Glossary

No more
buzzword bingo!

Important
live chat and digital customer communication terms are all explained here

We have
gathered together definitions of words and phrases relating to digital customer
communication and live chat for you. This list is updated on a regular basis.

If you have
any queries about terminology, or new suggestions, please get in touch!

• 24/7 Availability

  24/7 stands for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, meaning that availability is provided around the clock.

• ACD

  ACD stands for automatic call distribution – an automated system for answering incoming calls. Usually used by call centres when all their agents are busy.

• Agent Panel

  The tool that a chat agent uses to handle a live chat, for example at a computer or on a smartphone.

• Average Handling Time

  In the context of live chat, “average handling time” is the average duration of a chat between the chat agent and customer.

• Chat2Chat

  Chat forwarding to another chat agent, e.g. one in the right department to conclusively deal with the issue.

• Chat2Mail

  Chat history forwarding to one or more email addresses, for example to conclusively deal with requests that are not time-consuming.

• Chat2Phone

  Transfer from online chat to a telephone conversation. Useful for forwarding to a call centre employee if the issue needs to be resolved by phone.

• Contact Center Prozesse

  Contact centre is another term for call centre. A call centre is a facility with employees specialising in telephone-based customer service.

• Conversion Rate

  This describes the rate at which a desired result is achieved within a process. For a website, the conversion rate is calculated using the number of website visits and the number of completed transactions, and worked out as follows:

  Number of transactions / number of visits x 100

  This calculation gives a percentage – the conversion rate. The higher this is, the better the conversion rate.

   

• CRM

  CRM stands for customer relationship management, i.e. management of the relationship between a company and its customers. Today, relationships are usually tracked through a database that records and stores data on all customers and the communications exchanged with them so that this information is available to all employees.

• Cross-Selling

  In marketing, cross-selling refers to the sale of complementary products or services. One example would be a care spray for new shoes.

• Facebook Like Box

  A window on a website where users can give it a Facebook “like” and see which of their friends have previously “liked” it.

• Facebook Messenger Chat

  The Facebook Messenger feature for Realperson Chat Suite. The extension officially released by Facebook allows chat agents to manage and handle Facebook chat requests centrally through Realperson Chat Suite alongside online, mobile or video chat requests. Facebook Messenger now has more than a billion users worldwide, and is becoming increasingly important in digital customer communication – both for service chats and for sales chats. Today, even flight bookings are made via Facebook Messenger.

   

• First Shot Solution Rate

  In live chat, the “first shot solution rate” is the proportion of chats that have a successful outcome on the first attempt.

• In-House Chat-Lab

  The optimise-it Chat Lab consists of an in-house team of trained chat agents who can conduct chats on behalf of your company, plus our own dependable service managers to act as a point of contact and create reports for those with our full service model. This allows customers to draw on chat agents with years of live chat experience. It also means that chat projects can be put into practice at short notice with optimise-it.

• Intelligent Chat Request Routing

  Information about the customer sending the chat request, the webpage they have just come from, the page they are currently on, the browser and operating system they are using, what items they have in their shopping cart (if applicable), etc.

  This information assists chat agents during the conversation.

• Live-Chat

  Written conversation between two or more people for customer service or sales purposes. Messages are transmitted live and in real time, making it a dynamic conversation where both parties can respond to each other immediately. Live service chat and live sales chat are used in business environments.

• Mobile-Chat

  Live chat on mobile devices such as smartphones or tablet PCs.

• Multimedial Communication

  The ability to send and view multimedia files such as images, videos or audio files in live chat.

• Online Video-Chat

  Live chat while the two parties can see each other by webcam. Visual contact builds trust between chat agents and customers.

• Peer2Peer Chat

  Live chat between equal users, i.e. the customer and agent use the same system – a computer, for example.

• Privacy compliant customer communication

  Customer communication that complies with all German data protection laws such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the German Data Protection Act (BDSG), the German Telemedia Act (TMG) or the Safe Harbour Agreement.

• QR Chat

  A chat opened by scanning a QR code. This can be placed on a website, or alternatively, printed on a flyer. From there you can link to a web chat or Facebook Messenger.

• Real-Time Communication

  Communication that takes place with no time delay between the two parties. Examples of this are telephone calls or live chat. An email is NOT real-time communication.

• Realperson® Chat Suite

  The live chat solution from optimise-it GmbH, with various features including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, video or QR chat, co-browsing, online authentication, etc.

• Sales Processes

  All activities in the process of selling a service or a product from the vendor to the customer. Examples include new customer acquisition, customer retention and recovery, and sales channel selection.

   

• Sales-Chat

  Live chat as a sales interaction. Sales chats allow customer requests to be handled easily and in real time, preventing customers from having to wait. Almost like in bricks-and-mortar retail, a chat agent can also encourage cross-selling and up-selling or provide advice through the order process. Sales chats reduce dropout rates and increase conversion rates. A professional sales chat setup is good for your business and effective at helping to boost sales revenue.

• Service-Chat

  Live chat as a method of communication for existing customers. Service chats allow customer requests to be handled easily and in real time, preventing customers from having to wait. Another benefit is that links can be shared via the chat window as a way of directly pointing to site content or forms. Service advice through live chat has the distinction of delivering increased customer satisfaction and a high first shot solution rate. This makes a good service chat setup a real benefit to your business.

• Up-Selling

  In marketing, up-selling refers to the use of rational arguments to sell higher-end products and services instead of the product the customer initially wanted. One example might be a car equipped with useful additional features.

• WhatsApp-Chat

  The use of instant messenger service WhatsApp for digital customer communication. We support WhatsApp communication in Realperson Chat Suite. Manage and handle WhatsApp mobile messenger requests centrally from your agent panel alongside Facebook, online and mobile chat, etc. Learn more here.