Unified inbox

Omnichannel describes one continuous conversation and history across chat, email, voice, and social, so a customer who switches channel does not have to restart. The distinction from multichannel is continuity: offering many channels is not omnichannel unless context follows the customer between them.

A ticket is the record of a single customer issue and everything done about it, including messages, internal notes, actions taken, and final disposition. The ticket is the unit most support reporting counts, which is why inconsistent ticket creation quietly distorts every downstream volume metric.

A queue is the ordered set of contacts waiting to be handled, usually segmented by channel, language, skill, or customer tier. Queue design determines who waits and for how long, making it one of the most consequential and least visible decisions in a support operation.

Routing is deciding which agent, team, or AI agent receives a contact, based on intent, language, skill, customer tier, and availability. Accurate routing is the cheapest available reduction in handle time, because a misrouted contact pays the cost of being read and reassigned twice.