CX Glossary of Terms

An incoming call in which a caller hangs up before reaching an agent.

The percentage of incoming calls which are dropped before a caller reaches an agent.

See Automatic call distributor

See Average call time

See Wrap-up time

In CX, an agent is an employee who communicates directly with customers. Also
referred to as a customer service representative, or simply representative.

The graphical user interface (GUI) software used by agents to manage customer interactions.

How an agent feels at work. AX encompasses factors including working environment, equipment, team support and types of tasks.

The percentage of time agents are actively engaged with customers (on calls,
writing to customers, etc.) compared to their total time logged in. Agent occupancy is a useful workplace management metric.

The ratio of work produced over work capacity. Commonly used as a workplace management metric.

See Average hold time

See Artificial intelligence

A set of instructions entered into a program to carry out a specific task.

Any agent who interacts with clients, remotely or in the field, and who embodies the values of the brand he or she represents. An ambassador ensures that he or she provides each customer with a unique experience.

The systematic analysis of data or statistics.

See Automatic number identification

See Application programming interface

APIs are software intermediaries that allow two
applications to communicate with each other.

The ability of a computer program or machine to think, learn and mimic human actions and behaviour.

See Automatic speech recognition

See Churn rate

An agent with heightened capacity to see, understand and react to customers and deliver enhanced customer experience thanks to cutting-edge tools and advanced technology.

Technology that presents computer-generated, virtual images to a user in the real world.

An automated system for distributing phone calls to agents.

A technology that provides callers with an alternative to waiting on hold for
an agent. Automatic callback enables a contact centre to return a call to a customer when an agent becomes available, or at a later date/time of the customer’s choosing.

A tool that transmits a caller’s phone number for quicker customer identification. Also referred to as calling line identification (CLID) or caller ID (CID).

Technologies that enable analysis of the human voice and its transformation into structured data that can be used by an information system. ASR allows tools such as callbots to “understand” spoken language.

The use of equipment or computer programs to accomplish predictable tasks without human assistance.

Also known as average handle time (AHT), the average amount of time an agent spends talking to a customer.

See Average call time

The average amount of time customers spend on hold.

See Agent experience

An AI-driven program that communicates through voice (voicebot), text (chatbot) or over the phone (callbot).

Call barging enables a supervisor to join live calls to speak with both a caller and an agent. It helps supervisors take a more active role in quality management (QM) and agent coaching.

An office that handles large volumes of calls for an organisation.

A specialised voicebot that handles phone calls and is capable of executing more
complex tasks, but within the limited parameter of the phone channel.

The rerouting of a call to a different channel, often to a self-service option.

Call scripting equips agents with a branching conversation model that guides them through predictable interactions with customers.

Prompting agents with key messages just before a call begins. Call whispering is often used to remind an agent of a targeted marketing campaign, call to action or other specific information which an organisation wants the agent to communicate to a caller.

See Contact Centre as a Service

A medium of communication, such as phone, email, text or social messaging.

When multiple communication channels are linked into one smooth conversation, making the channels used unimportant. Channel-less communication provides a simpler and more convenient experience for customers.

An AI-driven program for greeting people, qualifying requests and providing written solutions as a form of self-service. 

also known as attrition rate, turnover rate: The annual rate of employees that leave an organisation.

A network of Internet-based servers that store and manage data. Organisations often turn to the cloud to reduce in-house infrastructure costs and increase flexibility.

Storing and accessing data and programs via the Internet. Cloud computing has been growing increasingly popular as a strategy for reducing costs, increasing agility and providing access to a greater range of services.

The French regulatory body which oversees data privacy laws.

Following a rule or order.

An updated term for call centre. While call centre implies the phone channel, a contact channel reflects the fact that agents are responding to requests from a variety of contact channels such as email, chat, social messaging, website, app and phone.

A cloud-based software deployment model that provides an organisation with the customer experience capabilities of a traditional contact centre. CCaaS solutions provide services according to the Software as a Service (SaaS) model.

The process of creating reports from the data generated by a contact centre’s systems, usually accessible through the Automatic Call Distributor (ACD). Reports typically consist of such information as agent status, agent activity and call detail records.

An integrated set of processes that a contact centre uses to optimise employee productivity

Using data to connect customers to the agent best suited to resolve their issue, based on a specific customer’s situation and type of request.

A set of tools that enable a computer to emulate a conversation with people. If a computer can be controlled through speech, it is using a conversational user interface.

An organised and standardised dataset comprising a group of requests made by one customer. Each corpus is linked to a reason (eg, booking a room, trouble logging in, etc.) thus creating coherence and enabling a channel-less experience.

