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Glossary

Below you can find explanations of key terms.

A

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)

Is the distribution of a company’s incoming calls to qualified staff called agents. Distribution depends on the criteria involved – for example, subject, specialist knowledge of the agent and their availability. 

Anytime Telephone Conference

When booking a (Anytime) Telephone conference, a virtual conference room is at your disposal round the clock. The Login Data (dial-in number, moderator and participant code) are assigned and can be used repeatedly around the clock.

B

Barge-in

Callers can choose their desired function via voice dialog during the telephone announcement. 

C

Call-back

Customers activate a callback function on a homepage via mouse click and get a service call back within a short time. The callback function is part of the Virtual Communications Center. 

Call by Call Preselection

Call by Call Preselection lets you choose which individual calls or call types (e.g. all German numbers) should be made via our network.

Call Center

Telephone services to your customers. The call center agents use special dialog guides to provide information and assistance on the products and services of your company, provide support to a lottery hotline etc. (inbound). At the same time, a call center can also be used for telephone surveys and telemarketing (outbound) or order taking and processing (fulfillment). 

Call Contact Management 

Network-based call center services based on service numbers. Your customers get a quick and personalized telephone service through the Call Management Module. Benefits to your company: the best use of personnel capacity, higher availability and lower costs. 

Carrier Preselection

Carrier Preselection enables all outgoing calls to be carried out automatically via our network, as opposed to Call by Call Preselection. Our network ID is programmed into the telecom switching computer of your existing provider to achieve this.

Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)

Connect your phone and PC. When someone calls, all the relevant customer details are immediately displayed on the PC screen. At the same time, you can make phone calls directly from your PC application. CTI organizes caller traffic using numbers (routing) and, thus, speeds up communication between the agent and customer. 

Contact Net Detector (CND)

Provides reliable caller identification and improved caller routing: the intelligent network of our partner, Telekom Deutschland GmbH, recognizes the caller using the telephone number and connects it to the right agent using predefined routing criteria. Your agents are supplied with all the important customer data as soon as the phone rings through computer telephony integration (CTI). 

Contact Net Router (CNR)

Combine your different locations into a single virtual communications center. 

CRM

Stands for customer relationship management. The goal of customer relationship management is to focus more on a customer’s needs, thus achieving higher customer loyalty and sales per customer. 

D

Destination Number

A number in the telephone network (landline/mobile network) to which a service number is forwarded.

Dial In

Participants dial in to the conference at an agreed time (Dial In), and validate their presence using the access codes they have been given. The initiator (usually the administrator) determines whether the participants are charged or if he accepts all the charges (free call service). The total cost is borne by the customer.

As the access code for the dial out conference call can only be used once, the dial in conference call has a higher safety standard than the Anytime Telephone Conference Call.

NOTE: Mixed conferences are possible. During a dial in conference call, additional participants can be connected via dial out.

Dial Out

When a (Dial Out) Conference Call is booked, the participants that are on the customer’s (moderator’s) list are connected. All participants are called at the desired time. The moderator is then notified whether participants are missing or cannot be reached. Participants whose phone is busy can be incorporated later into the meeting, at their request. The total costs are borne by the customer.

DTMF/Touch-Tone

Every key on your phone has a different acoustic tone and frequency. Using these tones, customers can navigate through the voice menu. Button tones are an alternative to dialog via voice recognition. 

E

E-Learning

Electronically supported learning, via PC or Internet. 

Event Conference

This is the optimal solution for major events, such as press conferences, dialogue events or analyst conferences. Instead of organizing a location, technicians and catering for an event, customers can hold a telephone conference with several hundred participants. The conference team is happy to help you with administration and organization and there will be an operator available the whole time to moderate the conference. The moderation of the conference call can also be held in English. The customer gives the operator a list of the participants before the conference starts. He or she greets all the participants who have dialed in and connects them to the conference. The participants are on mute (listening mode) during the conference, but they have the ability to register questions via the DTMF control *1. The participants are able to engage in direct dialog with the speaker with a question and answer session. The conference may be recorded if desired. The total cost is borne by the customer. 

E-Mail Distribution

Similar to the intelligent call routing based on the telephone numbers of identified callers: previously defined destination addresses, for example info@... or service@... are routed selectively. Even individual words in the email (word spotting) can be used for preselection, which also allows auto-generated responses to the most common customer queries made.

F

Features

Performance criteria, usage criteria or characteristics of a product.

Freecall-Nummern

Free Call numbers usually start with the area code (prefix) 0800 (national), a country-specific code (international), 00800 (universal) and are free of charge for the caller. The main purpose of this call type is mostly for the support of existing customers. This gives your customers the opportunity to use free services.

I

Instant Conference

It is possible to use the Instant Conference service on 0820 951 000 (20 cents / min. from Austrian fixed-line and mobile networks) without registration or reservation to conduct spontaneous meetings by phone quickly and easily with participants from different locations. This means that a conference with as many as 50 participants may be started at any time. The moderator sets a six-digit PIN and sends it along with dial-in number for all the people involved. At the agreed time, participants can dial in to the conference. Each participant has to pay his or her own connection fees. These will be charged to the participant’s telephone bill – without minimum charge or base fee.

Intelligent Network

A network architecture concept that enables the highest performance, security and maximum speed in the Telekom Deutschland GmbH network. The intelligent network transmits a predetermined routing destination to the base network, when a service number is called. This technology forms the basis of all call management products. 

Intelligent Direct Dialing (IDD)

With intelligent dialing you can make your free call national and shared cost national service numbers more customer-friendly. It offers efficient customer communication through the combination of a service number and a direct connection to the contact partner. You benefit from a completely free choice of destination with intelligent direct dialing. You simply add a reference list of extensions with the associated destination number, to your service number. As soon as your customer calls your (extended) service number, your reference list with the entire destination numbers in the intelligent network is searched and the call is routed across different locations. The extension can be made up of a maximum of five digits. Extensions can also be mobile numbers in national and international networks, in addition to the digital and analog telephones of your employees.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

Simple voice navigation for telephones, also called “single-word recognition”. The caller navigates through the menu by using voice commands, and can even select his or her desired destination during the announcements (barge in). For example “ To buy a product, please say ‘Sales’, if you are having problems with a product, please say ‘Service’...” IVR is often used as a term for any kind of telephone navigation. 

O

One Click Access

This app is a utility that is linked as a shortcut on the desktop PC. Once the conference access data is installed, you can access your personal conference portal via mouse click. Here, you can book, change, supervise, control and delete the individual conferences simply with a double mouse click. 

One Time Conference

The conference without appointment option provides a virtual conference room for one-time use. The access data (dial-in number, moderator and codes for participants) can be used only once.

Outbound Net Connector (ONC)

ONC is a predictive dialer in the intelligent network which automatically dials phone lists on demand for call center agents. Advantages for the provider include: basic information can be used optimally for the preselection of customer contacts. Better and faster service. Optimum utilization of manpower. The highest possible reliability of Telekom Deutschland’s intelligent network.

Outbound Campaigns

During an outbound campaign your call center agents call potential and existing customers -- for instance, during a telemarketing campaign. You or the call center contractor plans to sell products. Other uses include gathering statistical data, identifying needs (pre-sale), questions about customer satisfaction (after-sale), activating contacts, address updates. Agencies that work with minimal technical requirements are not call centers in that sense.

P

Premium Rate

Premium rate numbers are usually given different area codes (prefix), depending on where they are located. However, they mostly start with 0900. This type of number usually means that your customers pay the minute-by-minute fees and you are then compensated per minute generated. These type of service numbers are generally given to paid services that are provided over the phone.

Predictive Dialing/Predictive Mode

Determining the likely availability of an agent for outbound campaigns. Unreachable contacts (answering machine, “busy”, “no answer”) are filtered. This allows more calls to be accepted than there are free agents available, as only actual contacts that have been made are put through.

Preselection

Determining the reason for the call , e.g. by voice dialog platform and subsequent forwarding through to the specific agent group. Alternatively, the Contact Net Detector and the virtual communication center can do this automatically just by reading the caller’s number and without voice dialog.

R

Reporting

Statistics on usage, duration, distribution and other pre-defined parameters provide a concise review of usage and availability of your Service Number. 

Routing

Targeted distribution or forwarding of contacts to different agents, employees or other Communication Center services:

  • Data-based routing: uses stored customer data
  • Customer relationship-orientated routing: forwards to last contact person
  • Load distributed routing: uses the capacity of all sites and agents efficiently by distributing the contact volume
  • Media neutral routing: treats contacts via voice, email and the internet on equal footing
  • Service level routing: operates according to the service-level hierarchy
  • Skill-based routing: routes to specialized agents

Routing Strategy

Rules, criteria and targets according to which your customers should be routed. 

