Glossary

Short notes on the words that run client conversations.

Sales

Average order value: Average order value, or AOV, is the average amount a client pays per order or deal over a period: total revenue divided by the number of paid orders.
B2B sales: B2B sales, or business-to-business sales, are sales where both the seller and the buyer are companies rather than private individuals.
Chat conversion: Chat conversion is the share of conversations that lead to a deal or a payment. It shows how well a team turns attention into money, by person, channel or launch.
Churn rate: Churn rate is the share of clients who stopped buying or cancelled during a given period, out of all clients at the start of that period.
Cold contact: A cold contact is a person who has never written to your company and does not expect your message. Messaging such people is the main ban risk in messengers.
Cold messaging: Cold messaging is sending first messages in a messenger to people who have never been in contact with the company and are not expecting to hear from it.
Company-owned client base: A company-owned client base is the set of conversations, clients and numbers that stay with the company when a sales rep leaves. It exists only if work is kept in a shared place, not on personal phones.
Cross-sell: A cross-sell is an offer of a different but related product or service that complements what the client is already buying.
Customer journey: A customer journey is the full sequence of steps and touchpoints a client goes through, from first learning about a company to purchase, use and return.
Customer retention: Customer retention is the ability to keep existing clients buying over time, usually measured as the share of clients who are still active after a set period.
Deal: A deal is a specific opportunity to sell something to a specific client, tracked from first interest to a clear outcome: won or lost.
Deal closing: Deal closing is the final stage of a sale, where the client's agreement is turned into a concrete commitment: a signed order, an invoice or a payment.
Deal stage: A deal stage is a defined step in the sales process, such as first contact, needs identified, offer sent or invoice issued, that shows how far a deal has progressed.
Follow-up: A follow-up is a planned repeat contact with a client after a conversation has paused, to move the deal to its next step.
Lead qualification: Lead qualification is the check that decides whether a contact is a real potential buyer worth a rep's time, based on agreed criteria.
Lost reason: A lost reason is the recorded explanation of why a specific deal ended without a purchase: price, timing, choice of another supplier, no reply, and so on.
Message personalization: Message personalization is addressing each recipient by name and by their situation, so the message reads as a note to a person rather than a copy for everyone.
MQL (marketing qualified lead): An MQL, or marketing qualified lead, is a contact who has shown enough interest by marketing's criteria to be passed to the sales team.
NPS (Net Promoter Score): NPS, or Net Promoter Score, is a loyalty index based on one question, how likely a client is to recommend the company, calculated as promoters minus detractors.
Objection handling: Objection handling is the way a sales rep understands and answers a client's doubts or reasons for not buying, so the conversation can move forward.
Repeat sale: A repeat sale is any new purchase made by an existing client after their first one, whether the same product again or something different.
Sales conversion: Sales conversion is the share of leads, inquiries or deals that end in a paid purchase over a given period.
Sales cycle: The sales cycle is the time it takes for a deal to go from first contact with a client to payment, usually measured as an average or median in days.
Sales forecast: A sales forecast is an evidence-based estimate of how much revenue the team will actually bring in over a period, built from open deals and past conversion.
Sales funnel: A sales funnel is the path from first contact to payment, split into stages, showing how many people reach each step and where they drop out.
Sales pipeline: A sales pipeline is the list of all open deals at a given moment, with their stage, expected value and next step.
Sales plan: A sales plan is the target for revenue, deals or volume over a period, broken down by team, rep, product or channel.
SQL (sales qualified lead): An SQL, or sales qualified lead, is a contact the sales team has checked and confirmed as a real opportunity worth turning into a deal.
Upsell: An upsell is an offer to buy a higher-value version, a larger package or a longer term of the same product the client has already chosen.

