• Home
• Articles
• Solutions
• Partners
• Resources
• 866.965.7227

What is ACD Software?

By Amanda Ciccatelli, TMCnet Web Editor

Automatic Call Distribution or ACD, is a tool commonly used in the telephony industry. ACD software is commonly found in an office that handles a large volume of inbound calls. The main purpose of ACD software is to disperse incoming calls to contact center agents or employees with specific skills.ACD software utilizes a rule-based routing strategy based on instructions that dictate how inbound calls are directed. These rules are based on guiding a caller to any agent as fast as possible, but usually multiple variables are added, all with the goal of finding out the reason for the call.

Matching and routing thousands of calls to the appropriate agent is a challenge, and is often done with Interactive Voice Response and Computer Telephony systems. ACD equitably distributes incoming calls among a designated group of phones. Incoming calls are answered in the order of arrival and presented to the ACD agent that has been idle the longest. When no agents are available, callers hear a recorded message informing them that all agents are busy and their call will be handled in the order it was received.

Moreover, music will then be played and after a period of time a second recording will inform the caller that all agents are still busy. The sequence of music and second recording will be repeated as many times as necessary to assure the caller has not been forgotten. When an agent becomes available, the call that has been waiting the longest will be presented to the available agent.

Additionally, when all agents are "logged out" the system will route calls to a recording or a designated extension.

Without ACD software, calls are routed to one extension, which creates a bottleneck; or callers are frequently asked to "please hold", which causes frustration for both parties. If the extension is busy or doesn't answer, the caller may hear continuous ringing or a busy signal.

With ACD, on the other hand, calls are answered immediately, either by presenting the call to an available agent or by generating a recorded message, calls are processed on a first-come first-serve basis, and statistics are captured with the amount of people that hang up and the amount of time callers wait before receiving service.

Follow Us On: