Customer Experience VS Customer Service… Do You Know the Difference?
Everyone knows about customer service. Every single one of us has a wonderful story about a great experience that made our day, as well as a horror story about some psychopath that put us in a bad mood. According to the dictionary, customer service is “the assistance and advice provided by a company to those people who buy or use its products or services.” Many of us think that that definition defines the experience a customer has with your company. However, the experience happens way before that, and goes far beyond it!
Customer Service = One-on-one communication between a business representative and a customer. A reactive transaction at the point of purchase, or once a customer is dissatisfied. Trying to mitigate an unhappy experience.
Customer Experience = Also known as CX, Customer Experience is a proactive and holistic approach to ensuring a positive experience pre-purchase, during the exchange, and after the transaction. This helps build the client’s perception that’s created during every interaction with your company (both online and offline).
Let’s Look at the Entire Journey
It’s really more important to think about every single stage of a customer’s experience with you.
Essentially, providing consistently easy and seamless transactions lead to an overall positive perception of your brand, and happy customers that are willing to sing your praises.
Perception is 100% important to your brand. In today’s digital society, more than 80 PERCENT of people research a company online before even considering looking at their products or services. To address this, we have to provide an omni-channel experience, so that our branding and messaging is consistent and positive across every single platform – including website, social media, in person, by phone, by email, post-purchase, etc.
The Nitty Gritty
Let’s look at it this way. Loyal customers are…
- much more likely to repurchase
- more likely to forgive one bad experience
- much more likely to try a new product or service
- more likely to refer your product or service to a friend
It’s essential nowadays to make Customer Experience your priority as a business owner. We must exceed customer expectations at every single stage of their journey, and the customer’s needs has to be placed at the very center of your business strategy. According to Forrester (a huge international market research company), “72% of businesses say that improving the customer experience is their top priority.”
We’re just skimming the surface here, so we’d love to provide more info to you! We’re experts on every stage of the customer journey. If you’d like to meet up to have some rum, and chat through some ideas, we’re happy to listen! Call or email today to schedule a 30-min consultation at no cost to you. You can reach us at (813) 499-1088!