Call center and team

Abandoned conversation: An abandoned conversation is a chat in which the client wrote last and the company never answered. Nothing is formally wrong, yet a person was left without a reply.
Agent occupancy: Agent occupancy is the share of an agent's available time spent actually handling contacts, as opposed to waiting for the next one.
Agent script: An agent script is a prepared structure of a conversation with a client, with key phrases, questions, answers to typical objections and the next step to agree on.
Average handle time (AHT): Average handle time (AHT) is the average time an agent spends on one contact, including the conversation itself, holds and the work done after it.
Chatbot: A chatbot is a program that holds a text conversation with clients in a messenger or website chat, answering by fixed rules, buttons or a language model.
Contact queue: A contact queue is the set of client calls, chats and messages that have arrived but not yet been picked up by an agent.
Critical words: Critical words are phrases from a client or an employee after which a conversation becomes a risk for the company: a complaint, a refund demand, a refusal, rudeness.
Customer effort score (CES): Customer effort score (CES) measures how much effort a client had to make to get a request solved, from finding the right contact to getting a final answer.
Customer satisfaction score (CSAT): CSAT (customer satisfaction score) is the share of clients who rate a specific interaction or purchase as satisfying, usually on a short scale right after it happens.
Employee onboarding: Employee onboarding is the planned process of bringing a new hire into the team, from the first day to the point where the person works independently at the expected level.
Escalation: Escalation is the handover of a client case from the first line to a senior person, a specialist or a manager who has the authority or knowledge to settle it.
First contact resolution (FCR): First contact resolution (FCR) is the share of client requests that are fully solved in the first contact, with no callback, transfer or repeat message needed.
First response time (FRT): First response time (FRT) is the time between a client first writing and a sales rep first answering. It often decides whether the conversation continues at all.
Inbound line: An inbound line is the part of a contact center or sales team that handles contacts started by clients, such as incoming calls, chats and messenger messages.
IVR (interactive voice response): IVR (interactive voice response) is an automated phone menu that greets callers, offers options by key press or voice and routes them to the right queue or answer.
KPI (key performance indicator): A KPI (key performance indicator) is a measurable number that shows whether a person, team or business is moving toward an agreed goal.
OKR (objectives and key results): OKR (objectives and key results) is a goal-setting method in which a team sets an ambitious qualitative objective and a few measurable key results that show it was reached.
One-on-one meeting (1:1): A one-on-one (1:1) is a regular private conversation between a manager and one employee about results, problems, development and anything that blocks the work.
Outbound line: An outbound line is the part of a team that starts contacts with clients itself, through calls or messages for sales, reminders, surveys or debt collection.
Probation period: A probation period is a trial time at the start of employment during which the employer and the new hire check whether the job and the person fit each other.
Quality assurance (QA): Quality assurance (QA) in a contact center or sales team is the regular review of conversations against agreed criteria, so that quality is measured, discussed and improved.
Quality scorecard: A quality scorecard is a fixed list of criteria with points or weights used to rate a single call or chat in the same way for every agent.
Recruiting funnel: A recruiting funnel is the sequence of hiring stages, from application to the first months on the job, with the number of candidates who pass each stage.
Response SLA: A response SLA is the agreed maximum time within which a client must receive an answer in a messenger. It turns a vague wish for speed into a rule that can be checked.
Sales commission: Sales commission is the variable part of a salesperson's pay calculated from results, usually as a percentage of revenue, margin or the number of closed deals.
Service level (SL): Service level (SL) is the share of incoming contacts answered within a target time, usually written as a pair such as 80/20: 80% of contacts answered within 20 seconds.
Shift scheduling: Shift scheduling is the planning of who works at what hours, so that the number of people on the line matches the expected flow of client contacts.
Staff turnover: Staff turnover is the share of employees who leave a company or team over a period, compared with the average number of employees in that period.
Workforce management (WFM): Workforce management (WFM) is the practice of forecasting contact volume and planning staff, shifts and breaks so that the right number of people is available at the right time.

