Customer Experience, Customer Service or Customer Care?

Do you mean Customer Experience, Customer Service or Customer Care?

The words in the title are used a lot lately. And not because they can be called buzzwords, but because companies need to invest into building a strong customer experience if they want to keep up with their competitors. Talking about customer experience, you should not forget about customer service and care. In this blog, we are going to clarify the differences between these terms.

Importance of Customer Experience

Offering the best possible experience is even more important these days than competing on price or quality. Customers are more likely to renew a relationship with a brand if the interactions are fast and easy. And a positive experience makes it more likely for them to recommend your company’s product to friends and family.

More and more companies take customer experience seriously. Gartner’s 2019 Customer Experience Management Survey shows that the word is out and that organizations are more committed to customer experience by professionalizing their organization and higher budgets.

Lost in translation

There are a lot of ways to interact with customers and to work on your customer experience, but what exactly is the difference between customer experience, customer service and customer care?

Customer service is the advice or assistance a company gives its customers

Customer service is the support you offer your customers both before and after they buy and use your products or services. And this no longer only happens through an agent on the phone, but also through messaging channels, email, web chat and social media. Customer service is not only about answering questions, but the goal is to increase customer satisfaction and to make sure your customer has a great buying experience.

Customer care means how well customers are taken care of while interacting with the brand

Most of the time you see the term customer service instead of customer care. Whereas customer service is more about the advice or assistance you offer your customers, customer care is mainly about the emotional connection with your customers. It means how customers are treated while interacting with your brand. So it’s not only about closing a deal or making a sale, but also about listening to your customers and their needs in order to find the right solution. In most instances, customer care is one step beyond basic customer service.

Customer experience is the complete customer journey when a customer interacts with your brand

Customer experience is the sum of all contact between a customer and a brand. From the first time searching for a product or service to the purchase, to actually using the product or service and the aftercare. From this complete customer journey with all its touchpoints your customer gets a full impression of your brand and this results in several factors, including your revenue.

Although all three terms sound similar, they represent different things. What they do have in common is that they all contribute to building loyal and satisfied customer relations. Customer experience is the sum of all contact, customer service and customer care are pieces of the puzzle.

Our Mobile Service Cloud offers all channels, tools, and features you need to provide superior customer experience, reduce pressure on your customer care team, and even improve business results. Read more.