Customer Support & Customer Experience

I had inevitably postponed contacting the customer service center of my bank up until the last possible minute and was now in a bind. Without much faith, I sent them an email around 2 am and was about to sleep when I got an email notification. They replied!!!

The rest they say is history. My bank has gone on to do several annoying things after that one good deed but I am still here.

Why? Your guess is as good as mine.

As a business owner, customer support and customer experience are major ingredients to building a successful business. While these terms are used loosely and interchangeably, they do have different meanings albeit a common goal, the success of the business.

Customer support is the frontline. This is just a piece of the puzzle as it focuses mainly on interaction with the customer and rendering needed support. It is just an aspect in the customers’ journey with your brand. This might just be a one-off thing where the customer reaches out when they need support with the brand. It is also safe to say that customer support is more reactive than proactive. But when it comes to customer experience, this is the extra sauce and the secret ingredient to acquiring not just customers but loyal customers. It is the outcome of every interaction a customer has with your business, from accessing your business page or website, exposure to your ad or even talking to your support personnel. Customer experience is proactive.

Customer experience sums up how the customer feels about your brand. This is not just a service rendered, it is a journey. It is a sum of both the conscious and unconscious perception that a customer develops about your brand and these perceptions are formed by their interaction with your brand on various levels and it goes further to determine their relationship with your brand.  When it comes to customer experience,  it is more than just the starting point and the finish line, this is the extra mile you go for a customer and it is targeted towards making every experience memorable for the customers.

Which is more important?

Customer support and customer experience are the bedrock for a successful business. Customer support is the first line and the representative of the company is tasked with providing timely assistance and advising customers on products and services available. This will require inexhaustible patience (trust me! your limits will be put to test) and in-depth product knowledge. Although this is great, it doesn't and shouldn't end there. It is at this junction that customer experience goes the extra mile while adding extra sauce to distinguish you from other competitors. The impact of a great customer experience is felt on customer loyalty, higher retention rate and increased revenue growth.

The Goal

For every brand that aspires to be successful, the goal remains;

● To improve customer retention and loyalty
● To convert customers into brand ambassadors

Without much grammar, customer experience is how you woo your customer. The 'e' in customer experience is for "Energy. This means that you should always bring 4X the energy to give each customer a memorable experience (the good kind though *wink*).

Remember, you can't have a great customer experience without an amazing customer support system.

Customer is King is a popular mantra, and every king deserves the best of both worlds.

Adios,

Kiki from CXperts