Definitions and meanings of commonly used customer service terms and phrases.
Customer Service Terms
Agent Collision
Agent collision is a problematic occurrence when more than one customer service agents respond to the same customer ticket at the same time.
Agent collision can often cause customer confusion, decreases the likelihood of a smooth resolution, and increases company costs.
Agent Console
An agent console refers to the customer service software used to help customer service agents manage client interactions, purchase history, ticket notes, and more.
Average Handle Time (AHT)
The term ‘Average Handle Time’ refers to the average length a customer service agent spends on the phone with a client.
Companies often aim to optimize their AHT in a way that eliminates wasted time without impairing customer satisfaction.
Average Handle Time (AHT)
The term ‘Average Handle Time’ refers to the average length a customer service agent spends on the phone with a client.
Companies often aim to optimize their AHT in a way that eliminates wasted time without impairing customer satisfaction.
Average Reply Time
Average Reply Time calculates the average time a customer waits for a response from the customer service team.
Average Reply Time (ART) is calculated by dividing the time between receiving and replying to customer messages, by the total number of client messages handled during that time.
Business Hours
Business hours are the regular hours of operation of a company.
Business hours typically refer to when customers can reach a representative of the firm, even if employees work before or after those hours.
Call Center
A call center is often where most customer service agents work, taking inbound calls and making out-bound calls to customers.
Nowadays, call centers may also be virtual, with employees working remotely.
Canned Response
A canned response is a prearranged response to commonly asked questions.
Canned responses can massively optimize customer service calls, improve service standardization, and are also a great foundation for a knowledge base, FAQ section, or AI chat bot configurations.
Case Priority
Case priority is a system that sorts customer tickets into urgency categories.
For example, a Level One case may be non-emergency, while a Level Three case may require immediate and/or specialized attention.
The case priority system allows for efficient customer problem resolutions and can increase customer satisfaction.
Computer-Telephony Integration (CTI)
Computer-Telephony Integration (CTI) is the method of connecting a call center telephone system to agent computers.
CTI systems enable agents to easily answer calls, place a caller on hold, or transfer calls, and allows for better reporting and data collection.
Contact Center
A contact center describes a centralized location for customer-facing employees, such as salespeople, technical support, and customer service agents.
Contact centers differ from Call centers and in the communication channels they use. While Call centers provide service using only one channel – the phone, contact centers can use several channels, including online chat, email, video communication and more.
Cross-Selling
Cross-selling is the practice of recommending additional products or services to clients based on their interest in current products.
Cross-selling is considered to be an excellent way to increase sales, customer loyalty, and customer satisfaction.
Customer Churn
Customer churn measures the number of customers that stopped buying the company’s products or services in a given time frame as a percentage.
Customer churn is calculated by dividing the number of lost clients by the total number of paying clients at the beginning of the period.
Customer Experience
Customer experience (CX) describes the entirety of the customer’s interaction with a brand, business, website, etc.
This includes marketing efforts, the shopping experience, and any follow up post purchase.
Customer Feedback
Customer feedback is any information offered by clients or customers about their experience with the products or services of a business.
Customer feedback is critical to reveal problems (faulty products, poor customer service, etc.) and future opportunities (ideas for new products and services, etc.).
Customer Journey
Customer journey is a visual representation of how customers interact with a brand, business or a website.
The customer journey mapping process allows decision makers to focus on improving the customer experience and understanding where or why the business is losing customers.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)
Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) is a metric defining the individual worth of a repeat client over the period of his/hers relationship with a business.
Customer Lifetime Value helps businesses decide the right funds allocation for marketing and sales activities.
In addition, maintaining a high CLTV increases profitability over time, as keeping existing clients is significantly less expensive than gaining new clients.
Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty measures the dedication of a company’s client base to continue buying from the company.
Loyal customers can also be brand promoters – people who willingly recommend the brand.
Customer Retention
Customer retention measures customer loyalty as a percentage of total customers at the beginning of a given period versus the customers at the end of that period.
This calculation includes adding new clients and subtracting lost clients. Customer retention is considered to be an important factor in a company’s profitability, as retaining customers is cheaper than gaining new clients.
Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is a metric that captures how happy the customer base is with the company’s products, services, and customer experience.
Customer satisfaction is usually determined through customer surveys, but can also be seen through customer retention rates.
Customer Self-Service
Customer self-service includes any customer service support options that enable clients to find the needed solutions on their own.
Customer self-service may include knowledge bases, AI chatbots, digital forms, and product trainings.
Customer Service
The term “Customer Service” is a general one, with multiple definitions and meanings:
- The help and advice that a seller gives to customers before, during and after a purchase of a product or a service.
- The department in a company or organization that provides service to customers.
Customer Service Agent
A customer service agent is any person whose role is to offer support to clients.
Customer service agents may use contact methods, such as phone, instant chat, email, and social media.
Customer Success
Customer success is the practice of anticipating client needs and proactively reaching out to address them.
Customer success is closely tied to customer support but differs in that the customer success team often guides clients throughout the customer experience, while customer support agents typically address self-reported client problems.
Customer Support
Customer support is a team of employees dedicated to resolving customer problems with products or services.
Customer Touchpoints
Customer touchpoints describe occasions along the customer journey where the business interacts directly with the client. These moments should be described clearly on the customer journey in a chronological order to optimize the customer experience and increase sales.
Escalation Management
Escalation management includes defining and controlling the proper movement of client tickets.
Escalation management factors include deciding the severity of the problem, the case priority, and making sure that the right agents are handling the case.
First Contact Resolution (FCR)
First Contact Resolution (FCR) is the percentage of inbound customer calls or messages that are solved during the first interaction with the customer.
Businesses with a higher FCR score are more likely to have higher customer satisfaction and less expenses on multiple client calls.
