The following is a short glossary of support terms mentioned throughout this book. If a definition contains a term within this glossary, that term appears in italics.

If you're looking for definitions of terms that apply to call centers in general, we recommend The Call Center Dictionary by Madeline Bodin and Keith Dawson. To learn more about call centers beyond the definitions, consult Designing the Best Call Center for Your Business by Brendan Read, the co-author of this book, and The Call Center Handbook by Keith Dawson.

C-T

Call center

An operation dedicated to assisting customers who call an organization or visit the organization's Web site.

Case

The entire history of a support request from the beginning to end (or least to the present, if the case does not yet have a resolution).

Customer relationship management

The practice where a company seeks to learn more about customers every time it communicates with them. Companies that follow this practice seek to apply what they gather about customers to serve them better during subsequent interactions with them.

FAQs

Stands for "frequently-asked questions." A list of the inquiries a company receives most often from customers. On a Web site, FAQs appears within a list, and a visitor selects the question that most closely matches his or her own.

After the on-line visitor chooses a question, the Web site displays a list of possible answers or a list of links to documents that contains possible answers.

Various software products help...