S

Service Numbers

A number with a special prefix (e.g. 0800) that is not localized and provides extensive control and reporting options, as it is provided by the intelligent network. 

Shared Cost Numbers

Shared cost numbers start with different area codes depending on the country (prefix) -- for example in Germany 0180, Austria 0180/0820 and in Switzerland for 0848. Using these types of service numbers means that the company and its customers share the costs of the call. This type of number is usually used in ticket or product ordering. A shared cost number is a sign of customer-friendly service.

Skills

The skills and qualifications of the communication center agents, such as language skills or specialized product knowledge, authorization for certain acts or availability.

Skill group

A group of individuals with similar skills selected for appropriate enquiries at the call center.

T

Telephone & Web Conference

All participants around the world can dial into a virtual conference room, via their telephone, and can talk in real time with their business partners and colleagues using telephone and web conferences. Our portfolio encompasses telephone, web, event and instant conferences. You can choose which option to book from the conference portal. A telephone conference call means that the moderator can either use an access code to dial himself or herself and the other participants in (dial in), or he or she can choose them to be called (dial out). For regular meetings, a conference room can be booked which is available continuously (Anytime) and which is paid for only by actual use. Virtual meetings will be even more efficient with web conferencing. During a web meeting, you can edit documents with the other participants in real time and all over the world, while in a telephone conference. The web presentation allows you to upload a power point presentation and present it to all participants during a telephone conference. The event conference is a professionally moderated conference with up to 4,000 participants. The participants may use DTMF control (*1) to register questions and also start a dialog with the speaker. All conferences can be dialed into from anywhere in the world with the assigned access code. The telephone and web conferencing product is aimed at business customers which have decentralized organizational structures and a serious need for coordination with other business partners.

Trafic Management Program

A routing schedule in the intelligent network which is defined when setting up your service number. There is a primary and three back-up replacement destinations that can be set up in case one is ‘busy’ or ‘unavailable’. If the primary destination is unavailable, then the call will be forwarded to the other destinations in their previously determined order. Contact Routing Solutions modules can be integrated anywhere in the traffic management program.

V

Voice Dialog Platform

Interactive IT system with voice recognition algorithms and decision logic controlled by voice command (see Interactive Voice Response, Voice Recognition and DTMF).

Voice Recognition

This technology allows human speech to be used as a control for telephone menu systems.  

VoIP (Voice over IP)

Internal calls within your company are made digitally, across locations and cost effectively via the Internet with this technology.

Voice-Web-Portal

Voice Web Portal is a voice response platform in the intelligent network (IN) providing automated voice self service configuration. The plus side for the provider: basic information is used optimally for preselecting customer contacts, better and faster service, optimal use of staff capacities, and highest possible reliability thanks to the intelligent network.

W

Web Interface

Interface for web-based activities, such as the Automatic Call Distribution. Agents can log in and log out within the browser via mouse click. Team leaders and/or administrators check and modify the process via their own interface directly in the web browser (see Automatic Call Distribution). 

Webmeeting

With the web meeting, customers have the opportunity to work on documents together in real time. The participants will be sent a link with which they can join the web meeting using the access code, parallel to a telephone conference. Using Application Sharing, the moderator and the participants can both show their screens and work on tables, graphs, presentations, etc. together. Eight webcams can be integrated to the web meeting. There is a chat function and files can be exchanged. Furthermore, participants can visualize files using a whiteboard. Moods and opinions can be determined directly with the ad-hoc survey.

The web meeting can only be carried out in combination with a conference call.

Webinar

The webinar makes it possible to adapt seminars, e-learning or product presentations to the exact requirements of the customer. An intuitive user interface and simple operation method help the presenter and his guests to participate successfully in an online seminar. In addition, the webinar provides participants the opportunity to give their feedback directly and, thus, help in conducting the virtual seminar actively. Participants simply register for one of the webinars on the customer’s website and will receive the login details by e-mail. They can use these details to dial in before the seminar begins. The webinar can either grant public access, or just to a select group. During ongoing webinars, text messages can be sent via the chat function. As an additional option, a conference recording is available.

The webinar is a pay-per-use product, without a contract and no monthly fees.