Customer Service and Sales Automation: A Glossary

Part of the Five Stones knowledge base - 28 terms on customer service and sales automation, in plain English.

Customer service automation - Using software and AI to handle routine customer support without a human doing it manually each time.
Self-service - Letting customers find answers or complete tasks (booking, tracking, cancelling) themselves, without needing to contact staff.
Ticket deflection - Reducing the number of support tickets that reach a human by resolving simple questions automatically first.
Average handle time (AHT) - The average total time it takes to resolve a single customer enquiry, from first contact to close.
First contact resolution (FCR) - The percentage of enquiries resolved completely in the very first interaction, without needing follow-up.
CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) - A rating, usually gathered right after an interaction, showing how satisfied a customer was with the service they received.
NPS (Net Promoter Score) - A score measuring how likely customers are to recommend a business to others, widely used as a proxy for overall loyalty.
Churn - Customers who stop buying from or using a business over a given period, the opposite of retention.
Customer retention - Keeping existing customers buying or coming back, generally far cheaper than acquiring new ones.
Upsell - Encouraging a customer to buy a more expensive version or add-on of what they already intend to buy.
Cross-sell - Encouraging a customer to buy an additional, related product or service alongside their main purchase.
Sales pipeline - The set of stages a potential deal moves through, from first contact to closed sale, usually tracked in a CRM.
Sales automation - Automating repetitive parts of the sales process, such as follow-up emails, quote generation or lead scoring.
Lead scoring - Automatically ranking leads by how likely they are to convert, based on their behaviour and details, so staff prioritise the best ones first.
Nurture sequence - A planned series of automated touchpoints designed to build trust with a lead over time until they are ready to buy.
Missed call text-back - Automation that instantly sends a text message to anyone whose call to the business went unanswered, capturing enquiries that would otherwise be lost.
Appointment reminder automation - Automatically messaging customers ahead of a booking to reduce no-shows.
No-show rate - The percentage of booked appointments where the customer simply does not turn up, a major cost driver for clinics and service businesses.
Review request automation - Automatically asking a customer for a review shortly after their purchase or appointment, timed for the highest response rate.
Reputation management - Actively monitoring and responding to a business's online reviews and mentions, increasingly AI-assisted.
Service level agreement (SLA) - An agreed standard for how quickly or well a service will be delivered, such as "respond within one hour."
Complaint handling automation - Automatically flagging, routing and sometimes drafting responses to customer complaints for faster resolution.
Voice of the customer (VoC) - The systematic collection and analysis of customer feedback across channels to guide business decisions.
Customer lifetime value (CLV/LTV) - The total revenue a business can expect from one customer over the entire time they stay a customer.
Onboarding automation - Automatically guiding a new customer or client through their first steps with a business, without manual handholding each time.
Personalisation (AI personalisation) - Automatically tailoring a message, offer or experience to an individual customer based on their own data and history.
Segmentation - Grouping customers by shared characteristics (behaviour, value, location) so marketing and service can be tailored to each group.
Loyalty programme automation - Automatically tracking and rewarding repeat customers without manual point-counting or admin.

Looking for a different topic? Browse the full knowledge base, or tell us what's missing.