Call distribution is a call center term that refers to how incoming calls are assigned to agents. It's typically controlled by rules set in the automatic call distributor (ACD). For example, there could be call distribution rules based the number the caller dialed or the number they're calling from. Rules can also be established to route calls to agents with specific skillsets or calls can just be routed to the next available agent.
Large call centers, especially outsourcers, often have complex call distribution rules. They typically serve multiple clients, so calls will be queued by client based on the phone number that was dialed, and then routed only to agents who have been trained to take that client's calls. For flexibility, agents may be trained on multiple clients and so they will have multiple skillsets. These skillsets can be prioritized so that agents will predominately take one client's calls, with excess calls rolling to a secondary group. These are all established as rules in the ACD, or routing engine, that are designed for maximum call distribution effectiveness. A company's workforce management team is normally assigned the responsibility of establishing expected contact volumes that are the basis for these call distribution rules.
The ultimate goal of a call distribution strategy is to route a customer to the agent that can best serve him or her while also providing good queue management. Used proactively, call distribution rules are one more tool a company can use to enhance the customer experience.
NICE CXone is the market leading call center software in use by thousands of customers of all sizes around the world. Our ACD is extremely flexible and will handle the most complex call distribution rules. CXone is a cloud native, unified suite of applications designed to help a company holistically run its call (or contact) center operations. CXone includes:
Omnichannel Routing – routing and interaction management that empowers agents to positively and productively interact with customers in digital and voice channels. These solutions include an automatic call distributor (ACD), interactive voice response (IVR), interaction channel support and proactive outbound dialer.
Workforce Optimization – these solutions include workforce management (WFM), quality management (QM), recording and performance management (PM).
Open Cloud Foundation – enables rapid innovation with an extensible enterprise-grade platform that scales securely, deploys quickly and serves customers of all sizes globally. We guarantee an industry-best 99.99% availability and offer easy customization through RESTful APIs and DEVone developer program.
CXone provides an intelligent, unified suite of applications covering the breadth of contact center management disciplines, simplifying administration and streamlining the user experience.
