---
title: "CX Glossary: 60+ Customer Experience, Customer Success and AI Terms Explained"
description: A plain-English glossary of 60+ customer experience, customer success, support and AI terms, from NPS and CSAT to churn, health scores, AI agents and AEO.
---

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# CX Glossary: 60+ Customer Experience, Customer Success and AI Terms Explained

By **Adrian Brady-Cesana** November 12, 2026

[The Four CX Pillars](https://www.cxchronicles.com/blog/tag/the-four-cx-pillars)[Knowledge Base](https://www.cxchronicles.com/blog/tag/knowledge-base)

Customer experience comes with a lot of jargon, and the AI era has added plenty more. This glossary explains the terms CX, Customer Success, support and RevOps teams use most, in plain English. It's organized by theme, so you can find what you need quickly.

**Jump to:** [Core concepts](https://www.cxchronicles.com/blog/cx-glossary-60-customer-experience-customer-success-and-ai-terms-explained#core) · [Metrics](https://www.cxchronicles.com/blog/cx-glossary-60-customer-experience-customer-success-and-ai-terms-explained#metrics) · [Customer success](https://www.cxchronicles.com/blog/cx-glossary-60-customer-experience-customer-success-and-ai-terms-explained#cs) · [Support and service](https://www.cxchronicles.com/blog/cx-glossary-60-customer-experience-customer-success-and-ai-terms-explained#support) · [Feedback and research](https://www.cxchronicles.com/blog/cx-glossary-60-customer-experience-customer-success-and-ai-terms-explained#feedback) · [AI and technology](https://www.cxchronicles.com/blog/cx-glossary-60-customer-experience-customer-success-and-ai-terms-explained#ai) · [Revenue and growth](https://www.cxchronicles.com/blog/cx-glossary-60-customer-experience-customer-success-and-ai-terms-explained#revenue)

## Core concepts

**Customer experience (CX):** the sum of every interaction a customer has with your business, and how they feel about it, from first hearing about you to renewing years later.

**Customer success (CS):** a proactive function that helps customers achieve the outcomes they bought your product for, driving retention and growth.

**Customer support (customer service):** a reactive function that helps customers when they reach out with questions or problems. See [Customer Success vs. Customer Support](https://www.cxchronicles.com/insights/).

**Employee experience (EX):** how employees experience working at your company. Strong EX is a foundation for strong CX.

**The Four CX Pillars:** CXChronicles' framework for customer operations: Team, Tools, Process and Feedback. [Learn more](https://www.cxchronicles.com/the-four-cx-pillars/).

**Customer journey:** the stages a customer moves through with your business, such as awareness, purchase, onboarding, adoption, renewal and advocacy.

**Customer journey map:** a visual of each journey stage, showing what the customer does, feels and needs, and who in your business is responsible.

**Touchpoint:** any point where a customer interacts with your brand: your website, a sales call, an invoice, a support chat.

**Moment of truth:** a touchpoint that has an outsized effect on how a customer feels about you, such as the first login or the first time something goes wrong.

**Customer-centric:** a way of running a business where decisions start with the customer's needs and outcomes.

**Ideal customer profile (ICP):** a description of the companies or people who get the most value from your product and are most valuable to you.

**Persona:** a semi-fictional profile of a type of customer or user, used to design experiences and messaging.

**Omnichannel:** giving customers a connected experience across channels (phone, email, chat, social, in person), so they don't have to repeat themselves.

## Metrics

**Net Promoter Score (NPS):** a loyalty metric based on "How likely are you to recommend us?" on a 0–10 scale. NPS = % promoters (9–10) minus % detractors (0–6).

**Promoter, passive and detractor:** NPS groups. Promoters score 9–10, passives 7–8 and detractors 0–6.

**Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT):** measures satisfaction with a specific interaction, usually on a 1–5 scale. See [CX vs. CSAT](https://www.cxchronicles.com/insights/).

**Customer Effort Score (CES):** measures how easy it was for a customer to get something done with you.

**Churn rate:** the percentage of customers (or revenue) lost over a period.

**Retention rate:** the percentage of customers (or revenue) kept over a period.

**Gross revenue retention (GRR):** recurring revenue kept from existing customers after cancellations and downgrades. It can't exceed 100%.

**Net revenue retention (NRR):** recurring revenue kept from existing customers including expansion. Above 100% means existing customers are growing.

**Customer lifetime value (CLV or LTV):** the total revenue you can expect from a customer over the whole relationship.

**Customer acquisition cost (CAC):** what it costs to win a new customer, including sales and marketing spend.

**Time to value (TTV):** how long it takes a new customer to get their first meaningful result from your product.

**First response time (FRT):** how long customers wait for a first reply.

**Average handle time (AHT):** the average length of a support interaction, including follow-up work.

**First contact resolution (FCR):** the share of issues resolved in the first interaction.

**Service level agreement (SLA):** a committed standard, such as replying to all urgent tickets within one hour.

**Leading indicator:** a metric that predicts future results, such as falling product usage before churn.

**Lagging indicator:** a metric that shows results after the fact, such as churn or revenue retention. See [the CX metrics that matter](https://www.cxchronicles.com/insights/).

