What this post is about
- Provide a code of conduct as a framework
The success of a company often depends on customer satisfaction. Customer service and customer support play a central role in this, but are often mistakenly seen as synonyms. However, understanding the subtle differences between these two areas allows you to better allocate your resources more effectively and create a seamless customer experience.
What is customer service?
Customer service is an umbrella term for all interactions between a company and its customers. The goal is to build and maintain long-term relationships with customers. It involves ensuring that customers' needs are understood and that they are retained through positive experiences with the company.
Customer service therefore begins with the first contact with the product or brand and extends beyond product consultation and sales to post-purchase support. Customer service is proactively pursued in order to achieve set goals and make the customer experience as pleasant as possible.
What is meant by customer support?
In contrast, customer support focuses on resolving specific problems and technical difficulties that may arise during the use of a product or service. The emphasis is on handling individual cases and finding quick and effective solutions. Typically, administrative tasks such as deleting profiles, checking for technical bugs, or ensuring ongoing functionality are handled by support.
While customer service looks at the bigger picture, customer support is aimed at tackling concrete challenges faced by customers and ensuring that they can continue to work smoothly with the company's products or services.
Where do customer service and customer support intersect?
Although customer service and customer support have different focuses, there are overlaps between the two areas. Both aim to ensure a positive customer experience with the company. In both customer service and customer support, it is essential to address the individual needs and expectations of customers and to meet them as effectively as possible.
Moreover, insights gained from customer support can contribute to enhancing overall customer service. Frequently occurring problems or questions can be used as feedback to optimize products, services, or internal processes, thereby preventing future issues.
Which skills are relevant for service and support?
What the service promotes and promises, the support must restore when issues arise. If one component is missing, customer satisfaction decreases.
To perform successfully as a service employee, the following skills are necessary:
- Empathy and a sympathetic ear for customer needs
- Effective sales skills
- A strong understanding of the overall product
Support employees should have the following abilities:
- Extensive knowledge of product functions and technical details
- Deep expertise in handling detailed inquiries
- A solution-oriented approach
Which indicators are helpful for evaluating good service and support work?
The quality or areas for improvement in service and support can be captured and analyzed using various analytical and evaluation tools. Each area utilizes different parameters that provide insights into efficiency.
In service, the following indicators are relied upon:
- Metrics for loyalty programs or achieved sales
- Customer satisfaction surveys and improvement in satisfaction rates
- Feedback systems and rating tools
To evaluate support metrics, companies emphasize:
- Processing time for inquiries, which can be reduced through ticket systems like Zammad
- A low backlog rate
- Focused problem resolution on first contact
Summary
Customer service and customer support go hand in hand! Both work towards ensuring a smooth and positive customer experience and strengthening long-term customer relationships. Continuous improvement in both areas is a challenging but essential task for the success of a company.