(Customer relationship centre): See Contact centre

See Customer relationship management

See Customer service

See Customer satisfaction

(or 360-degree customer view): A comprehensive display of customer data, typically including such information as interaction history, transaction history, AI-driven recommendations and insights along with any other data a contact centre determines is needed to enable more personalised customer experience.

One step beyond customer service, customer care seeks to build a connection with customers and make them feel valued. Customer care often spans multiple interactions with a customer.

A metric based on the amount of effort a customer expends to resolve his or her issue.

The sum of a customer’s interactions and experiences. Strong customer engagement is likely to lead to better experience, increase customer loyalty and encourage more opportunities for future business.

How a customer feels when dealing with an organisation; it is the result of one or many interactions over a period of time.

A strategy that encompasses the process of soliciting customer feedback, analysing responses and using them to inform decision making.

The path of sequential steps a customer experiences each time he or she interacts with a company (for example, contacting the company).

The strategies used to manage a customer’s relationship with a company, or a tool that operationalises those strategies. A CRM often involves data management and analysis tools.

A key performance indicator (KPI) that tracks the level of satisfaction customers have for a company’s products and/ or services. It is an important measurement of a brand’s overall performance with its customer base.

The assistance and support provided by a company to people who buy their products or use their services. CS is a crucial factor in determining a customer’s CX.

See Customer experience

A display of relevant KPI information, customer data and actions to be taken, available to agents and supervisors. Dashboards both benefit and encourage analytics and can be used on any device an agent or supervisor chooses.

Facts and statistics obtained for reference or analysis.

The science of analysing raw data as a means of drawing conclusions and forming predictions.

A dedicated space to house IT and networking equipment for collecting, storing and managing data

A strategy based on data analysis and interpretation.

A repository that loosely stores all structured and unstructured data.

The process of analysing pre existing databases in order to generate new information.

Organising information by associating data with tags or keywords.

A repository that stores a wide range of data in a more systematic manner than a data lake.

A dialogue manager uses information extracted through natural language understanding (NLU) to direct dialogue scenarios between a conversational agent (bot) and an end-user. It monitors the current state of a conversation and dynamically adapts it to the context.

Dual-tone multi-frequency, also known as VF (voice frequency) signalling. The combination of frequencies used for conventional fixed telephony.

The Dutch regulatory body which oversees data privacy laws.

A key aspect of sentiment analysis, emotion detection uses AI to recognise a customer’s emotions.

See Extract, transform, load

The process of reading data from a source, converting it to a
digestible form, and entering it into the target database.

See First contact resolution

The German regulatory body which oversees data privacy laws.

When a customer’s question or issue is resolved after a single interaction. FCR measurements are crucial as they enable contact centres to monitor the quality of answers (not just quantitative KPIs) thereby aligning customer experience and agent performance.

The application of typical aspects of playing games (scoring points, competition) to encourage engagement.

See General Data Protection Regulation

A European regulation that covers data and privacy rights.

The computer interface visible to users, enabling navigation through intuitive means such as menus, icons and interactive mouse or touchscreen technology. Without a GUI, a computer would only be navigable through written commands.

See Graphical user interface

The physical infrastructure of a computer system. The alternative to cloud solutions is on-site hardware.

The total amount of time a caller spends waiting for an agent.

See Intelligent automation

Instant messaging. The sending of text messages, usually short and in rapid sequence. Text
messages and chatbots employ instant messaging technology.

A call centre that receives calls (as opposed to an outbound call centre, which initiates calls)

The UK regulatory body that oversees data privacy laws.

A combination of robotic process automation (RPA) and AI that drives digital transformations to achieve end-to-end business process automation by adopting tasks traditionally done by humans.

A more advanced form of skill-based routing that brings in additional data, such as the customer’s history, products they use, etc.

Central to natural language processing (NLP), intent detection uses AI to determine a customer’s reason for calling. Intent detection aids in routing and may also provide useful information to agents.

Makes automation easier by enabling planners to use natural
language to automate approvals, tasks and notifications as well as to record operations without coding.

Technology that enables humans to interact with a computer-operated phone system through voice. In CX, an IVR is the first thing a caller hears upon reaching a contact centre, consisting of a series of options plus a routing mechanism that directs his or her call.

Internet of things; the network of interconnected devices embedded with software and technology that collect and exchange data. In CX, IoT allows companies to gather data from their products in order to analyse their use and enhance users’ experience.

Information system. An integrated set of components for collecting, storing and processing data and for providing information, knowledge and digital products.

 An international standard on how to manage information security.

An international standard that specifies requirements for quality management systems.

See Interactive voice response

A step-by-step visualisation of the process a customer goes through to accomplish a goal. In CX, journey mapping is used to trace a customer’s path from their first contact with a contact centre to the resolution of their issue.

 A metric used to measure performance and evaluate the success of an activity, individual or organisation.

