Task
What is task?
In addition to handling incoming contacts, agents can also handle queued or manual tasks. The terms "task" and "contact" are interchangeable in many ways.
Not every unit of contact-center work is a live conversation. Tasks include follow-ups promised to a customer, callbacks, case updates, back-office processing such as applications or claims, and work items created by other systems. Queued tasks are routed to agents much like calls or chats, based on skills and priority, while manual tasks are created by agents or supervisors as needed.
Treating tasks like contacts lets the contact center plan, route and measure all of its work in one place. Supervisors can see the full workload, balance it against live demand and make sure follow-ups are not forgotten. Common measures include task volume, time to complete, backlog age and the share of tasks completed within target. A high number of follow-up tasks can also point to issues that were not resolved the first time.
Related: FollowUp, Back office, Interaction management.