The phrase "Readerboards" was coined by the call center industry to refer to large wall-hanging displays used to convey information about the current "state" of the call center to agents.

About fifteen years ago, Call Centers started placing large signboards on their walls. These were the LED "dot matrix" displays that you sometimes see in store windows to give a dynamic, "moving words" message about specials or events. Over time, these displays have come to be known in the industry as "Readerboards". The term has become so generic within the industry that a column about current events in one of the call center trade magazines is titled "The Readerboard".

In call centers, these signs are used to display information about the calls coming in to the center. For example, the average number of seconds it takes to answer a call over a given period of time may be displayed ("Average Speed of Answer"). They also may display critical real time data to the agents about the number of customers waiting in queue for an agent to take their call ("Calls In Queue") and the age (in seconds) of the oldest call waiting ("Oldest Call Waiting").

The software includes the ability to monitor each statistic and automatically change messages or display colors when those statistics cross a boundary. For example, the number of calls waiting in queue to talk to an agent can be made to change color from green to red, or flash if it exceeds three. Likewise, a number crossing a critical threshold can trigger a scrolling "Times Square" style message to be displayed. This might for example be used to inform agents in the break room to help out on the phones.