First Reply Time
First Reply Time (FTR) is the average duration of time that passes between the client’s first contact and when a company representative responds.
First Reply Time can be measured in minutes, hours, or days.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) are commonly asked client questions regarding a company’s products or services.
A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section is a page or a group of pages on a business’s website that includes answers to a list of common customer issues, and is used as a part of the company’s knowledge base or self-service section.
FAQs help potential and current clients interact more meaningfully with the product/service in a cost effective way.
Help Desk
A Help Desk is a team of people within the business that supports customers and employees with technical problems.
Help Desks often depend on software that helps them to manage conversations and ticket creation.
Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) refer to company metrics that measure the company’s performance on various aspects.
Some KPIs are standardized by industry, while others are specific to an individual company or team.
Knowledge Base
A knowledge base is an online library of resources relevant to the company.
A knowledge base may be client serving or internal, and include information about the company’s products and services, searchable by topic, department and category.
Knowledge bases can include guides, articles, answers to frequently asked questions, and more.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
A Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a systematic classification of a company’s client base, according to their answer to the question “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our business to a friend or colleague?”
NPS scoring runs on a scale of 1 through 10. Clients scoring a 9 or 10 are Promoters, 7 or 8 are Passives, and 0 through 6 are Detractors.
Companies should aim to maximize Promoters and minimize Detractors.
Omni-Channel Service
An omni-channel service allows customer service agents and clients to interact via multiple communication channels.
The customer service agent usually works through one system that allows smooth transitions between different service channels (for example: from calls to emails to messaging, etc.), without losing clear ticket status.
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the practice of hiring a third-party to perform services instead of performing them internally.
Outsourcing can include another company, consultant, or freelancer, and often results from a need to reduce costs, increase scale, or gain specialty knowledge or technology.
Request Backlog
A request backlog shows the number of unresolved customer support tickets over a defined period of time.
The request backlog often includes new tickets (unassigned) and open tickets (assigned but not resolved).
Resolution Rate
The resolution rate is a performance metric for customer service agents that enables companies to rank agent efficiency based on the number of tickets they are assigned versus the number of tickets that they resolve.
Self-Service Portal
A self-service portal is a website that allows clients and/or employees to find information or resources to their questions on their own.
Self-service portals often decrease the volume of support tickets, streamline customer service processes and increase customer satisfaction.
Self-Service Ratio
The self-service ratio shows the number of clients who solve their own issue through a knowledge base, FAQ section, or self-service portal, versus the clients who place a ticket through customer support.
Companies with a high self-service ratio usually save time and money, as well as increase customer satisfaction.
Service Level Agreement (SLA)
A Service-Level Agreement (SLA) defines the expectations between a service provider and its customer regarding the relevant products or services.
An SLA includes metrics, scope, and other information that guides the business-customer relationship.
Subject Matter Expert (SME)
A Subject Matter Expert (SME) is a person with significant, detailed knowledge about a certain aspect of a product or service.
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are authorities on their subjects and are excellent resources for problem solving and new product development.
Support Channels
Support channels include any method of communication used by a business to provide support to its customers.
Common support channels include phone calls, emails, texts, messages, live chats, and social media support.
Support Portal
A support portal is a web-based customer support online tool that enables clients to solve their questions and problems, either on their own or by contacting a customer support agent.
Support portals make accessing help much faster for clients and is accessible 24/7.
Support Ticket
A support ticket is the record detailing a client problem with a product or service.
Support tickets may be created by the clients themselves or by a customer service agent interacting with a client.
The support ticket details the first problem and any interactions and attempts to resolve the issue, tracking the entirety of the communication between the client and the company.
Support/Service Plans
Support and service plans define the services that will be provided during the relationship between the client and the provider.
Support and service plans aim to guide expectations and provide clear outcomes for both parties.
Talk Time
Talk time is a metric used to monitor the amount of time a customer service agent spends with a client on the phone.
Talk Time is typically measured from “hello” to “goodbye” and is usually shown as the count of average minutes.
Talk Time helps companies to measure and improve the efficiency of its call center and individual agents.
Ticket
A ticket usually refers to a support ticket and is the record detailing a client problem with a product or service.
Tickets may be created by the client themselves or by a customer service agent interacting with the client.
A ticket details the first problem and any attempts to resolve the issue, tracking the entirety of the communication between the client and the company.
Ticket Queue
A ticket queue is the system of taking inbound customer tickets and assigning them to available customer service agents.
A ticket queue system prevents multiple agents from working on the same ticket. Ticket queue length determines the likely wait time for clients before getting a response.
Ticket Routing
Ticket routing is the system of assigning customer tickets based on predetermined factors.
Ticket routing factors may include selecting the correct department, the specialization or availability of the agent, client status, and more.
Ticket Status
Ticket status refers to a support ticket‘s current stage and shows whether more action is needed.
Well-documented tickets with clear ticket status allow for smooth customer resolution, smooth transition between agents, and for management to clearly see if more resources are needed.
Ticket Volume
A company’s ticket volume is the total number of customer support tickets in a defined period.
Ticket volume metrics may include additional details, listing the most common problems, products, or services that have the most issues.
Tiered Support
Tiered support is the practice of designating levels of customer support so that the easiest, highest volume problems are handled by a less specialized team.
Higher tiers receive progressively less calls, but each ticket usually needs more time and expertise.
Time To Resolution (TTR)
Time to Resolution (TTR) is a metric defining the average duration from the moment a customer interaction begins and when it is resolved.
Time To Resolution (TTR) can also be referred to as Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR).
Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting is a systematic way to problem solving, typically with technology products.
Troubleshooting often involves going through typical breakdowns or discovering symptoms to lead to the root cause of the issue.