A comprehensive glossary of customer experience metrics and concepts

Customer experience (CX) encompasses every interaction a customer has with a brand across all touch points. This glossary covers 100+ essential metrics, concepts, roles, tools, and frameworks—organized alphabetically for quick reference. Each entry includes a complete definition, formula (where applicable), why it matters, and benchmarks where standard.

A

Abandonment Rate

The abandonment rate is the percentage of customers who start but do not complete an interaction, such as calls, chats, or forms.

Formula: (Abandoned interactions ÷ Total interactions) × 100

Benchmark: <5% for calls. High rates signal long waits or poor self-service.

Active Listening

Active listening is a CX practice where agents fully concentrate, understand, respond thoughtfully, and remember customer needs to build trust through empathy.

After-Call Work (ACW)

After-call work (ACW) is the time agents spend after an interaction completing documentation, updating records, or handling follow-ups.

Benchmark: 10–20% of total handle time. High ACW indicates inefficient tools or workflows.

Agent Assist

Agent assist refers to real-time AI tools that suggest responses, knowledge articles, or next actions to agents during live interactions, reducing ACW by 20–30%.

Average Handle Time (AHT)

Average handle time (AHT) is the total time per interaction, including talk time, hold time, and after-call work.

Formula: (Talk + Hold + ACW) ÷ Total interactions

Benchmark: 6–8 minutes. Balance speed with quality.

Average Response Time (ART)

Average response time (ART) is the average time from when a customer submits an inquiry until they receive the first agent response.

Benchmark: <1 minute for chat, <30 seconds for email auto-reply.

Average Speed of Answer (ASA)

Average speed of answer (ASA) is the average time customers wait in queue before an agent picks up the call.

Benchmark: <20 seconds. Critical for first impressions.

B

Bottom Box Score

The bottom box score is the percentage of lowest ratings (1–2/5 or 1–6/10) in CSAT or CES surveys, which flags severe dissatisfaction.

C

Chief Customer Officer (CCO)

A Chief Customer Officer (CCO) is the executive responsible for overseeing all customer-facing strategies, metrics, and cross-functional alignment.

Closed Feedback Loop

A closed feedback loop is the process of collecting customer feedback, analyzing it, taking action, and informing customers about resulting changes to drive loyalty.

Contact Center

A contact center is a centralized hub that handles inbound and outbound customer interactions across voice, chat, email, and social channels, with modern ones being omnichannel.

Containment Rate

The containment rate is the percentage of issues resolved without agent escalation through successful self-service.

Benchmark: 20–40%. AI significantly boosts this metric.

Cost Per Contact (CPC)

Cost per contact (CPC) is the total contact center costs divided by the total number of interactions handled.

Formula: Total costs ÷ Total contacts

Target: $5–10 depending on industry.

Customer-Centricity

Customer-centricity is a business philosophy that prioritizes customer needs across products, processes, and culture over short-term profits.

Customer Churn Rate

The customer churn rate is the percentage of customers lost during a specific period. Formula: (Lost customers ÷ Total customers at start) × 100

Benchmark: <5% monthly. CX directly impacts retention.

Customer Effort Score (CES)

The Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how easy it was for a customer to complete a task, typically on a 1–7 scale where 1 means “Very Difficult.” Lower scores are better.

Customer Experience (CX)

Customer experience (CX) is the sum of all interactions a customer has with a brand across every touchpoint and journey stage, taking a holistic view beyond transactional satisfaction.

Customer Journey Mapping

Customer journey mapping is the visual representation of all stages, touchpoints, emotions, and pain points a customer experiences from awareness to advocacy.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is the projected revenue a business can expect from a single customer over the duration of their relationship.

Formula: Avg Purchase Value × Frequency × Lifespan Prioritizes high-CLV customer segments.

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

The Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is a post-interaction satisfaction rating, typically measured as the percentage of 4–5 ratings on a 1–5 scale.

Benchmark: 85%+. This is a transactional metric.

D

Deflection Rate

The  deflection rate is the percentage of inquiries resolved through self-service, avoiding the need for live agent contact, and is synonymous with containment rate.

Target: 30–50%.

Digital Customer Service

Digital customer service refers to self-service experiences delivered through apps, portals, chatbots, and other digital channels across web, mobile, and social platforms.

E

Employee Experience (EX)

Employee experience (EX) is the internal equivalent of CX, focusing on agent satisfaction, which directly drives better customer outcomes since happy agents create happy customers.

