Glossary of key words in customer experience

Automatic call distributor. See Automatic call distributor.

Average call time. See Average call time.

Spanish regulatory body overseeing data privacy laws.

See Intelligent automation.

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

Any advisor who interacts with customers, remotely or on site, and embodies the values of the brand they represent. Their aim is to offer each customer a unique experience.

The science of analyzing raw data to draw conclusions and make predictions.

AI identification of emotional states. In the field of customer experience, sentiment analysis facilitates the routing of requests and provides information to advisors.

Systematic analysis of data or statistics.

Automatic Number Identification. See Automatic Number Identification.

Incoming call where the caller hangs up before reaching an advisor.

Automatic Speech Recognition. See Automatic Speech Recognition.

See Staff turnover rate.

Use of computer equipment or programs to perform predictable tasks without human assistance.

Combining process robotization (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI) to achieve, as part of a digital transition, end-to-end automation of business processes by adopting tasks traditionally performed by human advisors.

Dutch regulatory body overseeing data privacy laws.

A set of data or knowledge that enables a bot or human advisor to provide an answer or request additional information.

AI-driven program that communicates by voice (voicebot), text message (chatbot) or telephone (callbot).

A conversational agent, or bot, that is not channel-specific. Odigo is one of the market leaders, with its bot featuring chatbot, voicebot and callbot functions.

UK regulator overseeing data privacy laws.

Allows a supervisor to participate in an ongoing call to talk to both the caller and the advisor. This feature helps supervisors play a more active role in quality management (QM) and coaching advisors.

Provides advisors with key messages just before a call begins. Call whispering is often used to remind an advisor of a targeted marketing campaign, a call-to-action or any other specific information that an organization wants the advisor to communicate to a caller.

Specialized voice bot capable of handling telephone calls and performing a number of complex tasks, albeit within the confines of the telephone channel.

Marketing campaign that uses outbound calls, text messages, e-mails or other channels to proactively contact customers.

Means of communication, such as telephone, e-mail, text messaging or social network messaging.

Step-by-step visualization of the process followed by a customer to reach an objective. In the field of CX, journey mapping enables you to retrace a customer’s path from their first contact with a contact center to the resolution of their problem.

See Contact Center as a Service.

Service that handles large volumes of calls for an organization.

A call center that receives calls (as opposed to an outbound call center, which sends out calls).

A call center that issues calls (as opposed to an inbound call center, which receives calls).

Updated term for call center. While a call center involves the use of the telephone channel alone, contact center advisors respond to requests from different contact channels such as e-mail, chat, social networks, the web, applications and the telephone.

Data center. Space designed to house computer and network equipment for data collection, storage and management.

AI-driven program to welcome customers, qualify requests and offer text solutions as a form of self-service.

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

Cloud computing. Storage and access to data and programs via the Internet. It’s a strategy that’s being adopted more and more, to cut costs, increase agility and offer more services.

German regulatory body overseeing data privacy laws.

French regulatory body overseeing data privacy laws.

Combine multiple communication channels into a single, fluid conversation. The channels used thus become secondary. Channel-less communication delivers a simpler, more convenient experience for customers.

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

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

Interaction flow designer

Refers to the right to keep personal information secret.

Compliance with a rule or order.

In the field of customer experience, an advisor is an employee who communicates directly with customers. They are also known as customer advisors, or sometimes agents (a term borrowed from English).

An advisor with an enhanced ability to understand and interact with customers to deliver an improved customer experience using cutting-edge tools and technology.

Graphical user interface used by advisors to manage customer interactions.

A cloud-based software deployment model that provides an organization with the customer experience capabilities of a traditional contact center. CCaaS solutions offer services based on the SaaS (Software as a Service) model.

An organized, standardized data set comprising a group of requests made by a customer. Each corpus is linked to a reason (e.g. room reservation, connection problem, etc.), creating consistency and enabling a channel-less experience.

Customer relationship center. See Contact center.

Customer relationship management. See Customer relationship management.

Customer Service. See Customer Service.

Customer satisfaction. See Customer satisfaction.

Literally translated as “customer care”, this term refers to a service that goes beyond customer service. Customer care seeks to connect with customers and make them feel valued. Customer care often spans multiple customer interactions.

Metric based on the effort a customer puts into solving a problem.

Data lake. A repository that freely stores all structured and unstructured data.

Process of analyzing pre-existing databases to generate new information.

Data tagging. Organization of information that associates markers or keywords with data.

Data warehouse. A repository that stores a wide range of data in a more systematic way than a data lake.

