It goes without saying that the business industry today is competitive. You build a business based on an innovative idea and a month later, someone comes up with a new version of it. You open a shop in a certain street and a year later, someone plants a similar store in front of yours.
Competition – it’s what keeps businesses going.
Of course, in order to win the competition, you’re going to have to make sure your business stands out. One of the best ways to do so is by focusing on customer service and customer experience.
You might be thinking, what is customer experience? And isn’t it basically the same thing as customer service? Here’s an industry secret: though they may seem similar, they are actually very different. Knowing the difference between the two and enhancing them is the key to closing the competition.
When you simply serve the customers
Customer service is the direct interaction between a customer and a company representative. This is basically what happens before, during, or after a purchase and is all about addressing the customer’s needs, answering questions, resolving issues and offering support. Customer service is reactive – meaning it responds to specific problems or inquiries that customers have. It also means that the company doesn’t make the first move.
If you’re thinking of ways to improve your customer services, here are the key elements that you should consider:
Key Elements of Customer Service:
- Responsiveness
When you want to provide good customer service it’s important to handle customer questions and concerns quickly and efficiently. Don’t keep them waiting.
- Knowledge
Strive to always provide accurate and helpful information about products or services in order for your services to be effective.
- Empathy
It’s not enough to merely serve the customers, you must also be empathetic and understanding of your customer’s needs. Interactions with the customers are usually brief, show them that you care.
- Resolution
Finally, customer service is considered only effective when it solves problems and offers satisfactory solutions. Make sure that the solutions you offer actually solve the problem at hand.
When you have good customer service, you leave a good impression. It encourages customers to come back and even spread your brand by recommending it to others. However, in today’s competition, having great customer service is not merely enough to win the race.
For starters, having good customer service is not really an edge. It’s more of a necessity for a business to be successful. If you want your business to stand out, you will also need to offer something that no other company has. This is where awesome customer experience comes in.
Offer a whole new experience
Customer experience is the entire journey a customer has with your brand. It occurs from the first point of contact to the final interaction and beyond. It is not like customer service where your business needs to wait for the customer to interact first. It includes every touchpoint and interaction a customer has with your brand – whether it be through the website, social media, in-store visits, or customer service interactions.
Customer experience is proactive – it focuses on designing and managing all aspects of the customer journey to ensure a positive and cohesive experience.
With customer experience, you don’t think about how you provide service to the customer once they enter the store, you create strategies for them to already have an impression of your brand the moment they think about you.
If you’re already planning your own strategy to provide quality customer experience, here are the elements that you must consider:
Key Elements of Customer Experience:
- Consistency
To achieve good customer experience, you need to provide a seamless and uniform experience across all channels and touchpoints of your business.
- Personalization
Another important aspect of good customer experience is to tailor how you interact with the customers. Interactions are usually brief and limited, so it’s best to personalize it to meet the individual needs and preferences of customers.
- Engagement
Try to create meaningful and memorable interactions that foster emotional connections with the brand – this makes sure you leave a good impression on the customers.
- Feedback
Since customer experience is proactive, actively seek and utilize customer feedback to learn how to improve the overall experience.
Understanding the difference between customer experience and customer service is key for businesses looking to excel today. Improve your customer service and strive to provide an enhanced customer experience. Remember, while customer service focuses on individual interactions and immediate problem solving, customer experience covers the entire journey a customer takes with a brand.
Great customer service is a crucial part of the customer experience, but it is not the only part. You can have great customer service, but if other parts of the customer’s journey are lacking, then it affects the entire experience. For example, what good is a great customer rapport with a sales representative when the shipping process is lagging?
Enhance both to stand out in the competition. Create a holistic and positive relationship with your customers by knowing how to interact with them. Customer loyalty is not bought, it is built – embrace the nuances of customer service and customer experience, and watch your business thrive. Now that you know the difference between the two, the competition won’t even be a close race – you’re now definitely winning.