A set of data or knowledge enabling a bot or human agent to reply or ask for additional information.

 See Key performance indicator

A key component of AI that enables systems to automatically and independently learn and improve from experience.

A bot that is not a channel, but an application server capable of supporting interaction channels and developing comprehensive web services with an information system’s reference bases.

See Machine learning

See Multimodal communication

Communication allowing for multiple channels or possible interaction modes for an end-user in a customer relationship service. Omnichannel and channel-less are forms of multimodal communication.

A subset of natural language processing that focuses on machine reading comprehension.

An AI process that turns text or audio speech into encoded, structured information. NLP lays the groundwork for technologies such as speech recognition, dialogue management, speech synthesis and natural language understanding (NLU).

The percentage of customers who say they would be likely to recommend a company to others. NPS is a common metric used to discern customer satisfaction.

see Natural language processing

See Natural language understanding

See Net promoter score

The integration of different means of communication (face to face, email, phone, text, social messaging), giving customers more freedom in the way they contact a company.

A conversational agent, or bot, that is not channel-specific. Odigo is a market leader in offering a bot that delivers chatbot, voicebot and callbot options.

A call centre that initiates calls (as opposed to an inbound call centre, which receives calls).

A marketing campaign that utilises outbound calls, texts, emails or other channels to proactively reach customers.

In an outbound campaign, preview dialling presents an agent with customer information before a call is made. Preview dialling is often considered the optimal mode of outbound calling in terms of agent experience and customer experience, as agents have time to prepare for interactions.

The right to keep personal information secret.

In an outbound campaign, progressive dialling connects an agent to a customer the moment a customer answers a call. While cheaper than preview dialling, progressive dialling can have a detrimental effect on agent and customer experiences, as agents have minimal time to prepare for interactions.

See Quality management

The activities involved in maintaining the quality of goods or services. In contact centres, QM ensures that agents’ performances are consistent and effective. QM enables planning, monitoring and coaching opportunities.

The practice of observing and measuring agents’ performance levels.

Technology that allows the configuration of computer
software to imitate human actions. In CX, RPA features bots that learn an agent’s behaviour and reproduce some of the agent’s tasks.

Return on investment.

1. Moving data from a source to a destination
2. Connecting a customer to an agent.

See Robotic process automation

See Software as a Service

In IT, security refers mainly to protection against data theft, including theft of personal information and confidential materials, as well as protection against malicious software such as viruses, malware, etc.

Methods that allow customers to complete tasks on their own with an AI-driven program.

The identification of emotional states by AI. In CX, sentiment analysis is used to help route requests and provide information for agents.

The routing of calls to the agent with the most relevant skills, as opposed to the next available agent. Skill-based routing helps resolve issues more efficiently.

A software licensing and delivery model based on subscription. A SaaS vendor hosts and manages software in the cloud and makes it available to customers via the internet. Organisations often turn to SaaS to reduce costs and increase agility.

The Spanish regulatory body which oversees data privacy laws.

The use of AI to analyse speech. In CX, speech analytics is used to analyse recorded calls to gather customer information and improve communication.

A technology enabling the transcription of a sound file into text.

In IT, the place or the ability to keep data.

See Speech to text

he manager responsible for leading a team of customer service agents.

The referral of a query from an agent to a supervisor for more specialised attention.

A dual focus on the experience of both agents and customers (AX and CX). Symmetry of attention is promoted as a means of increasing the quality of service and benefiting agents and customers.

Any moment across a customer journey in which a company or brand has the potential to make a positive or negative impression on the customer.

Text-to-speech. A technology enabling a text to be turned into speech.

See Churn rate

The way a person feels towards a product while using it. User experience is
influenced by such factors as usability (is a product easy to use), learning curve (is it quick to learn), etc.

The set of tools that enable people to interact with computers. A user interface typically consists of a keyboard, mouse or touchpad, and a graphical user interface (GUI).

See User experience

An automated program for greeting, qualifying and providing self-service in the form of voice assistance available on smartphones and smart speakers.

The total amount of time a caller spends waiting for an agent to answer a call. Wait time occurs with an initial call and when a caller is transferred to a new agent.

Web Real-Time Communications is a powerful API that enables browser-to-browser telecommunication over the internet via audio, video, and P2P file sharing web apps. Powerful and simple to use, It is quickly becoming the technology of choice for real-time streaming.

A customisable tool that provides information or simple functionalities in a compact space. Some uses of widgets in CX include chatbot interfaces for customers and embedded interactive widgets in an agent’s console.

An integrated set of processes that a company uses to optimise employee productivity.

The performance elevation of agents and contact centres often via QM and WFM solutions. A broad concept, it explains any advancement that leads to more efficient contact centre operations.

The time an agent spends working on tasks connected to a call after the call has been completed.