What is Application program Interface (API) in customer service?

API is Application Programming Interface 

for nonexpert ..its s part of program that been design to connect the solution to another program using protocols .. 

theres many examples for such APIs one of the most used are restful API and soap

and as examples of APIs that connects sevesis together

facebook api , google ..etc 

 lets take google map api as our exsample 

by using google map api in you mobile application we can use google maps to find a location in the map using your application 

this is one of many usege of the API technology .. there are more to cover .. 

kind regards

well explained by all and i agreed with their answers.

It is service used in the web. Through which we can send and receive data between server and customers.

Programmatically is a set of functions that used to read and write in database and response on the request which receive from client.

It can be built by using different programming languages such as ( aps.net web api 2, php slim, java, R and python)

In order to be able to use them, there must be interfaces from the client.

We can build it using ( angular 6, react and jquery).

Note The client can be another server.

For example, API can be used to collect data from different sources in order to build useful reports for the company.

Application Programming Interface is a set of functions and routes, that access the data from the system and is used to built applications.

This helps the different parts of the software to interact with each other.

APIs are made up of two related elements. The first is a specification that describes how information is exchanged between programs, done in the form of a request for processing and a return of the necessary data. The second is a software interface written to that specification and published in some way for use.

API in customer service broadly comprises 5 main components namely:

1. CONTACT DETAILS INTERFACE - Customer Name,Address,Status etc.

2. CUSTOMER PROFILES INTERFACE-Customer profile,Credit term,Discount,dunning info.

3. CUSTOMER PRIMARY INTERFACE-Contact point,Email,fax,Creation date,last contact date.

4. CUSTOMER BANKS INTERFACE-Bank Name,Branch Name,Account Number,Currency,Home country.

5. CUSTOMER PAY METHOD INTERFACE-Customer code,payment method,Creation date,update date etc.

Hope this answers.

APIs are made up of two related elements. The first is a specification that describes how information is exchanged between programs, done in the form of a request for processing and a return of the necessary data. The second is a software interface written to that specification and published in some way for use.

The software that wants to access the features and capabilities of the API is said to call it, and the software that creates the API is said to publish it.

The web, software designed exchange information via the internet and cloud computinghave all combined to increase the interest in APIs in general and services in particular.

Software that was once custom-developed for a specific purpose is now often written referencing APIs that provide broadly useful features, reducing development time and cost and mitigating the risk of errors.

APIs have steadily improved software quality over the last decade, and the growing number of web services exposed through APIs by cloud providers is also encouraging the creation of cloud-specific applications, internet of things (IoT) efforts and apps to support mobile devices and users.

 API is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. Basically, an API specifies how software components should interact.

An API isn’t the same as the remote server — rather it is the part of the server that receives requests and sends responses.