ACD: Automatic call distribution
ACD, or automatic call distribution, helps improve your call or contact centre’s workflows, shortens customer waiting times, and lets agents’ skill sets shine.
To learn more about this technology, which comes built-in to Dialpad’s AI-powered customer engagement platform, book a product tour.
What is an automatic call distribution (ACD)?
So, what is ACD? This acronym is short for “automatic call distribution,” which lets you send incoming calls to the right place without having to do so manually.
ACD is a vital tool for any inbound call centre hoping to improve its internal processes and service provision. It helps to more efficiently route calls to the appropriate agent, cutting down on customer wait times.
How does ACD in a call centre work?
ACD typically uses call routing in combination with interactive voice response (IVR) technology. An IVR menu asks callers why they’re reaching out to you, and callers then tap the option that best suits their needs or say their reason for ringing out loud.
After this, callers are sorted into groups based on their reasons for ringing. The ACD feature of your call centre solution then routes them to the right agent based on predefined rules you’ve set.
Call or contact centre ACD also lets you queue callers up if agents aren’t available immediately. This should ensure that anyone who’s on hold is waiting for the expert who’s best placed to help them, instead of having to wait, explain their query, and then end up in another queue.
Automatic call distribution software—and a whole lot more
Now we’ve established how ACD software works, you can see it’s useful for any call or contact centre. However, it’s best utilised in concert with a range of other features and functions. With Dialpad’s customer engagement platform, you get precisely that, with features including:
Multiple call routing options
Dialpad offers plenty of routing options, which can be easily adjusted to your business needs. Set your call routing rules and make it easy for callers to direct themselves to the right place. Then, your agents can concentrate on giving them the best possible service when they get through.
Call queues
If you face a higher volume of calls than your agents can answer, you’ll need to set up queues. Luckily, Dialpad offers these as a native feature, which combines with its ACD functionality to ensure well-managed and optimised waits. Plus, you can inform callers where they are in the queue and offer callback options.
Real-time analytics
One of the things that makes Dialpad more than just a call distribution software solution is its built-in capacity for analytics. You can easily generate reports in real-time, empowering you to access the data you need and process it in the blink of an eye—all while routing and managing calls automatically.
Truly unified communications
You could choose to look for separate internal communications, contact centre, and automatic call distribution solutions. Or, to make things easier, you could access all of the above—and more—from a single, powerful platform, which is exactly what Dialpad offers.
Integrations with CRMs and your other favourite tools
There’s more. From call centre CRM tools to workforce management solutions, Dialpad offers native integrations designed to help you create the ideal virtual workspace. You can bring your entire communications tech stack together under a single banner without abandoning the tools you’re used to.
Why pay for a separate automatic call distribution feature?
With Dialpad, you can get an ACD along with all the phone system essentials that a business needs in one neat package. Book a product demo or take a self-guided interactive tour of the app!
The benefits of ACD in a call centre or contact centre
So, why is it a good idea to use ACD in your call or contact centre? The following benefits demonstrate the potential impact of automatic call distribution.
Improved CX (customer experience)
Customers love resolving issues and having their questions answered quickly. Thanks to ACD, you don’t have to worry about them being handed to lots of different agents before someone finally helps them.
This makes for a better customer experience overall.
Better workforce management
Every customer service agent will have a unique set of talents and weaknesses. Effective workforce management should focus on helping your staff members play to their strengths.
This is where ACD helps. It ensures that individual agents can take calls that suit their skill set, while topics they’re unfamiliar or uncomfortable with are routed to more proficient colleagues.
As a result, everyone is empowered to work more effectively—and productivity increases to boot.
Better service levels
Helping more customers in less time can be a tall order. However, it’s much easier to accomplish when you can send callers to the agent who’s the best fit for their query from the start. This means they don’t have to waste time being transferred from one staff member to another.
This empowers your contact centre to deliver better service overall.
Boosted agent engagement
It can be difficult to maintain engagement among agents who have to answer the same repetitive queries daily.
With a proper ACD strategy, however, staff can ask to specialise in the areas they find most interesting, strengthening their focus and engagement. Plus, well-tailored IVR menus and other self-service tools can take some of those oft-repeated questions off your agents’ plates entirely.
Lowered cost per call
Calls that don’t last as long also tend to cost you less—you are paying your agents for their time, after all. With ACD, this results from empowering your employees with the necessary tools to resolve more queries in less time, meaning your human resources are used more efficiently.
Individual calls can be resolved faster due to being routed to the right person from the start.
👉 Pro-tip:
You can set call routing rules in Dialpad with just a few clicks. Go to Admin Settings > Call Centres > Business Hours & Call Handling > Call Routing. Then hit Edit Call Routing to change your call routing options.
Optimise your call or contact centre operations with ACD
A great ACD tool will help streamline your daily contact centre workflows. It connects customers with the perfect agents when they reach out to your company, empowering you to improve caller satisfaction and the agent experience.
All this can be accomplished with the help of Dialpad.
Yet Dialpad is more than just an ACD tool—it also serves as a complete customer engagement solution. You can unify all your communications channels on a single platform with other features like call queues, CRM integrations, and more.
Automatic call distribution FAQs
What’s the difference between ACD and IVR?
Automatic call distribution is about sending each caller to the right place. It’s often used in conjunction with interactive voice response technology. This is because effective ACD relies on having a method to sort calls in the first place.
IVR helps you do this.
An IVR menu can ask customers why they’re calling. When they state their reason, the IVR will automatically sort them into an appropriate category.
Based on this, your ACD system will place each caller into a suitable queue so they can speak to an expert on that subject.
While these two types of software are not the same, they work best together.