Glossary

Click on a letter to browse the terms associated with it.

ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTUVWXZ

Sample	The number and/or identification of respondents in the population who will be or have been included in the survey.
Sample Frame	A listing that should include all those in the population to be sampled and exclude all those who are not in the population.
Schedule	A record that specifies when an employee is supposed be on duty to handle contacts. The complete definition of a schedule is the days of week worked, start time, break times and durations (as well as paid/unpaid status), and stop time.
Schedule Exception	Any activity not planned in an employee's work schedule, including meetings, training sessions, unscheduled breaks, absenteeism.
Schedule Adherence	A key agent metric used to measure an agents overall compliance with scheduled work activities.
Scheduled Callback	A redial established for a specific time in the future.
Screen Monitoring	An automated monitoring system capability that allows a supervisor/manager to simultaneously see an agent's screen activity.
Screen Pop	Any technology, including IVR, ANI, or CTI, that presents corresponding data on the computer screen simultaneously with the incoming call.
Script	The written words and logic to be followed in the handling of a contact that will assist the agent in maintaining focus on the content of the contact
Service Level Objective (SLO)	A metric designed to measure the speed in which calls are answered. SLO formula: (Calls answered in less that X seconds) divided by (offered calls) times 100.
Service Quality	measure of how well a call is handled, including such measures as consistency and friendliness of greeting, and ability to handle call to completion.
Silent Monitoring	A process that permits a supervisor to listen to both sides of a conversation including an agent and a caller. Used for determining training needs and performance quality. Neither agent nor caller is aware that the monitoring is taking place.
Skills-Based Routing	A method of routing calls in which the call is routed to the person best able to meet that caller's needs, rather than simply routing to the first available or longest idle agent.
SMDI	Simplified Message Desk Interface. Analog data line from the central office containing information and instructions to your on-premise voice mail box. A required interface for voice mail systems used with Cisco CallManager. SMDI was designed to enable voice mail integration services to multiple clients. However, to use SMDI, the voice mail system must meet several qualifications, including providing database support for two PBX systems simultaneously and IP network connectivity to the voice messaging system while maintaining the existing link to the PBX. SMDI-compliant voice mail systems must be accessible with a null-modem RS-232 cable and available serial port. See also POTS.
Soft Data	Information or data (such as opinions and attitudes) not based on numbers such as revenue, units sold, costs, etc.
Softphone	Application that enables you to use a desktop PC to place and receive software telephone calls and control an IP telephone. Also allows for audio, video, and desktop collaboration with multiple parties on a call. Cisco IP SoftPhone can be used as a standalone application or as a computer telephone integration (CTI) control device for a physical Cisco IP Phone. All features are functional in both modes of operations. See also Cisco IP Phone.
Speech Recognition	The capability of a voice processing system to recognize and translate human voice signals into digital signals a computer system can understand. Includes both speaker dependent and speaker independent systems, and may work through discrete syllable recognition (most basic) or continuous speech recognition (most advanced).
Split	An ACD routing division that allows calls arriving on specific trunks or calls of certain transaction types to be answered by specific groups of employees. (Also referred to as gate or group).
SS7	Signaling System 7. A telephone signaling system with three basic functions: supervising (monitoring the status of a line or circuit to see if it is busy, idle, or requesting service); alerting (indicating the arrival of an incoming call); addressing (transmission of routing and destination signals over the network.)
Standard Deviation	The standard deviation is a measure of the dispersion, or variability, of the data. In essence this is the average distance of any data point in the distribution from the arithmetic average.
Statistical Significance	An explicit assumption by the analyst that a relationship revealed in the sample data also exists in the population as a whole, based on the relatively small probability that it would result only from sampling error if it did not exist in the population.
Supervisor	Usually, the person who has first-line responsibility for the management of a group of agents. Often has a special telephone or computer terminal for monitoring agents and the system performance.
Survey Cycle Time	The period during which the survey is conducted. It includes the data collection period plus report generation time.