Customer Care Glossary
Lifetime Value: Also known as LTV, Lifetime Value is the “run rate” of a customer’s actual value. LTV: see Lifetime Value.
DNIS: Dialed Number Information Service; a string of
Hashtag: A hashtag (or hash tag) is a community-
digits that the telephone network passes to the ACD,
driven convention for adding additional context and
VRU or other device to indicate which number the
metadata to your tweets. Similar to tags on Flickr, you
caller dialed.
add them in-line to your Twitter posts by prefixing a
sales that a company holds.
Drip Irrigation: Gathering customer information
word with a hash symbol (or number sign). Twitter
Marketing Mix: The unique blend of product pricing,
slowly over time, rather than overwhelming customers,
users often use a hashtag like #followfriday to aggre-
promotion, offerings and distribution designed to meet
prospects and visitors with long surveys they might be
gate, organize and discover relevant posts.
the needs of a specific group of customers.
inclined not to fill out, and using each piece to build on every interaction.
Market Share: The percentage of an industry’s total
Marketing Research: The planning, collection and analysis of data relevant to marketing decision making,
IDIC: The four-step methodology for implementing
and the communication of the results of this analysis
one-to-one relations with customers. IDIC stands for
to management.
Enterprise Application Integration: A generic term
identify customers, differentiate them, interact with
Marketing Strategy: Guiding the long-term use of
for software that integrates legacy and disparate
them and customize.
the firm’s resources based on its existing and projected
systems.
Insourcing: The opposite of outsourcing. A service
capabilities and on projected changes in the external
Enterprise Resource Planning: Back-end processes
performed in-house.
environment.
and systems; i.e., inventory management and billing.
ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network; a set of
Mass Customization: Shorthand for high variability
Tying your back-end systems with your front-end or
international standards for telephone transmission.
in marketing. It uses the power of the database to vary
customer facing systems is what allows customers to be
ISO 9000: A series of quality assurance standards com-
the marketing message — or the actual product — to
able to check the status of their order, and check stock
piled by the Geneva, Switzerland-based International
fit the characteristics of an individual customer or pros-
availability on an item. Without front/back integration,
Standardization Organization. In the United States,
pect. It is the cost-efficient mass production of goods
customers couldn’t do this.
ISO is represented by the American National Standards
and services in lot sizes of one or just a few at a time.
Error Rate: Either the number of defective transactions
Institute, based in Washington.
Mass customization is not the same as customization.
or the number of defective steps in a transaction.
IVR: Interactive Voice Response; automated atten-
Customization involves the production of a product
Explicit Bargain: The “deal” that an enterprise makes
dants that route calls based on digits callers enter on
from scratch to a customized specification, whereas
with an individual in order to secure the individual’s
touch-tone phones. It responds to caller-entered digits
mass customization is really the assembly of a product
time, attention or feedback. See also implicit bargain.
or speech recognition in much the same way that a
or the rendering of a service from pre-configured mod-
conventional computer responds to keystrokes or clicks
ules or components.
of a mouse. (Also called ARU, VRU)
Metadata: Data about data. For example, a table
E
F
Fulfillment: The physical handling of an order, information request, premium or refund.
K
that tells the system how to translate database codes into words that make a data field easier for users to
Knowledge Management: The leveraging of collective
understand.
wisdom to increase responsiveness and innovation.
Microblogging: Microblogging is the act of broadcast-
Geotagging: Geotagging is the process of adding
Knowledge Mapping: A process that provides an
ing short messages to other subscribers of a web ser-
location-based metadata to media such as photos, video
organization with a picture of the specific knowledge it
vice. On Twitter, entries are limited to 140 characters,
or online maps. Geotagging can help users find a wide
requires to support its business processes.
and applications like Plurk and Jaiku take a similar
G
variety of businesses and services based on location. Globalization: The trend in which businesses cross
L
approach with sharing bite-size media. Probably a more apt term for this activity is “microsharing.”
Legacy System: An older or outdated computer sys-
Microsite: A mini-site within a site, usually for a
tem or application program that continues to be used
partner brand.
because of the exorbitant cost of replacing or reengi-
Middleware: Software that mediates between different
Handling Time: The time an agent spends in talk time
neering it. Often such systems offer little competitive-
types of hardware and software on a network so they
and after-call work, handling a transaction.
ness and compatibility with modern equivalents. Legacy
can function together.
international boundaries.
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systems are frequently large, monolithic and difficult to modify, and scrapping a legacy system often requires reengineering a firm’s business processes as well.
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