A core element of natural language processing (NLP), intent detection uses AI to determine the reason for a customer’s call. Intent detection facilitates routing and can also provide useful information to advisors.

An essential aspect of sentiment analysis, emotion detection uses AI to recognize a customer’s emotions.

Automated system for distributing telephone calls to advisors.

Facts and statistics obtained for reference or analysis purposes.

Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency. Dual-tone multi-frequency signalling, also known as VF (voice frequency). Combination of frequencies used by conventional fixed-line telephony.

The sum of a customer’s interactions and experiences. Strong customer engagement can lead to a better experience, customer loyalty and new business opportunities.

See Extraction, Transformation, Loading.

Refers to how a consultant feels at work. The agent experience encompasses factors such as the work environment, equipment, support from the rest of the team and types of tasks.

How a customer feels when interacting with a brand; the result of one or more interactions over a given period.

How a person feels about the product they are using. The user experience is influenced by factors such as ease of use (how easy a product is to use), the learning curve (how quickly a product can be mastered), and so on.

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

First Contact Resolution. See First Contact Resolution.

Methods that enable customers to perform tasks themselves using an AI-driven program.

Application of typical game aspects (scoring, competition) to improve engagement.

Strategies deployed to manage a customer’s relationship with a company, or the tool that makes these strategies operational. CRM often involves data management and analysis tools.

Strategy that encompasses the process of soliciting customer feedback, analyzing responses and applying them to inform decision-making.

A dialog manager uses information extracted from natural language understanding (NLU) to direct dialog 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.

Graphical User Interface. See Graphical User Interface.

See Artificial intelligence.

Tool that transmits a caller’s telephone number for faster customer identification. Also known as Calling Line Identification (CLID) or Caller ID (CID).

Instant messaging. Instant messaging. Sending text messages, usually short and in rapid succession. Text messages and chatbots use instant messaging technology.

Metric used to measure performance and assess the success of an activity, an individual or an organization.

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

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

A set of tools that enables users to interact with computers. A user interface usually consists of a keyboard, mouse or touchpad, and a graphical user interface.

A set of tools enabling a computer to emulate a conversation with clients. If a computer can be controlled by speech, it uses a conversational user interface.

Computer interface visible to users, enabling intuitive navigation via menus, icons and interactive technology such as a pointing device or touch screen. Without a graphical interface, a computer could only be used by entering commands.

Internet of Things. A network of interconnected devices equipped with software and technologies that collect and exchange data. In the field of CX, the IoT enables companies to collect data from their products in order to analyze usage and improve the user experience.

International standard specifying how information security should be managed.

International standard specifying requirements for quality management systems.

Key performance indicator. See Key performance indicator.

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

The physical infrastructure of an IT system. On-site hardware is the alternative to cloud solutions.

Bot is not a channel, but an application server capable of supporting interaction channels and developing complete web services with the reference bases of an information system.

Machine learning.

See Multimodal communication.

Percentage of customers who say they are likely to recommend a company to others. NPS is a metric commonly used to assess customer satisfaction.

Natural language processing. See Natural language processing.

Natural language understanding. See Natural language understanding.

See Net promoter score.

Integration of different means of communication (face-to-face, e-mail, telephone, text messaging, social networks), giving customers more choice when contacting a company.

Improving consultant and contact center performance, often through QM and WFM solutions. This broad concept encompasses any measure to improve contact center efficiency.

The sequence of steps followed by a customer each time he interacts with a company (for example, when he contacts it).

Any point in the customer journey where a company or brand has the power to make a positive or negative impression on the customer.

In an outbound campaign, preview dialing presents an advisor with information about the customer prior to the call. Preview dialing is often considered the optimal mode of outbound calling in terms of agent and customer experience, as it gives advisors time to prepare for interactions.

In an outbound call campaign, progressive dialing puts an advisor in contact with a customer the moment the latter answers the call. Less costly than preview dialing, progressive dialing can nevertheless have a detrimental effect on the agent and customer experience, as advisors have little time to prepare for interactions.

See Quality management.

Activities related to maintaining the quality of goods or services. In contact centers, QM ensures that advisors’ performance is consistent and effective. QM offers planning, monitoring and coaching possibilities.

Technology that offers callers an alternative to being put on hold by an advisor. Automatic callback enables a contact center to call back a customer when an advisor becomes available, or at a date/time chosen by the customer.

Technology that enables users to see computer-generated virtual images in the real world.

