What Is the Difference Between Customer Service and Customer Experience
What is the difference between customer experience and customer service? While they are closely related, there are some important distinctions to be made. For example, customer service typically involves responding to a specific request or complaint from a current or potential customer.
Customer experience encompasses all aspects of interaction with your company - from the moment someone becomes aware of your business, through every touchpoint that follows. And while both have their own set of challenges, building positive interactions into each step ensures you're connecting with customers on an emotional level.
What Is Customer Service?
Customer service generally refers to a department within a business responsible for attending to the needs of customers and potential customers. Customer service may also be outsourced to a third-party company that specializes in providing customer support services. Customer service agents are the individuals who operate within departments or act on behalf of third-party companies that offer customer support services.
Customer service departments and individuals working in them may be responsible for various tasks, including fielding inquiries, responding to complaints, resolving disputes between customers and businesses, processing returns and refunds, providing technical support, helping customers locate desired products, or explaining their intended use. Customer service is often available via telephone hotline; email; online chat; social media messaging; or other Internet-based means. Customer service has undergone significant change in recent years, with many traditional call centers moving to "self-service" through technologies like automated voice recognition systems (IVRs) and live chat functions which allow visitors to obtain information themselves online without waiting for assistance. Customer service is also a growing industry, with many studies finding that consumers are willing to spend more on companies they believe provide excellent service. Customer service can also refer to the companies which interact with their customer base to help them, thus making it an integral part of a company's customer retention strategy.
What Is Customer Experience?
Customer experience, on the other hand, is more of a practice rather than a service. Customer experience refers to how customers feel about using a company's products and services. This again depends on how many stages of customer service they provide ranging from pre-purchase research to post-sales support. Customer experience also takes into account the entire process of buying the product. Customer service, as stated above refers to how customers are treated while using their product or service. It is important that customers feel good about their experience because they then develop loyalty towards the brand, leading them to return to buy more of their products and services. Customer service is another necessary part of customer experience, which can either make or break the relationship between a company and its customers.
Customer experience refers to how consumers feel when they use a company's product or service throughout the entire process. This includes pre-purchase research, the purchase itself, the actual usage of the product, and post-sales support. Customer experience takes into account all aspects of buying a product from start to finish. Customer experience is also only limited to that one brand because it does not include feeling towards other brands outside of that particular business' services or products. Customer service on the other hand, as stated above is how customers are treated while using their product or service. Customer service plays a crucial role in creating a positive customer experience and can be separated from the actual product or service itself. Customer service is an integral part of every company's business model, while customer experience is simply how customers feel about their overall buying experience.
Key differences between customer service & customer experience
- Customer service is how customers are treated while using a company's product or service. Customer experience on the other hand, as stated above, is how customers feel about their overall buying experience.
- Customer service does not include feelings towards other brands outside of that particular business' services or products. Customer experience on the other hand, as discussed above, includes feelings towards every brand that the customer deals with.
- Customer service is how a company takes care of you while you are interacting with them, be it online or in person. Customer experience on the other hand, as discussed above, looks at your total journey through different brands within an industry.
- Customer service is what you say and do to provide assistance and meet customer needs during these interactions. Customer experience encompasses the entire journey, including all the interactions that happen before and after purchasing a product.
- Customer experience is a term that covers the entire journey with a brand, from pre-purchase to post-purchase. Customer service happens within these stages and can be defined as how you respond or address customer needs during an interaction.
- Customer service focuses on the need for human interaction while customer experience is not confined to any one channel - whether it's digital or physical. Customer experience also encompasses the entire journey, from pre-purchase to post-purchase as well as all the interactions that happen before and after purchasing a product.
- It can be difficult to distinguish between customer service and customer experience because their border is blurry at times. Customer service typically starts when a customer makes a direct request or complaint, while customer experience is broader and encompasses every interaction a customer has with a company. Customer service can be considered one dimension of customer experience and is known as the "what" while customer experience is the "why," persisting over time.
- Customer service focuses on the features and functions of a product or service; customer experience expands beyond this to incorporate other emotions such as pleasure, fun, and excitement. Customer experience is about delivering an emotional connection with customers. By involving all departments within a business (marketing, sales, design, operations), companies can create this connection. Customer service teams can use their training to get on the right track for creating positive customer experiences, but they cannot lead the entire customer experience.
- Customer service is about responding to customers; customer experience is about anticipating and meeting their changing needs. Customer experience also drives loyalty and word of mouth, making it an invaluable asset for business growth.
- Customer service is reactive; customer experience is proactive. Customer service teams wait for customers to ask questions, while customer experience professionals anticipate what customers need and how they will want to be communicated with. Customer experience teams are the first step toward creating happy customers. With this strategy, businesses can reduce complaints and increase repeat business through personalized experiences that keep customers coming back for more.
- Customer service is "What can I do for you?" Customer experience is "What can we do together?" Customer service focuses on a single transaction, while customer experience seeks to create a long-term relationship. Customer service primarily engages customers when they first use a company's product or service and then moves them along, whereas customer experience is a perpetual engagement between the business and the consumer. Customer service is what most people think of when they hear "customer service," so it often gets confused with customer experience.
- Customer service represents the transactional side of commercial activity, while customer experiences seek to build loyalty — and long-term relationships. Customer service focuses on the needs of the customer at a certain point in time. Customer experience, on the other hand, attempts to strike an emotional chord with customers over time and encourage them to come back for more. Customer service is immediate; customer experience can be long-term.
Conclusion
Customer service and customer experience are two very different concepts. A good customer service representative will be able to answer a question or solve a problem but is not necessarily focused on making sure the interaction leaves the consumer feeling satisfied. The goal of providing an exceptional customer experience is to produce lifetime customers who keep coming back for more. Which side do you fall on? Is your company committed to delivering excellent customer experiences with every transaction?
