An automatic call distributor (ACD) is the part of a phone system that decides which agent gets each incoming call. Calls arrive, often after an IVR menu, wait in a queue and are offered to agents according to a distribution strategy.
Common strategies:
- Ring all: every available agent's phone rings, and the first to answer takes the call.
- Round robin: calls rotate through the agents in a fixed order.
- Longest idle: the agent who has waited longest since their last call goes next, which spreads work evenly.
- Fewest calls: the agent who has handled the fewest calls in the period goes next.
The ACD also decides what happens when nobody answers in time, for example sending the call to voicemail, another queue, an IVR or an outside number. Its data (wait times, answered and abandoned calls) is the basis of service level reporting. Note that in reports, ACD can also stand for average call duration, the average talk time of connected calls, so check which meaning is used.
OVOKY call queues offer these four strategies and five overflow actions: voicemail, IVR, another queue, external number or hang up.