BPO Glossary & Vocabulary
Browse our comprehensive index of BPO metrics, compliance standards, and operational terms to align your service targets.
AHT (Average Handle Time)
The average duration of a customer support call or chat session, including hold times and administrative work.
View Definition →AI Triage
Using AI to automatically classify, prioritize, and route an incoming call, chat, or ticket to the right queue or agent before a human ever looks at it.
View Definition →API Integration
Connecting two software systems — such as a client's CRM and a BPO partner's ticketing platform — so they can exchange data programmatically instead of requiring manual re-entry.
View Definition →ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue)
Monthly Recurring Revenue annualized (MRR × 12), used as the standard growth benchmark for subscription and contract-based businesses.
View Definition →Accounts Payable (AP)
The back-office function that processes and pays a company's outstanding invoices to its vendors and suppliers.
View Definition →Accounts Receivable (AR)
The back-office function that tracks and collects payments owed to a company by its customers.
View Definition →Address Verification
Confirming that a customer's stated residential or business address is accurate and current, often through document checks or third-party database lookups.
View Definition →Agent Copilot
An AI assistant that suggests responses, relevant knowledge-base articles, or next-best-actions to a human agent in real time during a live interaction, without replacing the agent.
View Definition →Analytics Engine
The backend system that processes raw operational data — call events, ticket logs, agent activity — into the metrics and trends shown on dashboards and reports.
View Definition →Answer Rate
The percentage of outbound calls that are answered by anyone (not necessarily the target contact), out of total dial attempts.
View Definition →Attrition
The rate at which agents leave a team or company over a given period, usually reported monthly or annually.
View Definition →Audit Trail
A chronological, tamper-evident record of who accessed or modified a piece of data or a system, and when.
View Definition →Automated Transcription
Software that converts call audio into searchable text automatically, without a human transcriber.
View Definition →B2B Lead Generation
The overall function of identifying and engaging potential business customers to build a sales pipeline, distinct from the SDR role that typically executes it.
View Definition →B2C Support (Business-to-Consumer)
Customer support delivered directly to individual end consumers, as opposed to B2B support delivered to business accounts.
View Definition →BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline)
A lead qualification framework that scores a prospect on their Budget, decision-making Authority, business Need, and purchase Timeline before passing them to sales.
View Definition →BI Portal (Business Intelligence Portal)
A self-service reporting portal that gives a client direct access to pull and customize their own reports across the engagement, rather than waiting on scheduled deliverables.
View Definition →BPO (Business Process Outsourcing)
Outsourcing routine operations (like customer support, data entry, or sales) to a specialized partner.
View Definition →Back-Office Support
Administrative and operational work that supports the business but doesn't involve direct customer interaction — data entry, document processing, reconciliation, reporting.
View Definition →Billing Support
Customer support focused on resolving invoice questions, payment failures, plan changes, and billing disputes.
View Definition →Booking Support
Customer support specific to travel, hospitality, or reservation-based businesses — handling new bookings, changes, and cancellations.
View Definition →CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
The total sales and marketing cost divided by the number of new customers acquired in a given period.
View Definition →CAPA (Corrective and Preventive Action)
A structured process for investigating a quality or compliance failure, fixing the immediate issue (corrective), and changing the process so it doesn't recur (preventive).
View Definition →CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
Software databases used to manage client contacts, interaction logs, and pipeline details.
View Definition →CRM Routing
Rules-based automatic assignment of leads or tickets within a CRM to the right rep or queue, based on criteria like territory, product line, or lead score.
View Definition →CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score)
A primary service metric measuring how satisfied customers are with a specific transaction, support interaction, or product purchase.
View Definition →Call Distribution (ACD)
The automatic routing of inbound calls to the next available or best-matched agent, based on rules like skill, language, or queue priority.
View Definition →Call Recording
The practice of recording customer calls for quality assurance, compliance evidence, and agent training purposes.
View Definition →Cart Abandonment
When an online shopper adds items to a cart but leaves the site without completing checkout.
View Definition →Chatbot Triage
A chatbot handling the first stage of a chat conversation — gathering context and resolving simple requests — before handing off to a human agent only when needed.
View Definition →Churn (Customer/Revenue Churn)
The rate at which customers cancel or fail to renew a contract within a given period, usually expressed as a monthly or annual percentage.
View Definition →Claims Processing
The end-to-end handling of an insurance claim, from initial submission and document verification through adjudication and payout.
View Definition →Clean Desk Policy
A workplace security policy prohibiting agents from writing down, printing, or physically storing sensitive customer data at their workstation.
View Definition →Collections Support
Outreach focused on recovering overdue payments from customers while preserving the relationship, distinct from aggressive third-party debt collection.
