Customer experience and customer service are two very common terms in business. However, many people confuse them and use them interchangeably. While they are certainly related concepts, they are not the same. They are also important concepts.
Research by Zippia says that 73% of customers believe customer experience is vital aspect of purchasing. Similarly, statistics prove that 81% of customers are likely to make another purchase after receiving outstanding customer service.
Seeing how vital they are, how can you differentiate between customer service vs customer experience?
In this blog, we’ll demystify the differences between these important business aspects.
Customer service refers to any immediate support provided by a company to its customers before, during, and after they purchase a product or service.
Customer service encompasses the various ways a business engages with its customers with the aim of addressing customers’ needs and ensuring a positive overall experience.
Customer experience (CX) is a term that defines a customer’s overall perception, emotions, and impression towards a business or brand throughout their relationship.
CX is not confined to a single interaction or transaction; instead, it is an ongoing process that evolves.
The customer experience journey begins when a potential customer becomes aware of a brand or business. This could be through advertisements, word-of-mouth, social media, or even an online search.
The journey continues as the customer engages with the brand, which could involve browsing your website, making inquiries, and ultimately purchasing.
But the customer experience doesn’t end at the point of sale. It extends to post-purchase interactions, including customer service and support, feedback solicitation, and any other communication between the business and the customer.
Every touchpoint between a customer and a business shapes the customer experience. Therefore, businesses should strive to ensure positive and memorable interactions, increasing customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy.
Customer service and customer experience focus on different areas. Here are some of the notable differences of customer experience vs customer service.
When it comes to the approach, customer service tends to be reactive in nature. This means that it kicks into action once a problem has arisen or a question has been posed by a customer.
The main aim is to resolve the problem or provide an answer to the query as quickly and effectively as possible.
In contrast, customer experience takes a proactive approach. This involves creating strategies and implementing measures designed to ensure customers have a positive experience at every stage of their interaction with the brand.
The objective is to make the customer’s journey as seamless and enjoyable as possible.
In terms of measuring success, there are different key metrics involved.
Customer service is typically gauged with metrics such as first-call resolution and response time, net promoter score (NPS), , and customer satisfaction (CSAT) score. These metrics are indicative of how efficiently customer queries or issues are resolved.
On the other hand, customer experience is quantified using metrics like customer effort score, retention rate, churn rate, and lifetime value estimate.
These metrics provide a measure of the overall satisfaction of the customer, their loyalty to the brand, and their likelihood to recommend it to others.
Customer service and customer experience also differ in the touchpoints they include. Customer service deals with specific touchpoints where customers seek help, such as phone support and email.
Conversely, customer experience encompasses the entire customer journey, from marketing and sales to product usage and post-purchase interactions.
Customer service’s primary objective is to address immediate customer issues and ensure short-term satisfaction. It is about problem-solving and providing quick fixes.
In contrast, the goal of customer experience is to build long-term loyalty and advocacy. This is achieved by consistently exceeding customer expectations, providing memorable interactions, and fostering strong relationships.
While customer service and customer experience cater to different aspects of customer interaction, they share several similarities.
Customer service and customer experience both play a key role in any organization’s success, as they revolve around meeting the needs and expectations of customers.
The primary purpose of both of these areas is to enhance customer satisfaction and cultivate positive relationships with customers.
They both strive to ensure that customer needs are met effectively and efficiently, which in turn helps to foster customer loyalty and retention.
Ultimately, a company’s goal is to establish and sustain strong customer relationships, which can be achieved through excellent customer service and a good overall customer experience.
Customer service is a major contributing factor to the customer experience, so improving your support system also improves your customers’ overall experience with your company.
Both customer service and customer experience efforts frequently employ the use of customer relationship management (CRM) systems such as help desk software and knowledge base software.
These systems act as a central repository for customer data and history, ensuring consistency in customer interactions.
Providing excellent customer service and customer experience both requires good communication skills, good knowledge of your audience, and empathetic responses to concerns.
Marketing, sales, PR, and support teams all contribute to the customer experience.
Knowing to whom they’re speaking, either directly or through an ad, and how to do so most effectively is what will make customers feel valued and understood.
Well-trained teams can use these skills to foster a positive relationship between customers and the brand.
Let’s explore more details on the best strategies and benefits of providing good customer service.
Customer service includes all the steps of providing customer support. To offer exceptional customer service, you must have strategies in place.
The following are some of the strategies for delivering exceptional customer service:
Customer service is important to any business for multiple reasons.
Here are the detailed explanations on customer experience components, best practices, and its significance.
Brand quality: Customers expect high quality and consistent performance from brands’ products. They want the brand to deliver on its promises and maintain its standards over time.
Customer interaction: Customers expect efficient, respectful, and personalized interaction from businesses. They want their issues and concerns to be addressed promptly and accurately.
Customer journey: Customers expect a seamless, enjoyable experience. They want easy navigation, transparent pricing, excellent customer service, efficient post-purchase delivery, easy returns/exchanges, and effective after-sales service.
The customer experience (CX) not only shapes the company’s reputation but also directly impacts its bottom line. To deliver an exceptional customer experience:
The quality of the customer experience can significantly influence a company’s success. Here’s why CX aspects matter:
In conclusion, both customer service and customer experience play crucial roles in a company’s success. They shape the company’s reputation and directly impact its bottom line.
One way to make a big impact on both is by integrating BoldDesk into your cx support system. BoldDesk is powerful help desk software that helps you understand your customers’ needs, expectations, and experiences.
BoldDesk offers a 30-minute live demo to give you a peek at what its features can do for your company and to let you ask any questions you may have. Or, you can sign up for a 15-day free trial to explore on your own how its features can be customized and incorporated into your workflow. Let BoldDesk help you exceed your customers’ expectations.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact BoldDesk’s customer service.
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