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Customer support glossary

Plain-English definitions of customer support, AI, and customer service terms — from AI agents to deflection rate to omnichannel.

AI agent

An AI agent is software that uses a large language model to understand customer messages, take actions across connected systems, and resolve issues without human intervention. In customer support, AI agents answer questions using a company's knowledge base, look up order or account data, and escalate to human agents when needed.

AI customer service

AI customer service is the use of large language models, AI agents, and automation to resolve customer questions, route tickets, and assist human support teams. It spans customer-facing AI agents, agent-assist tools that draft replies, and back-office AI that summarizes, tags, and routes conversations.

Conversational AI

Conversational AI is technology that lets software hold natural-language conversations with humans, typically using large language models combined with speech recognition or text input. In customer support, it powers AI agents, voice assistants, and intelligent IVR systems.

CSAT

CSAT (customer satisfaction) is a metric that measures how satisfied customers are with a specific interaction, product, or service. It is typically collected via a one-question survey ("How would you rate this conversation?") and reported as the percentage of positive responses.

Deflection rate

Deflection rate is the share of customer support conversations resolved without a human agent. It is calculated as the number of conversations resolved by self-service or AI divided by the total number of conversations, expressed as a percentage.

First response time

First response time (FRT) is the time between a customer creating a ticket and a support agent — human or AI — responding for the first time. It is one of the most-tracked customer support metrics and a leading indicator of CSAT.

Omnichannel customer service

Omnichannel customer service is a unified support experience across multiple channels — email, live chat, WhatsApp, social DMs, phone — where context, history, and state follow the customer between channels. It differs from multichannel support, where each channel is handled in a separate tool.

SLA

A service-level agreement (SLA) in customer support is a documented commitment to respond to or resolve customer issues within a defined time. Common SLA targets cover first response time, full resolution time, and uptime, often differentiated by ticket priority and customer tier.