Customer Support Glossary
Plain-language definitions for the terms that matter in modern customer support — covering concepts, metrics, channels, tools, AI, and compliance.
Concepts
Unified Inbox
A unified inbox is a single workspace that consolidates customer messages from every channel — email, chat, WhatsApp, social media, and SMS — into one chronological queue.
Read definition →Ticket Deflection
Ticket deflection is the practice of resolving customer questions before they become an agent-handled ticket — typically via self-service knowledge bases, AI agents, or smart routing.
Read definition →Omnichannel Support
Omnichannel support is a customer service approach where every channel — email, chat, WhatsApp, social, phone — feeds the same unified workspace, preserving conversation history and context as customers hop between them.
Read definition →Service Level Agreement (SLA)
A service-level agreement (SLA) in customer support is a documented commitment about how fast tickets will be acknowledged and resolved, typically expressed as a time threshold by priority or customer tier.
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Metrics
CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score)
CSAT — Customer Satisfaction Score — is a survey metric measuring how satisfied a customer was with a specific interaction, usually on a 1–5 scale, reported as the percentage of respondents scoring 4 or 5.
Read definition →NPS (Net Promoter Score)
NPS — Net Promoter Score — measures customer loyalty by asking 'how likely are you to recommend us?' on a 0–10 scale, then subtracting the percentage of Detractors (0–6) from Promoters (9–10).
Read definition →First Response Time (FRT)
First Response Time (FRT) is the time between a customer's first message and the first substantive reply from a support agent — one of the most-watched customer support metrics because it correlates strongly with CSAT.
Read definition →MTTR (Mean Time to Resolution)
MTTR — Mean Time to Resolution — is the average elapsed time from when a support ticket is opened to when it's resolved, measured across a defined period.
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Channels
Tools
Customer Support Software
Customer support software is the system of record for handling inbound customer questions, complaints, and requests — typically combining a unified inbox, ticketing, knowledge base, automation, and analytics.
Read definition →Helpdesk Software
Helpdesk software is a system for tracking, routing, and resolving support tickets — historically focused on email and phone, increasingly extended to chat, WhatsApp, and AI-handled conversations.
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