Customer service and support (CSS) is the part of a company's customer relationship management (CRM) department that interacts with a customer for their immediate benefit, including components such as the contact center, the help desk, and the call management system.
According to Lithium Technologies (a CSS product vendor), corporate costs for CSS interactions are expected to reach $100 billion in 2004. To increase customer satisfaction, while minimizing the costs involved, many companies are turning to customer-based service applications such as Web self-service and online communities for customer-to-customer support.
This was last updated in February 2004