The Alphabet Soup of Service: Customer Service Acronyms Every Professional Should Know

Walk into any customer service floor and you’ll hear conversations like this: “Sarah’s AHT is killing our SLA, but her CSAT scores are solid, so let’s check her FCR before we panic.” New hires may look around like they’ve stumbled into a strange new society.

It doesn’t matter if you’re slinging phone calls in a crowded call center or dispatching mobile workers from a control center. If you’re in the customer service industry, you’re immersed in the language of customer service acronyms.

Customer service acronyms aren’t just corporate jargon designed to make us sound important. They’re shortcuts that‌ help us do our jobs better. But only if you know what they mean — and when to use them.

Let’s start with the basics. Here are the acronyms you’ll hear on a daily basis – and what they‌ mean beyond the corporate definitions.

• AHT (Average Handle Time) — This is the one that keeps managers up at night. It’s how long it takes to fully resolve a customer’s issue — from “Hello, how can I help?” to closing the ticket.
  NOTE: AHT isn’t about speed. It’s about efficiency. When representatives rush through calls to hit their numbers, the same customers may call back more frustrated than before. That’s not helping anyone.
• CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) —. After an interaction, customers rate their experience. Simple as that. The CSAT score is how we gauge ‌success in delivering customer satisfaction.
• FCR (First Contact Resolution) — This is a true test of customer service success. Did you fix their problem on the first try? Because nothing frustrates a customer more than explaining their issue three times to three different people.
• CRM (Customer Relationship Management) — This is your digital memory. Every interaction, every preference, every time someone calls to complain about pineapple on pizza – it’s ideally stored in some sort of customer relationship management software, like Salesforce.

The best service professionals treat their CRM like the control deck for accomplishing efficient AHT, nailing FCR, and improving CSAT. And these days, the best customer service software is powered by AI.

Consider Service Cloud. Its AI capabilities — powered by Agentforce — help deliver a faster, personalized, and scalable customer service experience, all within the trusted guardrails your business has set. With Service Cloud, support teams gain a 360-degree view of each customer — including past interactions, purchase history, and preferences — enabling them to provide empathetic, efficient support across customer service channels like chat, email, phone, and social.

Now for the acronyms that separate ‌rookies from ‌veterans. These are the ones that’ll make you sound like you‌ really know what you’re doing in those strategy meetings.

• NPS (Net Promoter Score) — “Would you recommend us to a friend?” The Net Promoter Score answers that simple question.
• KB (Knowledge Base) — A knowledge base is a collection of answers to frequently asked questions. A good knowledge management system is like having the smartest person in the company sitting next to you at all times.
• SLA (Service-Level Agreement) — The Service-Level Agreement is a contract, articulating the promises you make to customers about response times and resolution speeds.
• IVR (Interactive Voice Response) — You know the automated voice that asks you to “Press 1 for billing, Press 2 for technical support”? That’s IVR. When it works well, it gets you to the right person fast.
• SBR (Skills-Based Routing) — Routes customers to reps who‌ know how to help them.
• WFM (Workforce Management) — Nothing’s worse than understaffing a rush — or overstaffing for a lull. Workforce management is the science of having the right workers at the right place and time.

Look for a software partner that makes integrations with the latest technology easy, such as Service Cloud. Service Cloud’s integration with VoIP enables reps to make and receive calls directly within the Agentforce 360 Platform, improving customer service and streamlining workflows.

Customer service acronyms are like hot sauce — really great, but only in the right situation. Here’s a cheatsheet for when to use them, and when not to.

Use customer service acronyms when:

• Your audience speaks the language. Writing to your support team about FCR rates? Go for it. They already know what First Contact Resolution means.
• You’ve done the introductions. The first mention typically gets the full treatment — “Our First Contact Resolution (FCR) dropped to 68% last month.” After that, refer to it FCR. Your readers now have the decoder ring.

Avoid using customer service acronyms when:

• Customers are in the room. Never say: “Your CSAT score will help improve our AHT.” Instead: “We’d love your feedback so we can serve you better next time.” That’s not one of the customer service best practices we recommend.
• You’re onboarding newbies. That wide-eyed new hire doesn’t need to feel like they’ve walked into a NASA briefing. Ease everyone in. Use the full terms first, explain what they mean, then gradually introduce the shortcuts.
• You haven’t explained it yet. Don’t assume everyone knows what NPS stands for, even in internal comms.

Remember, every customer service acronym represents a real human interaction. Teams obsessed with hitting numbers sometimes forget they’re talking to real people. Behind every AHT is a customer who needs help. Focus on them. The best teams understand that ‌if you improve customer service, the metrics take care of themselves.

Again, customer service acronyms aren’t just jargon. They’re shortcuts that‌ help us do our jobs better. Do you need help learning more about how to improve customer service? Consider upskilling on Trailhead, Salesforce’s free online learning platform.

Even better, if you’re going to spend all of your working hours using the hot new acronyms, consider having top-tier customer service stats to go with it. Service Cloud unifies all your customer data, so representatives aren’t playing detective on every call. It tracks metrics without making you feel like you’re managing spreadsheets in the olden days. And it ‌helps you understand what those numbers mean, not just what they are.

Customer service AI agents have come a long way. Agentforce for Service can handle even more. AI agents built with product.agenforce provide instant, 24/7 support for common customer needs like order tracking, password resets, and basic troubleshooting. For more complex issues, they can guide customers through advanced self-service steps or escalate cases to customer service reps — complete with full context for a seamless handoff.

In closing, remember customer service acronyms are shortcuts. But there’s no shortcut for good customer service. Save the alphabet soup for internal meetings. Your customers don’t care about your KPIs — they care about getting their problems solved.