Technologies that analyze voice and transform it into structured data that can be used by an information system. ASR enables tools such as callbots to “understand” spoken language.

Re-routing a call to another channel, often to a self-service option.

European regulation covering data and privacy rights.

Transfer of a request between an advisor and a supervisor who can give it more specialized attention.

The process of creating reports from data generated by contact center systems, usually accessed via automatic call distribution. Reports typically include information such as advisor status, activity and detailed call records.

The action of answering a customer’s question or resolving a problem after a single interaction. FCR metrics are essential because they enable contact centers to monitor the quality of responses (and not just quantitative KPIs), and thus align customer experience and advisor performance.

See General Data Protection Regulation.

Technology that enables software to be configured to mimic human actions. In terms of customer experience, RPA uses bots that learn from an advisor’s behavior and reproduce some of his or her tasks.

Return on investment.

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

Routing calls to the advisor with the most relevant skills, rather than to the next available advisor. Skill-based routing means more efficient problem solving.

Use data to connect customers with the advisor best able to solve their problem, depending on the customer’s situation and the type of request.

More sophisticated form of skill-based routing that provides additional data, such as customer history, products used, etc.

Robotic process automation. See Robotic process automation.

See Software as a Service.

A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that measures the degree of customer satisfaction with a company’s products and/or services. It is an important measure of a brand’s overall performance with its customers.

A branched conversation pattern that guides advisors through predictable customer interactions.

In IT, security mainly refers to protection against data theft, including theft of personal information and confidential documents, and protection against threats such as viruses, malware and so on.

Technology that enables callers to interact by voice with a computer-controlled telephone system. In the field of CX, the IVR is the first voice a caller hears when reaching a contact center. It consists of a series of options and a routing mechanism that directs the call.

Assistance and support offered by a company to customers who buy its products or use its services. Customer service is a crucial factor in determining the customer experience.

Information system. An integrated set of components used to collect, store and process data, and deliver information, knowledge and digital products.

Subscription-based software licensing and delivery model. A SaaS provider hosts and manages software in the cloud and makes it available to customers via the Internet. Organizations often turn to SaaS to reduce costs and gain agility.

Integrated set of processes used by a company to optimize employee productivity.

Using AI to analyze speech. In the field of customer experience, it can be used to analyze recorded calls in order to gather information about customers and improve communication.

Technology that transcribes a sound file into text.

In computing, refers to the location or capacity to store data.

See Speech-to-text.

Observation and measurement of consultant performance levels.

Manager responsible for leading a team of consultants.

See Interactive voice server.

Double focus on agent and customer experience. Symmetry of attention is recognized as a means of improving service quality. It benefits agents and customers alike.

Display relevant KPI information, customer data and action items for advisors and supervisors. Dashboards leverage and encourage data analysis, and can be used on any device chosen by an advisor or supervisor.

Percentage of inbound calls abandoned before the caller reaches an advisor.

Percentage of time advisors are actively serving customers (making calls, responding to written customer requests, etc.) as a proportion of their total time present. This is a useful metric for workplace management.

Ratio between the work performed by a consultant and his or her work capacity. This metric is widely used in workplace resource management.

Annual percentage of employees leaving an organization.

See Post-call processing time.

Also known as average handle time (AHT), this is the average time an advisor spends talking to a customer.

Total time a caller spends waiting for an advisor to answer the call. Waiting time is calculated for an initial call and when a caller is transferred to a new advisor.

Total time spent by a caller when put on hold by an advisor.

See Average call time.

Time spent by an advisor on call-related tasks once the call has ended.

Average time customers are put on hold.

AI process that transforms text or voice into coded, structured information. NLP lays the foundations for technologies such as speech recognition, dialogue management, text-to-speech and natural language understanding (NLU).

Text-to-speech. Technology that transforms text into speech.

See Staff turnover rate.

User eXperience. See User Experience.

Complete display of customer data, typically information such as interaction history, transaction history, AI-based information and recommendations, as well as any other data a contact center deems necessary to enable a more personalized customer experience.

Automated program that welcomes, qualifies and offers self-service in the form of voice assistance available on smartphones and connected speakers.

Web real-time communications, a powerful API that enables browser-to-browser telecommunication over the Internet via audio, video and P2P file-sharing web applications. Powerful and easy to use, this technology is fast becoming a must-have for real-time streaming.

Customizable tool that provides simple information or functionality in a compact space. There are many uses for widgets in customer experience, including chatbot interfaces for customers and interactive widgets integrated into the agent console.

Integrated set of processes used by a contact center to optimize employee productivity.