View Definition →Concierge Support
A high-touch, white-glove support model where a customer works with a dedicated point of contact rather than a rotating queue of agents.
View Definition →Contact Rate
The percentage of outbound dial attempts that result in an actual live conversation with the intended prospect, rather than a voicemail, no-answer, or wrong number.
View Definition →Continuous Optimization
The ongoing practice of using performance data from daily, weekly, and monthly reviews to make incremental process improvements, rather than treating a program as "set and forget" after launch.
View Definition →Conversion Rate
The percentage of prospects or leads that complete a desired action — booking a meeting, making a purchase — out of the total number contacted.
View Definition →Daily Reporting
A short, recurring end-of-day summary of volume, SLA status, and any flagged issues, shared with a client's operational stakeholders.
View Definition →Dashboard
A live visual display of key operational metrics — SLA status, volume, AHT, CSAT — used for at-a-glance monitoring of a program's performance.
View Definition →Data Privacy
The set of practices governing how personal or sensitive information is collected, accessed, used, and protected from unauthorized disclosure.
View Definition →Database Management
The ongoing work of entering, updating, cleaning, and maintaining accuracy in a company's core operational or customer database.
View Definition →Deduplication
The process of identifying and merging duplicate records in a database or CRM so the same contact or company isn't tracked as multiple separate entries.
View Definition →Dialer
Outbound calling software that automates the process of placing calls from a contact list, ranging from simple preview dialers to advanced predictive dialers.
View Definition →Data Enrichment
The process of appending missing details — company size, industry, verified contact info — to a raw lead or contact record from third-party data sources.
View Definition →Escalation
The formal process of routing a customer issue to a higher support tier, specialist, or manager when it cannot be resolved at the current level.
View Definition →FCR (First Contact Resolution)
The percentage of customer support requests resolved on the very first contact, without follow-ups.
View Definition →FTE (Full-Time Equivalent)
A standardized unit representing one full-time worker's hours, used as the billing and staffing unit in most BPO service contracts.
View Definition →First Response Time (FRT)
The elapsed time between a customer submitting a support request and receiving their first reply from an agent.
View Definition →GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
The European Union's data protection law governing how personal data of EU residents is collected, processed, and stored.
View Definition →HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
A US federal law setting security and privacy standards for handling protected health information (PHI).
View Definition →Helpdesk
A centralized support function that logs, tracks, and resolves customer or employee technical issues through a ticketing system.
View Definition →ISO 27001
An international standard specifying the requirements for an organization's Information Security Management System (ISMS).
View Definition →IVR (Interactive Voice Response)
An automated phone system that routes callers to the right department or self-service option using voice or keypad input before a human agent is involved.
View Definition →Identity Validation
Confirming that a person is who they claim to be, typically by matching submitted ID documents, biometrics, or database records against the applicant.
View Definition →Invoice Matching
The process of verifying that an invoice, purchase order, and delivery receipt all agree before an invoice is approved for payment.
View Definition →KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing)
Outsourcing complex, information-heavy business tasks (such as credit analysis, research, or auditing).
View Definition →KYC (Know Your Customer)
A mandatory verification process to verify the identity and address credentials of customers.
View Definition →L1 Support (Tier 1 Support)
The first line of technical or customer support, handling common, well-documented issues using standard scripts and troubleshooting guides.
View Definition →L2 Support (Tier 2 Support)
The escalation tier handling issues L1 agents cannot resolve, staffed by specialists with deeper product or technical knowledge.
View Definition →LTV (Customer Lifetime Value)
The total revenue a business can expect from a single customer account over the full duration of the relationship.
View Definition →Lead Scoring
A method of ranking prospects by assigning point values to attributes and behaviors (job title, company size, website activity) to predict how likely they are to convert.
View Definition →MBR (Monthly Business Review)
A recurring monthly meeting between a BPO partner and client to review SLA performance, volume trends, and open issues.
View Definition →MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)
The predictable revenue a subscription business collects every month from active customer contracts.
View Definition →Managed Services
An outsourcing model where the BPO provider owns the process end-to-end — staffing, training, quality control, and reporting — and delivers against agreed outcomes rather than just supplying headcount.
View Definition →Multilingual Support
Customer support delivered across multiple languages, either by hiring language-specific agents or through certified translation-assisted workflows.
View Definition →NCPR (National Customer Preference Register)
India's official do-not-call registry — formerly known as NDNC (National Do Not Call) — that lets consumers block unsolicited commercial calls and SMS by category.
View Definition →NPS (Net Promoter Score)
A metrics index evaluating customer loyalty and their likelihood to recommend a company to others (scored -100 to +100).
View Definition →Nearshoring
Outsourcing business operations to a service provider in a nearby country, typically sharing a similar time zone, rather than a distant offshore location.
