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 can exist on any number of your channels. You might use an acquisition chatbot as a way to start a conversation with new visitors, or you could use it to share useful information and production suggestions with existing customers. 

An AI chatbot is a piece of software that interacts with a human through written language. It is often embedded in web pages or other digital applications to answer customer inquiries without the need for human agents, thus providing affordable effortless customer service.

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are a set of routines, protocols and tools that allow software programs to communicate with each other. APIs can be used by developers to make their own applications or by companies who want to share data about their products or services with others.

Within the Mobile Marketing Cloud, you'll find CM.com's Campaigns: the perfect tool to build and manage your mobile SMS campaigns, both manually and automated.

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.

A CDP or Customer Data Platform is software that collects customer touch-points 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.

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. 

Collections chatbots provide a one-platform solution to collect payments from your customers and can be set up to accept a wide variety of payment methods. Making payments simple and easy is the key to converting customers quickly and efficiently.

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.

CPaaS stands for Communications Platform as a Service. It is a cloud-based delivery platform that enables businesses to add real-time Communication Channels (SMS, Voice and Conversational Channels) to their applications with the use of APIs.

A customer service chatbot can automatically respond to repetitive queries and even scrape your website for the information needed to answer more complex questions. Automating the process of responding to customer questions allows your team to deliver a better and more consistent experience.

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 dedicated short code is used to enable companies to send messages with a specific short code dedicated only for their business and enabling response for the end user to that same number (Sender ID).

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.

Within the Mobile Marketing Cloud, you'll find CM.com's Email Campaigns tool: the perfect tool to create and personalise newsletters and transactional email campaigns. A/B-test email campaigns and send email campaigns in bulk.

External Short Messaging Entities or ESMEs are external applications that connect to an SMS service for sending and receiving SMS messages. Examples of ESME’s are voting systems or automated marketing messages.

An FAQ chatbot can be used to automate answers to some of the more common questions your organisation may be asked. These types of questions can be a huge drain on your customer service team and often involve repetitive, copy & paste answers that are more easily and efficiently managed by machine.

An internal knowledge base chatbot allows you to hold a vast amount of internal company information in one place for your customer service team. One of the benefits of an internal knowledge base chatbot is it can fast track new employee training and allow new starters to become more effective.

A live event chatbot allows customers to get quick answers to their questions before, during and after a live event. Live event chatbots can respond quickly and easily to the sorts of repetitive logistical questions visitors ask about live events.

Long code stands for a regular MSISDN number virtualised and enabled for usage in Two-way messaging. So, you have a regular number that is linked to a system that can be used for interactions with the end-users. These can be dedicated or shared the way Uber does.

An easy to implement messaging solution with which you can send out SMS messages from your email account.

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 commerce (also known as eCommerce or m-commerce) refers to shopping, banking, or making payments online through mobile devices like smartphones or tablets. Mobile commerce is the new form of eCommerce (electronic commerce), which refers to sales transactions conducted online via the internet.

CM.com's Mobile Marketing Cloud is an omnichannel customer engagement solution build for B2C marketers. It's the only solution that includes all mobile messaging channels like WhatsApp. This empowers marketers to create superior customer experiences that increase conversion rates and sales.

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

OTP is the abbreviation of One Time Password and is a string of characters or numbers automatically generated to be used for one single login attempt. These can be sent to the user’s phone via SMS or Push messaging. OTP’s will minimise the risk of fraudulent login attempts.

Online identification refers to any bit of information associated with a specific individual found on the internet. While online identification is most often connected with entire personal accounts, such as banking profiles, it can consist of any personally identifiable information.

The POPI Act is a new all-inclusive piece of legislation that safeguards the integrity and sensitivity of private information. Companies are required to carefully manage the data capture and storage process of Personal Information within the lawful framework as set out in the Act.

Push is a messaging solution with which you can send large batches of Push messages to your app(s). Our Push messaging solution by Certa allows you use filters and preferences to fine-tune your notifications for your audience.

A Software Development Kit (SDK) is a collection of tools that allow you to build your software with implemented CM.

A short code is a specialised 5 or 6-digit number ideal for marketing campaigns, lead generation, and promotions where you want people to easily remember your number. Short codes are used for sending and receiving SMS (and MMS) messages to mobile phones.

Smishing, a mash-up of SMS and the more familiar cyber scam of “phishing,” is the practice of sending fraudulent text messages to individuals or businesses. The aim of such messages is to convince the target to click on a malicious link or provide sensitive information.

An SMS API is a type of API that allows your business to integrate SMS (Short Message Service) messaging into your existing software platforms. SMS APIs enable you to send or receive SMS messages quickly and easily through any website or application.

Two-factor authentication (also known as 2FA) is a technology that provides the identification of users by means of the combination of two different components. In other words, 2FA adds a second level of authentication to an account log-in.

Verification chatbots are a simple and secure way to verify the identity of customers, allowing them to access and update their information online without the need to contact customer service teams 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'.

VOIP, or Voice over IP, an IP network like the internet is used to transfer speech. This enables you to connect speech and data.

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 refers to the practice of sending promotional messages from a brand's WhatsApp Business account to a specific audience of customers. This allows businesses to establish a direct line of connection with potential consumers and promote their products or services.

Testing SMS routes with the same numbers, as done with SIM boxes, results in Whitelisting. This means that algorithms will determine these numbers as priority numbers. Whitelisting of mobile numbers gives a distorted view of messaging delivery rates and route quality.

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.