Customer service has come a long way with the automation and integration of all the different data we receive from customers. Now we can personalize a customer’s experience at every touch point along the way. Thanks to technology, we have many new ways of building better customer relationships. Here is some of the jargon now used in this new arena of customer service.

Customer service and support (CSS)
CSS is the part of a company responsible for keeping customers happy and coming back to buy more. CSS’s responsibility is to be proactive in keeping up the customer relationship after the sale, from answering inquires and dealing with complaints to giving them a reason to come back. Because there are so many complex customer touch points that need to be integrated into one customer profile, including retail sales, e-mail contact, and call center contacts, technology is an important aspect of CSS.

E-mail response management system (ERMS)
An e-mail response management system is a component of customer service and support that manages e-mails to and from customers.

Field service and dispatch (FS/D) systems
Field service and dispatch systems software is an important part of customer relationship management (CRM) for service providers. It is also known as service delivery chain management because it includes modules for managing the entire chain of events—from developing products through the entire internal production system until it reaches a customer’s hands. It involves forecasting and scheduling the workforce, planning for service parts, reducing production costs, maintaining inventory, tracking defects, and reporting on all aspects of the internal service delivery. FS/D helps increase sales revenue, reduce parts and labor costs, improve productivity, and increase customer satisfaction.

Technology-enabled marketing (TEM)
Technology-enabled marketing (or marketing automation) is the automating of specific processes needed to provide information about a company’s markets and customers. TEM uses data cleansing and data analysis to combine many old-time marketing processes, such as calculation of market penetration, with newer functions, such as calculating the lifetime value of a customer and share of a customer.

Marketing content management (MCM)
Marketing content management (MCM) or marketing encyclopedia systems (MES) is a way of managing content so that others in the enterprise can access marketing information in a structured way.
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