## Customer success

**Customer success manager (CSM):** the person responsible for a set of customer relationships, focused on adoption, retention and growth.

**Onboarding:** the process of getting a new customer set up and seeing value from your product.

**Adoption:** how fully customers use your product and its key features.

**Customer health score:** a combined score, usually from usage, engagement, sentiment and support data, that signals whether an account is healthy or at risk.

**Success plan:** an agreed plan between you and a customer, setting out their goals and how you'll help achieve them.

**Business review (QBR or EBR):** a regular meeting, often quarterly, to review progress, value delivered and next goals with a customer's leadership.

**Playbook:** a documented, repeatable set of steps for a common situation, such as onboarding, a drop in health score or renewal.

**High-touch, low-touch and tech-touch:** coverage models with different levels of personal attention, from a named CSM to fully automated, digital engagement.

**Segmentation:** grouping customers by shared characteristics, such as size, industry or behavior, to tailor how you serve them.

**Customer advocacy:** turning happy customers into references, case studies, reviewers and champions.

**Fractional leader:** a senior CX, CS or RevOps executive who works with your business part time, instead of as a full-time hire. [See our services](https://www.cxchronicles.com/services/).

## Support and service

**Help desk:** software for managing customer requests as tickets, such as Zendesk, HubSpot Service Hub or Freshworks.

**Ticket:** a record of a customer request, from first contact to resolution.

**Self-service:** resources customers use to help themselves, such as a knowledge base, FAQs or community.

**Knowledge base:** a library of help articles and how-to guides.

**Escalation:** passing an issue to a more senior or specialist person when it can't be resolved at the first level.

**Tiered support:** organizing support into levels (tier 1, 2, 3) by complexity.

**Contact center (CCaaS):** software or a team that handles customer conversations across voice and digital channels. CCaaS means "contact center as a service", delivered from the cloud.

**Business process outsourcing (BPO):** using an external partner to run part of your customer operation, such as support.

## Feedback and research

**Voice of the customer (VoC):** a program for capturing customer feedback and turning it into action. [Read our VoC guide](https://www.cxchronicles.com/insights/).

**Closed-loop feedback:** responding to the customer who gave feedback, fixing the root cause and telling them what changed.

**Sentiment analysis:** using software to judge whether feedback, tickets or conversations are positive, negative or neutral.

**Customer interview:** a structured conversation to understand a customer's needs, experience and decisions.

**Churn interview:** a conversation with a customer who has left, to understand why.

**Customer advisory board:** a group of customers who meet regularly to give input on your product and direction.

## AI and technology

**CRM (customer relationship management):** the system of record for customer data and interactions, such as [HubSpot](https://www.cxchronicles.com/partners/hubspot/) or Salesforce.

**Tech stack:** the full set of software tools your teams use.

**Software utilization:** how much of the software you pay for is actually used. Many businesses use only a fraction.

**AI agent:** AI software that can understand customer requests and take action, such as answering questions, updating records or routing issues, with little or no human input.

**Chatbot:** software that holds text conversations with customers. Modern chatbots are often powered by AI agents.

**Large language model (LLM):** the AI technology behind tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, trained to understand and generate language.

**Human in the loop:** keeping a person involved to review, approve or step in on AI decisions, especially ones that affect customers.

**Conversation intelligence:** AI that analyzes calls and chats for themes, sentiment, compliance and coaching opportunities.

**Answer Engine Optimization (AEO):** making your brand easy for AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity to find and recommend. [Read our AEO guide](https://www.cxchronicles.com/insights/).

**Workflow automation:** using software to run repeatable steps automatically, such as routing leads or sending follow-ups.

**Integration:** a connection between two tools so data flows between them.

## Revenue and growth

**Revenue operations (RevOps):** aligning sales, marketing and customer success around shared processes, data and tools to drive revenue.

**Annual and monthly recurring revenue (ARR and MRR):** predictable subscription revenue, measured yearly or monthly.

**Expansion revenue:** additional revenue from existing customers through upsells and cross-sells.

**Upsell and cross-sell:** selling a customer a higher tier (upsell) or an additional product (cross-sell).

**Renewal:** a customer extending their contract at the end of its term.

**Lifecycle stage:** where a contact sits in your funnel, such as lead, marketing-qualified lead, customer or evangelist.

**Lead scoring:** assigning points to leads based on fit and behavior, so sales can focus on the most promising.

**Speed to lead:** how quickly your team follows up with a new inbound lead.

## Missing a term?

We add to this glossary regularly. If there's a term you'd like explained, email [hello@cxchronicles.com](mailto:hello@cxchronicles.com). And for nearly 300 conversations with the leaders putting these ideas into practice, listen to [The CXChronicles Podcast](https://www.cxchronicles.com/podcast/).

## Want help putting this into practice?

A 30-minute conversation, no obligation. We'll tell you where we'd start.

[Book a consultation](https://www.cxchronicles.com/contact-us/)

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