Debt collection

Broken promise: A broken payment promise is a promised payment that did not arrive by the agreed date. It is a signal to act, not a reason to lose composure.
Collection agency: A collection agency is a company that recovers overdue debts professionally, either under contract with the creditor for a fee or after buying the debt.
Collection bucket: A collection bucket is a group of debts within the same range of days past due, for example 1-30, 31-60 or 61-90 days.
Collection script: A collection script is a prepared flow for a call or chat with a debtor: what to say, what to ask and how to answer typical objections.
Collection strategy: A collection strategy is the set of rules that defines which debtors a company works with, at what point, through which channel and in what tone.
Contact frequency rules: Contact frequency rules are legal limits on how often, at what times and through which channels a company may contact a debtor.
Contact rate: Contact rate is the share of debtors or contact attempts that ended in a live contact: an answered call or a reply to a message.
Court order for payment: A court order for payment is a court decision to recover a debt issued under a simplified procedure based on documents, without a full hearing.
Cure rate: Cure rate is the share of delinquent contracts that fully cleared their arrears over a period and returned to the normal payment schedule.
Debt assignment: Debt assignment is the transfer of the right to claim a debt: the original creditor passes the debt to another company, which becomes the new creditor.
Debt portfolio: A debt portfolio is the set of overdue debts held by one creditor or agency that is valued, collected, placed or sold as a single whole.
Debtor segmentation: Debtor segmentation is splitting an overdue portfolio into groups with similar behavior and risk so that each group gets its own approach.
Early collection: Early collection is work with a debtor in the first days and weeks after a missed payment, while the debt is still small and the client is still reachable.
Enforcement proceedings: Enforcement proceedings are the stage of forced execution of a court decision, when an authorized officer recovers the debt from the debtor's income and assets.
Hard collection: Hard collection is the late stage of debt recovery: formal demands, in-person visits where permitted and preparation for court once negotiation has failed.
Installment plan: An installment plan is an agreement under which a debtor repays an overdue amount in parts according to an agreed payment schedule.
Late collection: Late collection is the work on seriously overdue debts, usually several months past due, after early reminders and negotiation have not produced a result.
Partial payment: A partial payment is a debtor's payment that covers only part of the overdue amount, while the rest remains owed.
Personal bankruptcy: Personal bankruptcy is a court or out-of-court procedure in which an insolvent individual's debts are restructured or discharged under legal supervision.
Pre-legal collection: Pre-legal debt collection is the effort to recover an overdue payment through communication, before any court proceedings. In messengers it relies on dates, records and a correct tone.
Promise kept rate (PTP kept): The promise kept rate is the percentage of promises to pay where the debtor actually paid the promised amount by the promised date.
Promise to pay (PTP): A promise to pay (PTP) is a statement by a client that they will pay by a certain day. Recorded with a date, it can be tracked instead of remembered.
Recovery rate: The recovery rate is the share of an overdue debt amount that was actually collected over a given period.
Right party contact (RPC): Right party contact (RPC) is a contact with the debtor personally rather than a third party: only in such a conversation can the debt be discussed.
Roll rate: Roll rate is the share of debts that moved from one delinquency bucket into the next, deeper one over a given period.
Skip tracing: Skip tracing is the search for current contact details of a debtor who can no longer be reached, using lawful methods and permitted sources.
Soft collection: Soft collection is the stage of debt recovery built on reminders and negotiation without pressure, usually in the early days of a missed payment.
Statute of limitations: The statute of limitations is the period set by law during which a creditor can enforce a claim through the courts.
Third parties in debt collection: Third parties in debt collection are people linked to a debtor, such as relatives or associates, who are contacted only within strict legal limits. The rules differ by country and must be checked.

Credit and loans

AML (anti-money laundering): AML (anti-money laundering) is the set of laws, internal rules and checks that prevent a business from being used to disguise the origin of illegally obtained money.
Approval rate: The approval rate is the percentage of loan applications that a lender approves out of all applications it reviewed over a period.
Collateral: Collateral is an asset a borrower pledges to secure a loan, which the lender has the right to claim and sell if the loan is not repaid.
Credit bureau: A credit bureau is an organisation that collects information about borrowers' loans and repayments from lenders and provides it to other lenders as credit reports and scores.
Credit history: A credit history is the record of a borrower's past and current loans, applications and repayment behaviour, kept by lenders and credit bureaus.
Credit limit: A credit limit is the maximum amount a borrower is allowed to owe a lender at one time, on a card, a credit line or a series of repeat loans.
Credit scoring: Credit scoring is a method of estimating how likely a borrower is to repay, by turning their data into a single score that a lender compares with its approval threshold.
Days past due (DPD): Days past due (DPD) is the number of days that have passed since a payment's due date without the payment being made in full.
Debt write-off: A debt write-off is the removal of a loan from a lender's balance sheet as a loss, once the lender no longer expects to collect it in a meaningful amount.
Debt-to-income ratio (DTI): The debt-to-income ratio (DTI) is the share of a borrower's regular income that goes to paying all their debts, used to judge whether they can afford a new loan.
Early repayment: Early repayment is paying back all or part of a loan before the dates set in the schedule, which usually reduces the total interest paid.
Effective interest rate (APR): The effective interest rate, often disclosed as APR, is the full cost of a loan expressed as an annual percentage, including interest, fees and other mandatory payments.
Grace period: A grace period is a set time during which a borrower pays no interest, or makes no principal payments, as long as the conditions of the agreement are met.
Guarantor: A guarantor is a person or company that agrees in writing to repay a borrower's debt if the borrower fails to do so.
Interest rate: An interest rate is the price a borrower pays for using borrowed money, expressed as a percentage of the debt for a given period, usually a year or a day.
KYC (Know Your Customer): KYC (Know Your Customer) is the set of procedures a company uses to verify a client's identity and understand who they are before and while doing business with them.
Loan: A loan is a sum of money a lender gives a borrower for a fixed term, to be repaid with interest and fees on an agreed schedule.
Loan application: A loan application is a formal request for credit in which the applicant gives the data a lender needs to verify identity, assess risk and make a decision.
Loan default: A loan default is a borrower's failure to meet the loan agreement, most often by not paying for a long period, which gives the lender the right to demand the whole debt.
Loan extension (rollover): A loan extension, or rollover, is an agreement to move a loan's repayment date later, usually in exchange for paying the interest or a fee accrued so far.
Loan restructuring: Loan restructuring is a change in the terms of an existing loan, such as a longer term, a smaller payment or a pause, agreed so a borrower in difficulty can keep repaying.
Microloan (payday loan): A microloan is a small loan for a short term, often until the borrower's next paycheck, issued quickly and with minimal paperwork at a higher price than a regular loan.
Non-performing loan (NPL): A non-performing loan (NPL) is a loan on which the borrower has stopped paying as agreed, usually defined as 90 or more days past due or unlikely to be repaid in full.
Overdue debt: Overdue debt is the part of a loan or invoice that was not paid by the agreed date and remains outstanding after it.
Refinancing: Refinancing is taking out a new loan, usually on better terms, to repay one or more existing loans in full.

