Learning the Lingo of the Call Centers in the Philippines!

Every Call Center in the Philippines has their own lingo and jargon. Needless to say, if a Filipino call center agent is talking to you, you might not be able to understand him. Here is a list of the most common used call center lingo in the Philippines:



* Graveyard shift is work schedule from 10 pm until 6 am.



* Night Diff (night differential) is a benefit payment per hour worked in the graveyard shift.



* Queuing is when calls are waiting to be answered. When an agent hangs up, another call comes in. this is a usual cause of stress.



* TSR or tech support (technical support representative) helps in troubleshooting with telephone, cable and internet products and services attempting to resolve problems over the phone to prevent unnecessary service calls.



* CSR (customer service representative) or “agent” interacts with customers to provide information in response to inquiries about the products or services and to handle and resolve complaints.



* High avail (agents available) is a time where there are not too many calls coming in.



* Dress down or casual day is an American business custom which is adapted by call centers where employees enjoy a semi-reprieve from constrictions of a formal dress code.



* Floorwalkers, formally called floor support, are representatives that “walk the floor,” assisting other representatives in case of inquiries, “sup calls” (callers that demand a supervisor) and overbreaks or long handle time.



* Stations are cubicles or computer units that the representatives work on.



* Sup/TL for a supervisor or possibly a team lead, who is in charge of measurements and work, and act as a direct superior to agents.



* Team is a unit in the Production Floor where agents work together to come up with team scores and performance metrics.



* Floor is the production area (sea of cubicles) where calls are received.



* ATT is the mean conversation time, otherwise referred to as Average Talk Time.



* AHT is the mean dealing time, otherwise referred to as Average Handling Time.



* Service Level is the percentage of calls answered within a determined time frame.



* CPH/IPH is the number of calls/inquiries per hour an agent handles.



* ACW/NR is the amount of time spent while not speaking to a customer requests while not speaking to a customer.



* FCR is the percentage of calls which is completely resolve the customer’s issue (if the customer does not call back about the same problem for a certain period of time, it is considered a successful resolution or FCR – first call resolution).



* Calls Abandoned is the percentage of calls where a customer hangs up the call.



* Idle Time is the percentage of time agents spend because they are not yet ready to take calls.



This may be just a complete nonsense list for some but for those who are interested in trying their luck in the call centers in the Philippines, this is list is their lifeline. The Philippine call centers have slowly crawled into the American culture as Filipinos slowly embracing the change.