GLOSSARY
Above the fold: The visible part of a website’s home page that does not require the customer to scroll down to see the rest of the content. The preferred location for customers to access their accounts and help pages.
ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index): A national survey of more than 100,000 customers every month in the United States. Used as a benchmark of attitudes toward companies across more than 50 industries and is the most commonly quoted U.S. business customer satisfaction survey.
Agile: An iterative approach to project management and software development that delivers work in small but consumable increments (called sprints). It can include the idea of a minimal viable product (MVP).
AHT (average handle time): How long it take frontline agents to complete an interaction, expressed in seconds or in minutes. Usually excludes after-call work (ACW) before agents address the next contact.
AI (artificial intelligence): A field of computer science in which computers are able to perform complex tasks formerly performed by human intelligence. Examples of AI include visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation. Often linked with machine learning.
ANI (automatic number identification): The U.S. term for technology that identifies the number from which the caller is calling and that either displays it or uses it to look up customer data, so that the agent does not have to ask for basic information. This enables screen pops that display the customer’s information without data entry. (Internationally known as CLI.)
Assisted channels: Where a real person—not software or a bot—interacts directly with prospects or customers (as opposed to unassisted channels). Includes inbound calls, email, chat, social media, branches, or shops. Staffed by frontline agents.
Asynchronous messaging: Messaging platforms that enable contact without both parties needing to be active concurrently. For example, User A sends a message and then can continue with other unrelated tasks, while the responder can reply later. Typical mode for web chat, text, and social media messages.
Attack squads: Designated teams assigned to conduct root cause analysis on customer reasons and/or to design solutions to address (attack) the root causes. Usually composed of experts from the owner’s Functional Organization and technology or IT.
Augmented agent solutions: Software that provides real-time recommendations to frontline agents during an interaction (e.g., a suggestion as to where the conversation might go next or the next best offer for the customer). Usually dependent on real-time speech analytics to interpret the conversation.
Autopop(ulate): See screen pop.
Best service: The core concept of Price and Jaffe’s first book The Best Service Is No Service, which argues that customers rarely want to contact organizations for help or support but do so only because of frustration, confusion, or broken processes and products.
BHAG (big hairy audacious goal): Jim Collins’s challenge for organizations to set ambitious objectives, instead of piecemeal or incremental gains, in order to stretch thinking and achieve more than expected.
Big data: Extremely large data sets usually used to analyze human behavior. A big data set for customers might include all of the interactions, purchases, and behaviors of customers in order to predict future behaviors such as likelihood to purchase.
Bot: Short for robot, a software program that performs automated, repetitive, predefined tasks and can do so faster than human users. See also chatbot and RPA.
BPO (business process outsourcer): Third-party companies that take over part or all of assisted or unassisted interactions with customers. Some handle customer contact, like phone calls, chats, or emails, while others manage processes like claims or data entry. Also called outsourcers.
C2C (customer-to-customer): Interactions in which the customer assists or advises other customers. Includes shared help sites, blogs. and forums.
CES (customer effort score/customer effort): The amount of time and energy that customers have to invest to use the products and services of a company. The CES is often gauged on a five- or seven-point scale, but definitions vary by organization.
Channel(s): The contact medium that customers use to deal with an organization. Includes assisted channels, such as inbound phone calls, emails, chats, branches, or shops, and social media, as well as unassisted channels where customers self-serve, such as mobile phone apps, web portals, chatbots, and IVR systems.
Chatbot: An AI-driven automated interaction tool usually provided by organizations on their website to answer routine queries using webchat. See also bot.
Churn: The rate of customer turnover in an organization, expressed as a percentage of all customers (monthly or annually). Sometimes called attrition.
C-level: Any senior executive whose title begins with the word chief, starting with the CEO and often including a COO (chief operating officer), CFO (chief financial officer), CIO (chief information officer), and CCO (chief customer officer).
CLI (caller line identification): Technology that identifies the number from which the caller is calling and either displays it or uses it to look up customer data, so that the agent does not have to ask for basic information. Known as ANI in the United States. Also used for screen pops.