Traffic and marketing

Ad creative: An ad creative is the advertisement itself: an image, video, text or a combination that a person sees before clicking.
Affiliate (webmaster): An affiliate (webmaster) is a partner who sends traffic to an advertiser's offer and is paid for approved target actions.
Approve rate (CPA): Approve rate is the share of leads that the advertiser recognized as valid and approved for payment, out of all leads received.
Broadcast attribution: Broadcast attribution is the link between a specific broadcast and the deals and revenue that followed it. It shows which launches bring money and which only produce activity.
CAC (customer acquisition cost): CAC (customer acquisition cost) is the full cost of acquiring one new paying client: advertising, sales team work and related expenses.
Conversion rate (CR): Conversion rate (CR) is the share of people who completed the target action out of everyone who had the chance to do so at that step.
CPA (cost per action): CPA (cost per action) is an advertising payment model where the advertiser pays only for a completed target action, and also the average cost of such an action.
CPA network: A CPA network is an intermediary platform that connects advertisers with affiliates and pays them for approved target actions.
CPC (cost per click): CPC (cost per click) is the cost of one click on an ad: both a payment model and a metric showing the average price of a visit to the page.
CPL (cost per lead): CPL (cost per lead) is the cost of one lead: how much advertising money was spent per application received.
CPM (cost per mille): CPM (cost per mille) is the cost of a thousand ad impressions; a payment model where you pay for reach rather than clicks or applications.
EPC (earnings per click): EPC (earnings per click) is a partner's average income per click sent to an offer and the main guide for affiliates when choosing offers.
Fraudulent traffic: Fraudulent traffic is traffic and leads created not by real interest but for the sake of a payout: bots, fake applications, incentivized actions, source spoofing.
Hold (CPA): A hold is the period during which the payout for an approved lead is frozen so the advertiser has time to verify its quality.
Landing page: A landing page is a web page a person reaches after clicking an ad, where they are asked to take one target action.
Lead: A lead is a person who has shown interest in an offer, by applying, writing or calling, but has not yet become a client.
LTV (customer lifetime value): LTV (lifetime value) is the total money or profit a client brings to a company over the entire relationship.
Offer (CPA): An offer is an advertiser's proposal in an affiliate network: what is being sold, which action is paid for, how much and on what terms.
Postback: A postback is an automatic notification one system sends to another when a conversion status changes: a new application, an approval, a rejection, a payment.
Prelanding: A prelanding page (prelander) is an intermediate page between an ad and the main landing page, meant to prepare the visitor for the offer.
Retargeting: Retargeting is showing ads to people who have already visited the site, applied or interacted with the company but did not complete the target action.
ROI (return on investment): ROI (return on investment) is a payback metric: the profit an investment produced relative to its size, expressed as a percentage.
ROMI (return on marketing investment): ROMI (return on marketing investment) is the payback on marketing spend: how much profit advertising costs produced relative to their amount.
Tracker: A tracker is a tool that records clicks, visits and conversions and links them to a source, campaign and creative.
Traffic arbitrage: Traffic arbitrage is a model in which advertising is bought in one place and the result is sold to an advertiser per target action, earning on the difference.
UTM tags: UTM tags are standard parameters added to a link so that analytics can show which source, channel and campaign a visitor came from.

