E

EAR. see Enhanced ACD Routing

Enhanced ACD Routing. An optional ACD feature that allows supervisors to regulate ACD traffic and to give different RAN and music treatments to calls queued at the same ACD queue.

Envelope Strategy. A strategy whereby enough agents are scheduled for the day or week to handle both the inbound call load and other types of work. Priorities are based on the inbound call load. When call load is heavy, all agents handle calls, but when it is light, some agents are reassigned to work that is not as time-sensitive.

Erlang. A number that typically represents the number of person-hours of workload. Arrived at by using the Erlang C calculation. One hour of telephone traffic in an hour of time. For example, if circuits carry 120 minutes of traffic in an hour, that's two Erlangs.

Erlang C
A traffic analysis calculation developed by K. A. Erlang. Given the inputs of call volume, call length, and desired service level, Erlang C provides such outputs as:

• the Base Staff Required to achieve the target
• the likelihood that callers will experience a delay
• the Average Speed of Answer
• the Average Delay experienced by delayed callers

Error Rate. Either the number of defective transactions or the number of defective steps in a transaction.

Escalation Plan. A plan that specifies actions to be taken when the queue begins to build beyond acceptable levels.

Exception. An exception is any reason that an agent would not be on the phones, such as illness, a meeting, a training session, lateness, etc. The amount of time spent in these different activities is tracked through the use of exception codes. The term "exception" can be confusing because it is also used to refer to "exceptional days" in historical data and "exceptions to the rule". Time Accounting Code (TAC) is a newer, preferred term.

Exception Code
A shorthand for tracking and reporting on the incidences of various exceptions. The exception code for illness might be ILL or SICK in a given call center. Meetings might be indicated as MTG or MTNG. Also known as Time Accounting Codes (TACs).

Exchange Line. See Trunk.

Executive Summary. A brief summary of the key points of a more detailed report or study.