View Definition →Occupancy Rate
The percentage of an agent's logged-in time spent actively handling calls or tickets (talk time plus after-call work), excluding idle time between interactions.
View Definition →Offshoring
Outsourcing business operations to a service provider in a distant country, usually to access lower labor costs or specialized talent pools.
View Definition →Omnichannel Support
A support model where voice, chat, email, and social channels are unified into one system so an agent has full context on a customer regardless of which channel they used to reach out.
View Definition →Onboarding (Client Onboarding)
The structured process of setting up a new BPO engagement — training agents, integrating systems, and configuring workflows — before an account goes live.
View Definition →Onshoring
Outsourcing business operations to a service provider located within the same country as the client, as opposed to nearshore or offshore delivery.
View Definition →Outsourcing
Contracting a business function to an external specialized provider instead of performing it with in-house staff.
View Definition →PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard)
A security standard that any business handling credit or debit card transactions must comply with to protect cardholder data.
View Definition →Pilot Phase
A limited-scope, limited-duration trial period at the start of a BPO engagement, used to validate performance before committing to full-volume staffing.
View Definition →Predictive Dialer
Outbound calling software that automatically dials multiple numbers at once and connects an agent only when a live person answers, based on predicted agent availability.
View Definition →Process Automation
Using software to handle repetitive, rules-based tasks — data entry, status updates, routing — without manual human action.
View Definition →QBR (Quarterly Business Review)
A higher-level quarterly meeting between a BPO partner and client leadership focused on strategic trends, capacity planning, and contract-level outcomes rather than day-to-day metrics.
View Definition →Record Verification
The process of confirming that submitted documents or data (identity, income, address) are authentic and accurate before they're used to approve a transaction.
View Definition →Refund Management
The process of evaluating, approving, and processing customer refund requests according to a company's policy.
View Definition →Renewals
The process of securing a customer's continued subscription or contract at the end of a billing or policy term.
View Definition →SDR (Sales Development Representative)
A sales specialist focused on prospecting, outbound cold outreach, and scheduling qualified appointments.
View Definition →SLA (Service Level Agreement)
A contract parameter defining the minimum service metrics a vendor must meet (e.g., first response under 15 minutes).
View Definition →SLA Breach
A failure to meet a contracted service level, such as missing a response-time or resolution-time commitment.
View Definition →SOC 2
An independent audit standard evaluating a service provider's controls around data security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.
View Definition →Scale Phase
The stage of a BPO engagement after a successful pilot, where headcount, hours of coverage, or scope expands to full contracted volume.
View Definition →Sentiment Analysis
AI-driven detection of a customer's emotional tone — positive, negative, or neutral — from the text or audio of a support interaction.
View Definition →Show Rate
The percentage of booked meetings or appointments where the prospect actually attends, out of all meetings scheduled.
View Definition →Shrinkage
The percentage of paid working time lost to breaks, training, meetings, absenteeism, and other non-productive activity — time an agent is scheduled but not actually handling customer work.
View Definition →Staff Augmentation
A staffing model where outsourced personnel work as an extension of a client's existing internal team, under the client's direct process and management, rather than as a fully managed independent function.
View Definition →Steering Committee
The standing group of senior stakeholders from both the client and the BPO partner — not a meeting cadence itself, but the group of decision-makers who own strategic direction for the engagement.
View Definition →TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India)
The Indian government body that regulates telecom services, including the rules governing outbound calling, SMS, and telemarketing registration.
View Definition →Tax Filing Support
Back-office assistance with preparing, organizing, and submitting the documentation needed for regulatory tax filings.
View Definition →Technical Support
Support focused on diagnosing and resolving product or software issues, typically tiered into L1 (common issues) and L2 (specialist) levels.
View Definition →Telemetry
The raw operational event data continuously captured from systems in use — call start/end times, click events, status changes — before it's processed into reportable metrics.
View Definition →Ticketing System
Software that logs every customer or internal support request as a trackable "ticket," recording its status, owner, and history until resolution.
View Definition →Underwriting
The process of evaluating the risk of insuring or lending to an applicant, and setting the terms accordingly.
View Definition →Utilization Rate
The percentage of an agent's total paid time (including breaks and training) that is spent on productive, billable work.
View Definition →VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)
Technology that carries voice calls over the internet instead of traditional phone lines, the standard infrastructure behind modern call center operations.
View Definition →Webhook Trigger
An automated, event-driven notification that fires from one system to another the instant a specific action happens — such as a new lead being created — without either system needing to be manually checked.
View Definition →Weekly Alignment
A recurring weekly sync between the BPO delivery team and client stakeholders to review short-term trends and resolve open operational issues.
View Definition →Zero Trust (Security Model)
A security approach that verifies every user and device on every request, rather than automatically trusting anything already inside the network perimeter.
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