List of Customer Service Terms You Need to Know

Customer service has its own lingo including dozens of distinct customer service terms.

The more of those customer service terms you know, the easier it’ll be to communicate clearly about the challenges your team faces. Together, you can strive toward improvement.

So let’s look at some of the top customer service terms you should know.

First Call Resolution (FCR)

First call resolution (usually expressed as a percentage or ratio) is when a customer’s question or complain is successfully dealt with the first time he or she makes contact. FCR is considered a vital sign of good customer service. It demonstrates that reps have the knowledge they need.

First Reply Time

First Reply Time is the time that elapses – hopefully in minutes or seconds – between the point when a support ticket is created and the point when an agent responds. A low first reply time makes a strong early impression with a customer who might already be frustrated.

Knowledge Base

A knowledge base is an online database of information support agents can look up to find ready resources for solving particular problems. That can include complete answers for troubleshooting technical issues. You can also develop customer-facing knowledge bases.

Business Rules

Business rules are the specific automation rules an enterprise uses to manage various functions. For example, your email marketing campaigns all have business rules. Business rules can also apply to how a customer service call is routed, responded to, and resolved.

Call Center

A call center is a type of contact center that focuses on handling a high volume of phone calls. On the other hand, a contact center may be devoted to all kinds of omni-channel customer service. Call centers can be inbound service departments or outbound sales departments.

Churn

Customer churn happens when an existing customer ceases doing business with a company. Your churn rate is a measure of the percentage of customers your business loses this way over a certain period of time. Poor customer service is a major contributor to churn.

Coaching

Coaching is where the rubber meets the road on your talent development program for agents. Coaching can take the form of feedback, one-on-one meetings, and contextual lessons delivered within the call management system itself. Good coaching is a predictor of performance gains.

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

CSAT is one of the most basic metrics customer service teams need to track and grow. It is the average score customers give to a specific interaction with your brand.

Customer Experience

Customer experience has a lot of competing definitions, but you can think of it as the sum of feelings, beliefs, and expectations a customer develops about your brand at a point of contact or during his or her interactions with your company. Each individual can be said to have a different customer experience based on which aspects of the enterprise they’ve interacted with and how well those performed.

Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

LTV is the revenue impact of a single customer over their entire history (and projected future) interactions with the brand. Customer service teams support higher LTV by making sure product glitches don’t end a customer relationship. They can also do cross-selling and up-selling.

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