Click and collect: A process in which one orders online and picks up the purchased item in a designated retail shop.
CLV (customer lifetime value): A process to calculate the total revenue and profit return that a company can obtain from a given customer over the entire span of their relationship.
Co-browsing: The ability for the frontline agent and customer to view the customer’s screen or another shared screen at the same time, so that the agent can diagnose problems and guide the customer.
Containment rate: The percentage of customers attempting an unassisted channel who do not require subsequent assisted support (i.e., contained in self-service).
CPX (contacts per X ): The number of customer-initiated, assisted contacts divided by a key denominator of business size or growth, such as orders or accounts. For example, a CPO (contact per order) of 14 equals 14 agent-handled or assisted contacts for every 100 orders. The C in CPX can also stand for costs.
Customer journey mapping: Annotated documentation of the steps a customer takes to complete a complex or important process, such as joining or upgrading. Used to educate stakeholders on the complexities and pain points of the process. Can include key steps highlighted as moments of truth.
CX (customer experience): The customer’s reactions and responses to all interactions with an organization’s products and processes. Improvements in CX are often viewed as the number one objective for companies, ahead of price or product.
Data lake: A repository of a wide range of data or inputs awaiting analysis.
Deep detractors: The sum of NPS scores 0 + 1 + 2, the lowest of the 11 offered NPS scores and subset of detractors (0 through 6). They represent the most seriously upset customers who warrant special attention.
Design thinking: An interactive, solutions-based process centered on user needs.
Digital native: Organizations that are only online or that started after the internet became commercially viable in the late 1990s.
Digitization: The use of digital technologies such as websites, bots, or mobile applications to automate and refine processes and interactions.
DIWM (do it with me): When frontline agents walk customers through some form of self-service, such as website-based forms. Related to co-browsing.
Downgrading or down-selling: A form of rightsizing where the customer is moved to a lower-cost product or plan that better matches their need.
Downstream costs: All of the work and expenses required to complete the process or compensate the customer after an assisted contact (e.g., refunds, trouble tickets sent to another department, or technician visits [truck rolls]).
Dumb contacts: Bill Price’s term to depict unnecessary or unwanted customer contacts caused by underlying mistakes, confusion, or product defects.
FCR (first-contact resolution): The percentage of customer contacts that are resolved without any follow-up by the customer or by the agent to the customer. This can include a transfer between staff on the interaction.
Fishbone diagram: Causal diagrams created by Kaoru Ishikawa that show the potential causes of a specific event and enable a structured decomposition of possible causes. Used to conduct root cause analysis.
Five whys: A root cause analysis process developed in the 1930s in Japan by Toyota’s founder. Requires asking five why questions in succession to get to the root causes.
Frontline agents: Staff who interact directly with prospects or customers on calls, emails, chats, social media, branches, or shops.
(GM) General Managers: A profit-and-loss-responsible executive within a large corporation; or in some countries, the senior-most executive responsible for all operations.
Golden 30 seconds: Bill Price’s term for the customer’s opening comments on a call or the first part of a chat thread or the subject line of an email message from the customer. Quickly conveys the essence of the problem the customer is facing.
GOS (grade of service): See also service levels. Used to measure what percentage of contacts are answered in a defined period (e.g., 80% answered in 30 seconds).
Hub-and-spoke model: The placement of frontline agents in smaller locations surrounding or networked into a central site to enable shorter commutes and lower rents.
IVR (interactive voice-response system): A phone-based system that enables the customer to enter digits or speak to navigate menu options or obtain automated information, such as an account balance or order status.
Joined up: Making sure that all customer and interaction data are available at the same time in all channels, instead of being siloed or in separate operations, which usually confuses or frustrates the customer.
KPIs (key performance indicators): The measures used to motivate desired outcomes. Often part of a manager’s or agent’s performance scorecards as well as contract requirements with BPOs.
Last-contact benchmarking: Bill Price’s term for the customer’s comparison of this organization’s experiences with the best equivalent experiences that they have had recently.
