What is ACD?

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) is a phone system feature. It enables incoming calls to be distributed equally amongst a selected group of people, as long as they are logged in and “available.”

Matching and routing a large volume of calls to the right department is a huge task so an ACD works best in conjunction with Interactive Voice Response (IVR) feature so it can route the right calls to the right person.

To make the most of this feature you would have a pre-defined criterion. Your criteria could be simply based on whether a caller has called a certain phone number or you could define the criteria based on agent attributes such as being multi-lingual. This detail would enable individuals to speak to someone who can speak their language; the call is then routed to a group of individuals who match their language requirements. You can also assign tags to customers who you might class as being VIP so that their calls are prioritised and answered by perhaps their own specialist team.

This is a phone system feature which is ideal for businesses that have a large team who need to answer the same phone line such as a contact centre. It also works exceptionally well for businesses with multiple sites who need to work as the same team.

This feature allows businesses to report on the number of incoming calls, amount of time on the phone (by individual), total number of calls and waiting time. This enables a business to understand if they are meeting their own SLA’s as well as individuals.