers a business's calls under its name.
Read definition →Wallboard
The live floor display showing the few numbers that drive action right now.
Read definition →Warm Transfer
A call transfer where the agent briefs the person taking the call before connecting the caller, so the caller never repeats their story.
Read definition →WebRTC Softphone
The agent phone running in a browser tab, with no desk phone and nothing to install.
Read definition →WhatsApp Business API
The interface that lets a platform send and receive WhatsApp at contact-centre scale.
Read definition →White-Label Contact Center Platform
A platform resold under a partner's own brand, domain and login page.
Read definition →See these concepts in a live product
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