ACD and Its Role in Call Centers

Posted by Mike Hussain on March 26th, 2021

ACD stands for advanced call distribution. It is one of the features available in call center solutions. This feature is very important in inbound call centers. In other words, a call center that attends more incoming calls is called an inbound call center. Usually, customer care and support centers or inbound inquiry management team attend the inbound calls.

All automated call distribution rules available in the call center solution can be referred as an ACD. Some of the major automatic call routing rules are listed below:

• Sticky agent
• Skill-based call routing
• Most idle agent call routing
• Longest idle agent-based call routing
• Round robin call routing

These are the major ACDs available in the call center solutions. In some call center solutions, ACD is a separate call routing feature. Depending on the algorithm defined in a specific call center solution, it routes the call to the agent. In a general scenario, it routes the first caller in the queue to the agent that gets available first. 

What is the role of ACD in call centers?

Regardless of the definition of this call routing rule you refer to, its role is the same in all call centers using this feature of the solution. Let’s explore the top roles of this feature in the call centers.

1. Connecting customers to the agents

A call center solution put all customers into one or more call queue if agents are not available to attend the call on an immediate basis. The ACD makes sure as soon as possible the customer gets connected to the agent. Therefore, depending on the predefined criteria of the advanced call distribution rule, the customer of the call center will be connected to the right agent. This is the most basic role of this feature in any call center. In fact, for this reason, only this feature is used. The other benefits and usages of this feature are the extra and value-added benefits.

2. Keeping agents busy

Another role of this feature available in the contact center solutions is to keep all agents busy, so they can register the highest productivity. It makes sure all agents receive the next call once they show their availability to attend the call. It assures if there are enough calls in the call queue, then no agent wastes time waiting to get the next call. As mentioned earlier, to increase productivity and customer delight at the same time, the call center solutions offer multiple advanced call distribution features. Depending on the nature of the campaign and the urgency of issues of the customers, different ACD features can be used.

3. Reducing call waiting time

Usually, customers wait for their turn in the call queue. This time spent by customers in the call queue before getting connected to the agent is called call waiting time. The long call waiting time can frustrate the customers to the level that they may leave the vendor and choose to go to one of the competitors. An effective ACD feature makes sure the call waiting time can be minimized to a possible extent. 

Author Bio

Author works in a company that offers a hosted call center solution, omnichannel call center software, cloud call center solution, VICIDial customization for open source call center solution, and similar solutions related to the call center industry. It also offers custom integrations for call center solutions. 

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