Escalation Rate

The  escalation rate is the percentage of interactions handed off to higher-tier support or supervisors.

Benchmark: <10%. High rates signal gaps in self-service or agent training.

Experience Management (XM)

Experience Management (XM) is the end-to-end practice of designing, measuring, and continuously improving all customer and employee experiences across an organization.

F

First Call Resolution (FCR)

First Call Resolution (FCR) measures the percentage of issues resolved on the first contact without requiring repeat calls, escalations, or follow-ups.

Benchmark: 70–80%. This is the #1 predictor of customer loyalty.

First Response Time (FRT)

First Response Time (FRT) is the time elapsed from when a customer submits an inquiry until they receive the first response, whether human or automated.

Benchmark: <10 minutes for chat, <1 hour for email.

H

Human Touch

The human touch refers to moments of empathy, personalization, or complex problem-solving that require human judgment and cannot be adequately handled by automation.

I

Intent Recognition

Intent recognition is an AI and NLP capability that identifies a customer’s goal or purpose from their natural language input, enabling accurate routing and self-service.

J

Journey Analytics

Journey analytics examines interactions across all touchpoints to identify patterns, drop-offs, bottlenecks, and optimization opportunities throughout the customer journey.

K

Knowledge Base (KB)

A knowledge base (KB) is a centralized repository of support articles, FAQs, troubleshooting guides, and agent scripts that powers both self-service portals and real-time agent assistance.

L

Lifetime Value (LTV)

Lifetime Value (LTV) is the same as Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and represents the projected long-term revenue a business can expect from a single customer.

M

Moment of Truth

A moment of truth is a critical interaction that significantly shapes a customer’s perception of the brand and their long-term loyalty.

N

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a loyalty metric derived from the question “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?”

Formula: % Promoters (9–10) − % Detractors (0–6)

Benchmark: 50+.

O

Omnichannel

Omnichannel refers to a seamless customer experience across all channels where context and history are preserved.

Occupancy Rate

The occupancy rate is the percentage of an agent’s scheduled time spent actively handling interactions versus being idle.

Benchmark: 75–85%. Rates above 85% often lead to burnout.

P

Peak Hour Utilization

Peak hour utilization measures agent efficiency and productivity during the busiest periods of operation.

Personalization

Personalization tailors customer experiences using data such as names, purchase history, and preferences, boosting CSAT by up to 20%.

Q

Quality Assurance (QA)

Quality assurance (QA) evaluates customer interactions for compliance, empathy, accuracy, and efficiency, with AI enabling QA at 10× scale.

R

Resolution Time

Resolution time is the end-to-end duration from inquiry to full issue closure.

Benchmark: <24 hours for non-urgent issues.

Retention Rate

Retention rate is the percentage of customers who continue doing business with a company over a given period.

S

Self-Service Containment

Self-service containment measures the percentage of customer issues resolved without live agent involvement.

Sentiment Analysis

Sentiment analysis detects emotional tone in customer text or speech to enable coaching, escalation, and trend analysis.

Service Level

Service level measures the percentage of interactions answered within a predefined time threshold (e.g., 80/20).

T

Top Box Score

The top box score is the percentage of highest ratings received (5/5 or 10/10), emphasizing excellence over averages.

Touchless Resolution

Touchless resolution refers to issues resolved entirely without human involvement through automation or AI.

Transfer Rate

The transfer rate is the percentage of interactions handed off between agents or teams.

U

Utilization Rate

The utilization rate is synonymous with occupancy rate and measures the percentage of agent time spent serving customers.

V

Voice of Customer

Voice of the Customer (VoC) aggregates feedback from surveys, reviews, social media, and interactions to extract actionable insights.

W

Wrap-Up Time

Wrap-up time is synonymous with After-Call Work (ACW) and refers to post-interaction administrative tasks.

CX Topics & Frameworks

AI Agent

An AI agent is autonomous software that handles end-to-end customer conversations and workflows using NLP and large language models.

Customer Journey Orchestration

Customer journey orchestration coordinates and automates touchpoints across channels to deliver optimal next-best actions.

Zero-Party Data

Zero-party data is information customers intentionally share, enabling hyper-personalization.

CX Maturity Model

The CX Maturity Model describes organizational progression from reactive support to predictive, AI-orchestrated experiences.