AI Chatbot
An artificial intelligence program that can converse with users, answer questions, and provide support. Unlike rule-based bots, AI chatbots use natural language processing to understand intent and generate responses.
Deflection Rate
The percentage of support inquiries resolved without human intervention. Higher deflection rates indicate effective self-service and AI automation.
First Contact Resolution (FCR)
The percentage of customer issues resolved in a single interaction. Higher FCR typically correlates with higher satisfaction and lower support costs.
Help Desk
A software platform that manages support interactions across channels. Modern help desks include ticket management, knowledge bases, collaboration, and analytics.
Human Handoff
The process of transferring a conversation from an AI system to a human agent. Effective handoff passes full context and suggested next steps.
Knowledge Base
A centralised repository of docs, FAQs, policies, and troubleshooting guides. Knowledge bases power AI chatbots and enable customer self-service.
Omnichannel Support
A support strategy that provides one experience across channels (web, email, social, messaging apps). Customers can switch channels without losing context.
RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation)
An AI technique that combines a language model with external knowledge retrieval. RAG chatbots search a knowledge base for context before replying, reducing hallucinations.
Resolution Time
The total time from when a customer initiates contact to when their issue is fully resolved, including first response, handling, and follow-up.
Sentiment Analysis
AI-powered analysis of customer messages to determine emotional tone. Helps prioritise urgent cases and measure satisfaction.
SLA (Service Level Agreement)
A commitment to respond to or resolve issues within a specified timeframe. SLAs set expectations and measure team performance.
Ticket
A record of a customer interaction that requires resolution. Tickets track the conversation, assign ownership, and record resolution details.
Ticket Volume
The number of support tickets received over a given period. Reducing volume through AI deflection and self-service is a core efficiency metric.
Unified Inbox
A single interface that aggregates customer messages from every channel. Agents manage all conversations in one place.
Vector Embeddings
Mathematical representations of text that capture semantic meaning. Used in RAG to find relevant context by meaning, not keywords.
Definitions are nice. Running code is nicer.
See RAG, handoff, and deflection working on your own traffic.