Lateral thinking: As coined by Edward de Bono, follows nonlogical steps to get to solutions by “coloring outside the lines” and/or bringing into play disparate ideas.
Look for common: Seeking and leveraging the same root causes for different contact reasons. Creates a multiplier effect so that, as the organization implements solutions for these common root causes, multiple contact reasons are addressed.
Me2B: A business model explained by Price and Jaffe in Your Customer Rules! (2015) in which customers take control of the relationship with businesses, dictating the products and services they want, the price they’ll pay, and the way they want to interact.
ML (machine learning): A branch of artificial intelligence in which systems can learn from data, identify patterns, and make decisions with minimal human intervention.
Moments of truth: Key points in a process that make or break the outcome for the customer.
Multichannel: Multichannel (versus omni-channel) means the ability to offer sales and services via multiple interaction mechanisms, such as call centers and digital forums, but with limited integration between channels. Also see omnichannel.
MVP (minimum viable product): A product or software development methodology that deliberately releases the product or service in a limited form with the objective of getting to market quickly and soliciting customer feedback in order to refine the product.
NPS (net promoter score): A survey technique defined by Fred Reichheld in the book The Ultimate Question to measure a customer’s likely loyalty to a business. It asks the customer how likely they are to recommend the company on an 11-point scale. The NPS counts those who scored 9 or 10 as promoters minus those who score 0 through 6 as detractors, yielding a net number from –100 to +100.
Null search: A situation in which a customer attempts to obtain information in a search field for which there is no answer; therefore, the customer’s need is not met.
OBP (outside best practices): Bill Price’s technique to profile operations against the best practitioners in any industry.
Omnichannel: Where contact channels are fully integrated so the customer can start an interaction in one channel, complete it in another channel, and move between channels seamlessly.
Outsourcers: Third-party companies contracted to deliver services of any type. Also called BPOs.
Owner: A senior executive or head of a department whose function either caused the customers to make contact or is best positioned to find a solution for that contact reason. Also called a reason owner.
PaaS (Platform as a Service): A third-party provider delivers hardware and software tools to users over the internet.
Personas: A defined customer segment that shares similar needs or demographics that make them easy to identify (e.g., Empty Nesters, Fantasy Readers, Gray Nomads, Avid Runners).
Predictive analytics: Analytics that collect, sort, and test data inputs to make predictions about future events, such as what customers will do next (e.g., which customers will not renew their contracts).
Propensity to complain: The tendency for customers in different geographies, or with different demographics, to express frustration with various frequencies for the same reason. Research shows that the PTC can be five times different among varying regions or countries.
PTC (propensity to contact): The tendency for customers in different geographies, or with different demographics, to contact the organization for support for the same reason.
QA (quality assurance): A process whereby organizations score frontline agents based on criteria used to assess the contact, such as compliance, manner, and process. Typically involves sampling a limited number of historic interactions as part of a coaching and development program.
RCA (root cause analysis): An analysis of the underlying driver or drivers behind customer contact. Uses techniques such as Ishikawa fishbone diagrams and the Five Whys.
Real-time speech analytics: A type of AI that interprets conversations as they occur. Can be used to monitor a live-agent conversation or accept speech-based requests and data (e.g., Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri).
Reasons: Why the prospect or customer contacted the organization, either to ask questions, seek support, or express frustration. Sometimes also called customer contact reasons or customer contact reason codes, these are usually articulated early on in the contact, within the golden 30 seconds.
Rightsizing: Matching the most appropriate product or service to customer needs.
RPA (robotic process automation): An application of technology that automates a business process (e.g., an automatic response to an email, a process to transcribe data from forms to systems).
SaaS (Software as a Service): A cloud-based provisioning of software that enables both code and data to be accessed over the internet by end users and customers.
SBR (skills-based routing): A workforce management technique that divides frontline agents into groups around capabilities or skills and connects customers to those groups based on their specific needs.
Screen pop: A system by which the customer’s record or details are displayed to the agent (using ANI or CLI) as a customer call arrives, so that the agent need not ask customers for their details. Sometimes called Auto pop(ulate).
