What gives you the ultimate business advantage in Customer Service Vs Customer Experience? Is customer experience a greater success mantra and the primary differentiator for organizations than customer service? In fact, both matter to organizations and should be given equal due, although, in the digital era, corporates lend more weight to the customer experience.
Let’s take a closer view of the Customer Service Vs Customer Experience analysis
Customer Service: Unit That Builds Relations
Customer service may sound more familiar to you than customer experience. Any customer service agent will try to explain the worth of his brand in the most suitable manner and is not involved in assisting the consumers with the technical or software application of the product sold. Their role is separate with regard to the entire understanding of the interactions of the customers concerned with your business. They promote strategic organizational goals and extend to the customer’s value for the money invested.
We all often see that the customer service staff are specially trained by the companies to display a positive attitude and communicate the brand message. They may not necessarily possess advanced technical expertise. In fact, Customer Service is more customer-centric than business oriented. They are more involved with customer satisfaction, and the relationship starts between a customer and the customer service unit, the very minute a transaction begins and does not end only there. Rather, the representatives tread the extra mile so that the users receive the most satisfying experience.
So, you can understand the level of teamwork customer service actually needs.
Customer Experience: The Perception The Customer Has
Customer Experience is an aggregation of the total customer interaction with a business or its products and facilities. It is related to the way the customers feel while interacting with your company. The consumer can perceive even while looking at your website or while being extended customer support for any query or even while receiving notification emails.
In fact, customer experience (CX) goes beyond the number of interactions with a company’s agencies or even a single exchange with your company. It actually involves the experience in totality that each customer-company interaction offers through the entire customer lifecycle.
A customer in the process of engaging with your company passes through various parameters like getting interested, interacting, purchasing, utilizing, cultivating, or even advocating your product to others. At times, a company might focus on just a specific part of the consumer’s journey and may fall short in impressing the customer regarding other aspects. This creates a consumer experience that fails to satisfy due to some reason. For instance, you can have a wonderful experience while purchasing a product but get a negative feeling after approaching the customer service department.
At times you place an order online and the portal displays a certain suggestion based on your purchasing habits which is quite exciting. After ordering its delivery gets delayed for any specific reason and you are distressed and struggling to contact customer service before the last date arrives. Now, this is a typical example of a firm that really not thinking about its consumer journey, to begin with.
A great customer experience is not only about extending great customer service. Customer service is only a fraction of customer experience.
This brings us to the actual distinction between customer service Vs customer experience.
Customer Service Relies On Human Interaction
The distinction between customer service and customer experience lies in the fact that while customer service concentrates on directly assisting customers and on human communication, customer experience covers the sum of the total journey experienced by the customer vis-a-vis your business.
Customer Service Is Reactionary While Customer Experience Is Proactive
Customer service comprises only one facet of the total experience while customer satisfaction encompasses the entire customer journey. It appears more reactive as it is invoked when a discontented consumer approaches the company. The business can only intervene after there are some mistakes committed, and not prior to it.
On the contrary, the customer experience is more keyed up and appears proactive. This is because here a business can revert to action for enhancing a customer’s journey before he gets dissatisfied.
Customer Service Is Just A Part Of Customer Experience
Customer experience extends beyond customer service and follows a holistic pattern that considers the overall journey of the consumer by cultivating a permanent relationship. CX includes the merging of physical, personal, and psychological aspect that takes place as a customer associates himself with your company. It is more feeling-oriented than problem-based. The entire customer experience is something that remains with the consumer and judges ultimately whether they return back or refer you.
Customer experience is an emotional bonding of the manner in which the consumer will identify with your brand and is not something within your control. You can only mold that experience into a pleasant one by raising customer engagement either through social media, promotions, surveys, or direct communication. It is customer engagement after all that helps to retain your customer base and keep them reverting to you persistently.
Create A Successful Strategy
You must be by now grappling with the idea of whether to stress customer service vs customer experience for securing perfect business results. The final verdict is that you cannot do any one of these. If you are in a fix, first decide upon a customer service strategy that boosts customer satisfaction. Take some time to evaluate the different types of customer service and create your support suite. Once that is achieved, work on improving the customer experience.
To do CX the most effective way would be to pay attention to every interaction across the complete customer journey. Keeping customer perception at the pinnacle is important, for you might think that you provide an excellent CX, whereas your consumers may perceive differently.
You can also know more:
The 3 Psychological Triggers that Matter to Happy Customers
How To Attract New Customers and Keep Them
Tips for Responding to Customer Reviews—Positive and Negative
