What is Customer Service? Definition and why it's important
You’ve heard a lot about customer service.
Heck, we talk about it all the time!
After all, we believe that having a good customer service strategy can boost the revenue and longevity of your business.
But what is Customer Service and why is it so important?
Let’s break it all down today.
What is Customer Service?
Customer Service refers to a set of practices and procedures that seek to improve the interactions between a customer and the business through every step of the purchasing process.
Customer Service starts from the moment the customer becomes interested in your offerings and ends months or years after their purchase.
The overall goal of Customer Service is to make the customer have a pleasant experience through all their interactions with the business. An outstanding Customer Service experience can make up for service/product issues, delays and more.
A business’ Customer Service strategy can be quite broad, including strategies such as Customer Support, Customer Success, Technical Support and more.
Why Good Customer Service is Important
Providing your customers with good Customer Service experiences can bring multiple benefits to your business.
As we discussed, a good Customer Service experience can make up for errors or delays with your product and service.
Good Customer Service experiences can also increase your customers’ brand loyalty, making them more likely to return to your business and become advocates of your brand.
Outstanding Customer Service can also be seen aas a value-add to your service or product. Allowing you to charge more for your services and products or deliver extra value at a lower price.
There are many benefits that come with a strong and positive Customer Service offering. Read our guide on why offering good customer service is important for any business.
What is good customer service?
Now that we’ve defined customer service, what is good customer service?
Put simply, good customer service is anything that makes the customer happy.
It could be going above and beyond to solve a problem, providing stellar customer support or just being friendly and helpful throughout the customer’s journey.
Good customer service is about making the customer feel valued and appreciated. It’s about putting their needs first and doing whatever you can to make them happy.
If you can consistently deliver good customer service, your customers are likely to be a more loyal, advocate for your brand and return to do business with you in the future.
Customer Service vs Customer Support
Customer Service is often confused with Customer Support. Some people go as far as using the terms interchangeably.
However, both terms are quite different.
Customer Support refers to the assistant given to customers who might have questions, need specific help, or have run into a problem. As a result, not every customer needs Customer Support.
On the other hand, all customers should receive good Customer Service through all your interactions with your business, no matter if they run into a problem or not.
In short, Customer Support is one of the components of your overall Customer Service experience.
Want to learn more? Read about the differences between Customer Service and Customer Support.
Customer Service vs Technical Support
Customer Service is often confused with Technical Support as well.
Just like before, these two terms are quite different.
For starters, Technical Support (just like Customer Support) is usually part of a company’s overall Customer Service Strategy. It provides users who require it with support related to technical services or products, be it hardware or software.
Want to learn more? Read about the differences between Customer Service and Technical Support.
How to Improve Your Customer Service
Lastly, you might be wondering where to start when it comes to improving your customer service strategy.
A great way to start is by mapping out your Customer Journey. This will allow you to identify the multiple touchpoints between your customers and your business. You can then start optimizing your customer service at each touchpoint.
Read our guide on the Customer Journey and how to map it.
Next, we recommend you start implementing Customer Service standards in your business. After all, it’s hard to improve something if you don’t know what’s wrong with it in the first place.
Customer Service Standards allow you to measure and benchmark the performance of your Customer Service operations, helping you identify areas that might need improvements.
Read our guide on Customer Service Standards to implement in your business.