Service levels: Measures the speed of response or work completion (e.g., the percentage of calls answered in X seconds, email responses within Y hours, or forms processed within Z days of arrival). Also called grade of service (GOS).
Silent sufferers: Those customers who do not contact the company to ask questions, seek support, or express frustrations where others do.
Skyline: A report developed at Amazon to show the rate of contact by reason codes and associated activity-based costing. Now refined to include downstream costs, owners, and target customer experience metrics.
Smart routing: See SBR.
Snowballs (also called repeat contacts): Bill Price’s term to represent repeat contacts (as the snowball grew with each further contact). The snowball rate is the complement of resolved contacts or FCR.
Speech analytics: The ability to apply structured analytics or unstructured analytics to recorded calls in order to understand things like call reasons, customer sentiment, and satisfaction. See also text analytics.
Structured analytics: Analytics that start with a defined list of reasons, key words, or other search criteria to mine against a data set of recorded calls, collected text, or other interaction histories. See also unstructured analytics.
STS (sales through service): A strategy that encourages frontline agents to introduce an offer during a service interaction. Also called cross-selling and upselling. Sometimes referred to as “service to sales.”
Survey fatigue: A decline in the rate of customer survey responses over time, as a result of sending too many surveys or requesting too much information.
TCO (total cost of ownership): The overall cost of a technology from the organization’s point of view, including initial purchase cost, implementation cost, usage costs, and operational costs.
Take-up rate: Self-service completion as a percent of self-service and assisted support for the same reason.
Test and learn: An iterative process to pilot or test multiple options or solutions, gather results, and apply lessons learned.
TEX (T-Mobile USA’s team of experts): Clusters of agents with different skills serving the same customers in the same geography.
Text analytics: The ability to apply structured analytics or unstructured analytics to any or all collected text, including emails, chats, social media texts, responses to open-ended questions, agent notes, and speech converted to text. Used to assess customer sentiment, satisfaction, and contact reasons. See also speech analytics.
Tiered service models: Models in which contact complexity is split out to different groups of frontline agents based on their tenure or training, with the goal of matching contact complexity to the tenure of the agent. For example, Tier 1 new agents handle routine or simple contacts, whereas Tier 2 experienced agents are assigned to contacts with greater complexity.
tNPS (transactional NPS): Uses the same 11-point scale as NPS but focuses on the interaction that immediately preceded the survey request.
Top-issues management: A process to manage key issues or reasons and analyze their trends and impacts.
Two-way text messaging: The ability for the organization or the customer to respond using text messaging or SMS functionality and have a dialogue. One-way text messaging is a broadcast of information where the customer can’t respond.
Unassisted channels: Contact mechanisms where a bot or program (e.g., IVR, app, portal, kiosk, etc.) interacts directly with prospects or customers. See assisted channels.
Unstructured analytics: Analytics that produce reasons, key words, or other themes from the entire range of the data set. (See structured analytics.)
V-I matrix (value-irritant matrix): A 2 × 2 assessment technique, developed over time by Price and Jaffe’s colleague Peter Massey, that classifies contact reasons based on whether they are valuable or irritating to the customer and organization: the Eliminate quadrant has contacts irritating to both customer and organization; Leverage has contacts valuable to both; Digitize contacts are valuable to the customer only; and Streamline is valuable to the organization only.
Visualization: An advanced reporting capability that embeds multiple display options, drill-down analyses, what-if scenarios, and other decision-making insights.
VOC (voice of customer): The art and science of listening to what the customer is telling the company, either directly through the contacts they make or indirectly through surveys and research.
Warm transfer: When the frontline agent remains with the customer while transferring that customer to another agent. Cold transfers are those where an agent drops the customer into another queue and hangs up.
Whole-of-business problem: Recognizes that customer issues and contact reasons require every functional executive and the CEO or MD to focus attention and devote resources. Counters the traditional argument that customer service can fix all the problems.
Wiki: Online posting tool originally designed for numerous experts to crowdsource content, including Wikipedia.
WOCAS (what our customers are saying): Early Amazon process to collect VOC from frontline employees with whom the customers interact on a regular basis.