Understanding the difference between customer service and customer experience.
By Pete Mercer
Much has been made of improved customer service and the hyperfocus on the customer experience in the last several years. Companies across the world have been focusing on tactics that are meant to improve their relational approach to bringing in customers and driving leads for the organization, focusing on improving the customer experience and strengthening their customer service processes.
But what’s the actual difference between customer service and customer experience? Have we lost the thread on what’s important to the customer as opposed to what’s important to the organization? How is internal and external communication involved in the customer experience?
Laurie Brown is a communications coach and customer service expert who has worked in a wide range of sectors for over 30 years. From working with bull semen salesmen to teaching customer service skills to the government of the kingdom of Bahrain, she has literally seen it all.
Brown recently sat down with Repertoire Magazine to discuss the difference between customer service and the customer experience, where companies get the idea of the customer experience right and wrong, and how companies can improve their communication processes.
Breaking down the idea of the customer experience
According to Brown, the difference between customer service and customer experience is all in how you look at the customer. “I walk into a coffee shop, ask for a cup of coffee. I ask for something, I get it. That’s customer service. Providers of customer service think of it as what they do and how they do it. The customer experience is every touchpoint that I experience when I’m getting that cup of coffee. When you think of it this way, it’s action and reaction. What action does the person providing that service do, and how do I experience and react to it?”
While you may not be intentionally creating an excellent (or not so excellent) experience for your customers, the customer experience is an inevitability. There will be an experience at every interaction and every turn, which means that your company needs to be intentional with every moment of engagement. “People often receive a customer experience inadvertently because it can just be something that happens. It is every touchpoint from my first encounter, whether it’s an email, a phone call, your website or the experience of meeting you as a sales rep. All these things happen whether someone is managing these things or not.”
There may be detractors out there that might argue that their products speak for themselves, but the customer experience is one of the most important concepts for an organization to pay attention to right now. The customer experience matters more now than it ever has before, and it’s only going to become more important.
As far as Brown is concerned, there are three things that customers want, no matter where they are. “They want interactions that are easy, processes that are easy. (Second) They want the experience to be personal, which means meeting me where I am. And last, they want people who are nice. What’s your likeability? If I’m going to spend time with you in my office, you better be nice. There’s no time to deal with people who aren’t nice.”
Getting it right versus getting it wrong
While the primary difference between customer service and customer experience is a pretty simple concept, there are plenty of companies that are still missing the mark on the customer experience.
The best indicator for whether a company is getting the customer experience right or not is how they care about the customer. When a company cares more about the customer than themselves, the customers will feel that at every touchpoint.
Basing all of your interactions with your customers on their preferences is a powerful technique to give them the agency they need to engage with your brand in their own time and convenience. “We want our customer experience to be easy,” Brown said. “I don’t want to interrupt you in your workday. That’s not easy, so I need to develop a better understanding of what your preferences in form and time of communication.”
Alternatively, if the company does not care about the customer, that will also reflect in the customer experience. There are plenty of obstacles and complications in everyone’s day-to-day life, which makes it even more important that you do not create any friction for your customers.
It’s all about building trust between you and the customer – without trust, there’s no reason for the customer to be interested in what you offer, or even what you have to say. If business is built off communication and relationships, trust is the bridge between the company and the customer. Without that connection, there is no business relationship.
Improving communication in the workplace
More than likely, all of the challenges your company is facing stem from poor communication habits and processes within the organization. Whether it’s a break in the communication lines from the top to the bottom or simply due to the use of outdated tools, fixing those communications problems internally will help you to better communicate externally.
Internal communication is what sets up the external communication for success. It’s impossible to have one without the other, and anyone who has figured out how to make the best of a bad situation is doing too much work for one person. Communication is intrinsically linked to the customer experience, which makes it a critical resource for your organization.
“Communication is the lifeblood of any organization,” Brown said. “You can’t have good external communication if you don’t have good internal communication, and you can’t have great external customer service unless you have great internal customer service.”
Just by rephrasing the way you answer questions from customers can greatly improve your communication processes. “When I teach customer service, what I’m really teaching is persuasive communication,” she said. “That’s all customer service is – good communication. Am I saying things in a way that isn’t people-focused? Do I say things like, ‘Well, that’s our policy,’ or, ‘Can’t do that,’ instead of saying, ‘Here’s what we can do.’”
What makes a great communicator?
Because the nature of communication is so specifically linked to customer service and the customer experience, it’s important to be a good communicator. If you’re not a good communicator, it’s never too late to improve your skills. According to Brown, there are four habits of great communicators:
1. They are exceptional listeners
Listening is a critical component of communication. If your audience is expected to care about what you want to say, they need to feel heard. “Great communicators listen to understand. They don’t have agendas. They watch for facial expressions. They listen with their ears, eyes, heart and mind.”
2. All communication is personalized
Personalized communication can help to remove any potential barriers or obstacles that might be in between you and your audience. By personalizing your message, you are meeting the customer where they are with the information that is most important to them.
3. Communication is easy to consume
Whatever medium or mode you are using to connect and communicate with your audience needs to be accessible and easy for them to use. Any difficulty creates a barrier, and barriers aren’t conducive to good communication. However you decide to communicate, make sure that it meets the needs of your audience and doesn’t waste their time.
4. They manage expectations through clear communication
Everyone can come into a partnership with their own expectations, but they should be reasonable and clearly communicated. “If there is something I expect from you or that you can expect from me, make sure that it is stated very clearly.”
Creating a personalized, stress-free experience for your customers isn’t going to be the easiest thing in the world. You’re going to need to be constantly thinking of every touchpoint, considering every word that you choose because it all matters. “And don’t forget to be nice,” Brown said.