Support basics
The terms, in plain language.
If you ended up running support without ever planning to, the words can sound like jargon from a world you never joined. They are simpler than they sound. Here is what each one means and, more importantly, why a growing team needs it. The assessment builds most of these for you, from your own tickets.
What is a contact-driver taxonomy?
It is a ranked list of the reasons customers contact you, with how much of your volume each one is. Almost every team finds that a handful of reasons make up most of the work. Knowing that tells you what to document, fix, or automate first, instead of guessing. Throughscan builds yours from your own tickets, so it is your real list, not a generic one.
What is a macro, or saved reply?
A macro is a pre-written answer you drop into a reply in one click, instead of typing the same thing again. If you answer the same questions every day, macros save hours and keep your answers consistent across whoever is replying. Throughscan drafts a starter set from your own best replies, so they already sound like you.
What is a knowledge base, or help center?
A knowledge base is a set of public help articles customers can read to solve a problem themselves, without writing to you. Every article that answers a common question is a ticket you never have to handle. Throughscan drafts your first articles from answers that already worked for your customers.
What is ticket deflection?
Deflection is when a customer solves their own problem, through a help article or a clear product flow, so they never open a ticket. It is the cheapest support there is, because the best ticket is the one that never happens. You cannot deflect a question until you know which questions are most common, which is what the taxonomy gives you.
What are tags, and why tag tickets?
A tag is a label you put on a ticket so you can group and count them later, for example "billing" or "login." Without tags you cannot tell what is actually driving your volume, or whether a problem is growing week over week. Throughscan gives you a starter tag scheme built from your real contact reasons, so the labels match your actual work.
What is an SLA, or response-time target?
An SLA, short for service level agreement, is a promise about how fast you will respond or resolve, for example "first reply within four hours." It sets expectations for customers and a clear bar for your team. Throughscan suggests targets anchored to your own numbers, so they are realistic rather than aspirational.
Why look at the median and p90, not the average response time?
The average is misleading. A wall of fast auto-replies, or a few very quick ones, can drag the average down and hide the customers stuck waiting a day. The median is the typical wait, the experience of your middle customer. The p90 is the wait for your slowest one in ten, the unhappy tail an average buries. Throughscan computes all three from your file, so you see the real picture, not the flattering one.
What is resolution time?
Resolution time is how long it takes to fully solve a customer's issue, not just reply once. It reflects their actual experience of getting helped. It needs a "solved" or "closed" timestamp in your data, which a raw inbox often does not have, and the assessment tells you honestly when it cannot compute it.
What is re-contact, or a reopened ticket?
Re-contact is when a customer comes back about the same thing because the first answer did not actually solve it. A high re-contact rate is hidden rework: it looks like two tickets, but it was one problem answered badly the first time. Throughscan estimates yours so you can see where first answers are failing.
What does the 0 to 100 maturity score mean?
It is a simple read of how built-out your support operation is, from a drowning shared inbox at the low end to a well-run, measured team at the high end. It is not a grade on you. It is a starting point that shows what to build next. Most teams score lower than they expect, and that is fine, because the assessment hands you the next step.
What are backlog and aging?
Your backlog is the tickets still open and waiting. Aging is how long the oldest ones have sat untouched. A growing backlog, or old tickets nobody has answered, are the clearest sign you are underwater and need structure, not just more hours.
What is CSAT?
CSAT, short for customer satisfaction, is a rating customers give after an interaction, usually a thumbs up or down or a one to five score. It is the most direct read on whether customers feel helped. Many small teams do not collect it yet, and that is fine; the assessment uses it only if your export has it.
What is an export, and how do I get one?
An export is a file of your past tickets or emails that you download from your support tool or inbox. Throughscan reads that one file, with no login and no integration. If you run on a shared Gmail or Outlook inbox, you can export it as an mbox file and upload that directly. The assessment page has step-by-step instructions for every common tool.
The point of all of it is the same: spend less time answering the same questions, and make the answers customers do get faster and better. You do not need to know the terms to start. Upload your tickets and the assessment shows you where you stand and what to build first.