Messaging, data and law

Account session: An account session is an active sign-in to a messenger account from a specific device or program; while the session is open, messages can be read and sent from it without entering a code again.
API: An API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of rules by which one program requests data or actions from another without human involvement.
Auto-reply: An auto-reply is a message a client receives without a person behind it, for example after hours. Used well it covers a gap, and used badly it irritates.
Broadcast List: A broadcast list is a saved set of contacts who each receive the same message as a private chat, with no shared group conversation.
Chat Export: A chat export is a download of a chat's history, or of a whole messenger account, into a file: texts, dates, attachments and participants.
Consent to personal data processing: Consent to personal data processing is a person's expressed permission under which a company collects, stores and uses their data for specific purposes.
CRM for messengers: A CRM for messengers is a way of running clients, deals and team work around messenger conversations. The term is used widely, and very different things are sold under it.
CRM Migration: CRM migration is the transfer of a client base, deals, communication history and settings from one customer records system to another, together with moving the team to a new way of working.
Data Backup: A data backup is a separately stored copy of a database, documents or correspondence from which information can be restored after a failure, mistake, hack or deletion.
Data leak: A data leak is a situation in which information about clients, employees or the company becomes available to outsiders without permission: through a hack, a mistake or an employee's intent.
Delayed message: A delayed message is a message to a client prepared in advance and sent later: a few hours on, the next day or on a set date.
eSIM: An eSIM is a digital SIM card built into a device: the operator profile is loaded remotely without a plastic card, and one device can hold several numbers.
Flood limit: A flood limit is a forced pause the platform imposes when an account makes requests too often. The pause ends on its own, but pushing through it makes the number look worse.
Group Chat: A group chat is a messenger conversation with three or more participants, where everyone sees everyone else's messages.
Mass messaging: Mass messaging, or a broadcast, is sending one message to many recipients in a single run. In messengers it works only when the send looks like human behavior to the platform.
Message deliverability: Message deliverability is the share of sent messages that actually reached the recipient's device, rather than getting stuck, rejected or filtered out.
NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement): An NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) is a contract in which a party commits not to disclose or use for its own purposes confidential information received from the other party.
Non-Solicitation: Non-solicitation is a contractual commitment by a former employee or partner not to approach the company's clients and staff in order to draw them to themselves or to a competitor.
Number warm-up: Number warm-up is the gradual preparation of a new messenger number so that it looks like an ordinary user before it carries any work. It replaces a cold start with a steady rise in activity.
Opt-in (consent to messages): Opt-in is a person's explicit consent to receive messages from a company in a chosen channel: mailings, reminders, offers.
Opt-out (unsubscribe): Opt-out is a person's refusal to receive messages from a company: unsubscribing from a mailing, asking not to be written to again, or blocking the sender.
Permanent spam block: A permanent spam block is a Telegram limit that comes with no end date and does not lift by itself. The official bot reports the account as limited but names no day when the restrictions end.
Personal data: Personal data is any information that directly or indirectly identifies a specific person: name, phone number, address, documents, correspondence.
Read receipt: A read receipt is a messenger signal that the recipient has opened the message: in WhatsApp it is two blue ticks, in Telegram two ticks instead of one.
Single inbox: A single inbox gathers conversations from all messengers in one place. A team sees every client in one view instead of switching between apps.
Spam block: A Telegram spam block is an automatic limit the platform places on an account suspected of spam. The number keeps working in existing chats but can no longer start conversations with strangers.
Telegram bot: A Telegram bot is an automated Telegram account that runs on a set program: it takes commands, answers standard questions and passes data on.
Telegram Channel: A Telegram channel is a one-way message feed in Telegram: the owner or admins publish, and subscribers read, react and, if allowed, comment.
Two-factor authentication (2FA): Two-factor authentication (2FA) is sign-in protection that needs two independent confirmations to access an account, for example an SMS code and a separate password.
Verified business account: A verified business account is a company profile in a messenger or social network that the platform has checked and marked with an authenticity badge so clients can tell it from fakes.
Virtual number: A virtual number is a phone number that works over the internet or through a cloud operator without a physical SIM card and can receive calls and SMS on several devices.
Webhook: A webhook is an automatic notification that one program sends by itself to another at a set address the moment an event occurs: a new message, a payment, a request.
WhatsApp ban: A WhatsApp ban is the restriction or closure of a number by the platform for breaking its rules or looking like abuse. A business number that is banned takes its conversations with it.
WhatsApp Business API: The WhatsApp Business API is the official channel through which a company can run WhatsApp at scale, under the platform rules. It is separate from an ordinary number used through the app.
WhatsApp Business app: The WhatsApp Business app is a separate version of the messenger for businesses, with a company profile, catalog, quick replies and labels, running on a regular phone number.
WhatsApp message template (HSM): A WhatsApp message template (HSM) is a text with variables, approved in advance by the platform, that a company sends through the WhatsApp Business API to start a conversation or write outside an open chat window.