A
Active listening
A technique where you are fully engaged with your conversation partner, listening attentively in a positive manner.
Artificial intelligence
A facet of computer science where machines are able to demonstrate intelligence similar to human intelligence—making decisions, recognizing speech, performing translations, and improving over time.
Automation
A technique where a system automatically executes a task with minimal interaction or manual input.
B
Business metric
A business metric is something quantifiable that can be used to determine the success of a business process such as external customer support processes.
C
Call center
An office designed with the space, the staff, and the equipment to handle large volumes of calls.
Contact center software
Software that gives users the ability to manage several channels of communication such as the phone, live chat, email, instant messaging, social media, and SMS.
Communication channels
The various methods people use to communicate, for example, email, phone, social media, texting, etc.
Company values
Also known as core values, these are the fundamental beliefs that define your business.
Conflict resolution
These are the methods used to end a conflict in peace or to a customer’s satisfaction.
Customer journey map
A visual representation of every experience your customers have with your brand, from initial engagement to deciding to purchase.
Customer retention rate
The number that designates how many customers a company has retained over a specified period of time.
Customer satisfaction score
The measurement of how satisfied a customer is with an interaction or purchase. Often, the customer is asked to rate the experience from worst to best with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best.
Customer service
The act of providing assistance to a customer before, during, or after a purchase.
Customer service tools
Any tool that helps the customer support agent perform their job successfully.
H
Help desk
A place or portal that offers information and support to end users.
Help desk ticket
A report on or record of a particular issue, often used to track the progress of resolving said issue.
I
Incident report
Documentation of a customer’s grievance and how the company ultimately resolved it.
Incident management
Refers to reporting, identifying, and reacting to customer problems quickly to minimize any potential negative impact.
N
Net promoter score (NPS)
The measure of customer loyalty to a given company.
R
Resolution rate
The rate at which a company resolves a customer’s issue to their satisfaction.
Response time
The length of time it takes a company to respond to a customer. On average, an acceptable response time is 24 hours or less.
S
Self-service
The practice that enables customers to help themselves. It can be applied to a wide variety of channels, from self-service kiosks to self-service company portals.
Service standards
The standard that sets the tone for what customers can expect from a company, whether it be timeliness, accuracy, or some other metric pertinent to the customer.
Standard operating procedure (SOP)
A set of guidelines or instructions for how to execute an activity or process.
Short Message Service (SMS)
Often used for text messaging, enabling users to send short messages of up to 160 characters.
V
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
A phone service delivered via and supported by the Internet.
W
Workflow
A series of tasks that need to be performed to either reach a goal or to process data.