Glossary

A2P stands for Application to Person messaging. These are messages that are sent from an application to a person, for example One Time Passwords, bank alerts or booking confirmations using API or Web App.

An acquisition chatbot is designed and explicitly used to acquire new customers or users for a product, service, or organisation. These chatbots are a subset of conversational AI applications typically employed in marketing and sales contexts.

An AI chatbot is a computer program that simulates human communication. Chatbots are frequently used in a wide variety of online situations, from customer service to sales.

Bulk SMS is an A2P messaging method that allows businesses to send large volumes of text messages to multiple recipients simultaneously. It's often used by businesses to quickly share information, promotions or alerts.

Call deflection is a method of relieving the strain on your customer service team. It focuses on resolving a large volume of queries without the need for human interaction, providing customers with the information they need quickly and effectively using automation to provide resolution.

Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) solutions describe SaaS applications that provide the functionality to replicate a traditional, fully-fledged contact centre. CCaaS software contains a host of communication features, enabling companies to communicate with customers via one solution.

Collaborative customer service is an approach that uses teams of agents to solve complex customer service cases. In this approach, customer service agents work with colleagues to solve complex issues in organised groups. 

Conversational AI (artificial intelligence) technology enables computers to engage in natural-sounding text conversations with customers. When chatbot interactions seem natural, consumers feel like they are having an organic social interaction.

Conversational Commerce is the idea of enabling consumers to shop and communicate with brands through messaging channels, voice, and chat. Brands can implement conversational commerce using technology like chatbots, social messaging or virtual assistants.

Conversational Marketing is the practice of engaging in real-time, personalised conversations with potential customers to guide them through the buyer’s journey. It is an effective way to build relationships with customers, understand their needs, and improve their consumer experience.

Cookieless data collection gathers user data and insights without using website cookies (data trackers that contain personal identifiers) either because the user rejects them or because they are not permitted. This method is growing given multiple tracking restrictions and privacy regulations.

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) is software that collects customer touchpoints and interactions with your product or service from various channels and sources. It aggregates all this data from multiple sources to create a unified profile of each customer.

A customer service chatbot is a computer program designed to interact with customers and automatically provide them with information, assistance, or support through text-based or voice-based conversations.

Customer service software is the program or platform a business uses to manage its customer service channels. The best customer service software helps brands manage, prioritise, and handle requests and complaints from customers - from any location, at any time, via the customer’s preferred channel.

A digital signature guarantees that an electronic document is authentic. It is an encrypted digital code appended to an electronic document to verify that it was created by a known source and has not been altered.

An electronic signature, also known as an e-signature, is a digital version of the paper-based method of signing signatures. It allows a person to electronically add a signature to a digital contract or document, thereby removing the need for ink and paper.

An FAQ, or Frequently Asked Questions, chatbot answers common questions that users may have about a product or service. These chatbots simplify finding information by automating answers to questions that can significantly drain the service teams and often involve repetitive copy-and-paste responses.

First-party data is customer data collected with consent and owned directly by your company (the data controller). It is a valuable source of customer insight in the age of data privacy, as regulations and security measures now make other types of data less secure, accurate, and reliable.

Geo-redundancy is the practice of replicating and backing up your business's data, applications and servers across several physical locations. Its goal is to spread risk across multiple “redundant” points to avoid a single point of failure.

An internal, or knowledge base, chatbot is designed to interact with employees or users within an organisation. Unlike customer-facing chatbots used for customer support or engagement on external websites or platforms, internal chatbots are intended for use within a company or enterprise.

IVR or Interactive Voice Response is an automated phone system with call routing capabilities. It answers incoming calls and prompts customers to interact with a pre-recorded message or series of messages, taking them to the appropriate business department based on their response.

A live event chatbot is a computer program designed to interact with attendees or participants during a live event, such as a conference, webinar, sports event, concert, or any other gathering.

Marketing automation refers to the use of software and technology to automate and enhance marketing activities, such as email campaigns, SMS campaigns, social media ad campaigns, chatbot conversations, tracking, A/B testing and more.

Mobile marketing applies the principles of marketing with a focus on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Mobile marketing aims to attract, engage and communicate with customers via content, campaigns and managed conversations via email, SMS, MMS, social media and messaging channels.

Omnichannel marketing is the integration and cooperation of an organisation's various channels to interact with consumers, create a consistent brand experience, and interact with consumers seamlessly.

A payment service provider (PSP) refers to a third-party solution that enables businesses to accept a variety of online payment methods by connecting them to the broader financial system. 

A Qualified Electronic Signature is an e-signature accompanied by a qualified certificate to ensure the highest levels of authenticity & originality. A QES verifies the signer’s identity with a legitimacy level that equals the legal value & effect of a traditional handwritten signature in Europe.

A returns chatbot is a virtual assistant designed to help customers return products or items they have purchased from a company via automation. The primary purpose of a chatbot for returns is to streamline and simplify the process for customers.

Safeguard is a suite of software-based features aimed to combat fraud. All features help CM.com customers put restrictions and rules in place for their traffic flow and help recognise and monitor suspicious activity in traffic.

Self-service enables customers to find information they need without having to wait in a queue for customer service agents, or even having to speak to a human at all. It involves automating (and simplifying) elements of the customer service journey to relieve reliance on your customer service team.

Client and server-side tracking are two routes to collecting audience data. With client-side tracking, the user’s browser (client) sends data to the tracking platform’s server. Server-side tracking sends the user data to your website server first before being transferred to the tracking platform. 

SIP trunking is a type of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology that lets businesses make calls over a data connection rather than a traditional phone line.

An SMS Gateway enables you to send text messages to mobile phones all around the world. To integrate this functionality into your application, you (or your developers) should implement communication with an SMS API.

A verification chatbot is designed to identify, confirm or verify information users provide simply and securely, allowing them to access and update their information online without contacting companies directly.

A voicebot is a conversational agent that uses artificial intelligence and natural language understanding (NLU) to interpret the intent and meaning in the speech of its conversational partner. We also refer to this technology as 'Conversational IVR'.

Besides API and SDK integration, CM offers most products as web apps as well. By using the web apps on our platform, you’ll gain easy access to all CM’s products for messaging, payments, voice and authentication.

A One Time Password or OTP is a security code designed to be used for a single login attempt or transaction, to minimise the risk of fraudulent attempts and maintain high security. OTPs are more secure than static passwords created by users and their potential reuse across multiple accounts.

WhatsApp Business Platform allows large and medium-sized businesses to engage and communicate with customers at scale via APIs. Engagement can be live or automated, and the APIs can be integrated with numerous back-end systems.

A WhatsApp Chatbot is a computer program that simulates text-based human conversation via the WhatsApp messaging platform. WhatsApp Chatbots can automatically respond to various customer communications, from customer service to sales, and can be integrated via the WhatsApp Business Platform.

WhatsApp Commerce provides brands with a means of connecting with users and selling their products and services directly to them. It does so by allowing companies to engage in two-way communication between themselves and their customers as a form of conversational commerce.

With the WhatsApp Business Platform, you can deliver exceptional customer service in real-time, ensure your customers have all the information they need in one familiar place, and ask questions regarding their order whenever they like.

WhatsApp Marketing is sending messages from a brand's WhatsApp Business account to a specific audience of customers for promotional purposes. In doing so, it allows businesses to establish a direct line of connection between themselves and potential consumers.

A WISMO, or Where Is My Order, chatbot is designed to assist customers in tracking the status and location of their orders. These chatbots are commonly used in eCommerce and logistics industries to provide real-time updates to customers regarding the delivery progress of their purchased items.