A Detailed Understanding Of Customer Support & Service.
Customer support and service are two different ways companies interact with their customers.
While people often use them as synonyms, they are both very different. Customer service is an umbrella term. It includes various practices, one of which is great customer support.
Let’s look at both of them in-depth and understand the value they create.
What is Customer Service?
Every Business and Company interacts with their customer using digital or human methods, and sometimes both.
This interaction creates an opportunity for the company to provide certain essential services to their customers, increasing satisfaction, trust, and brand loyalty.
Let’s say you walk in a Nike Store today. You enter to carouse the store. You are checking out apparel, with no obvious need or desire to buy anything. You are there to have a look. Two situations can arise out of this.
1. The store personnel leaves you alone with any formal interaction. You have a look throughout the store and decide to leave without buying anything. Neither did you spend, nor did the store make any sale. Your opinion about that particular store remains dull, and you may or may not visit it again, depending on your mood and situation.
2. You have entered the store. Every store personnel greets you with a friendly smile and a welcoming attitude. You peruse through the store. Soon a warm and friendly store employee walks you through the store, Informing you about new products and asking you questions, directing you towards products that interest you.
3. You entered intending to have a look, but you realize you need a pair of shoes? You came to this realization by interacting with the store personnel. Now you are looking at shoes. You try out different ones. The same individual is still with you and is assisting you. You finally decide to buy the one which the store personnel informed you about.
4. You ask for a discount and get greetings from the store manager who says he will look and try to get you a discount. The manager comes through and allows you to discount your bill by 10%. You leave the store pleased and satisfied with a new pair of shoes. And having created many social interactions and experiencing a great shopping experience that the store created for you.
The two scenarios you went through are perfect examples of good customer service. The first one is ideal for bad customer service. The business does not create any form of social connection with the customer.
But, the second scenario is ideal for how a business should integrate servicing its customers. The more interaction you can engage the customer in, the more loyalty and satisfaction you can create.
Satisfaction and brand loyalty are key elements to increasing sales in the long term. They also increase the number of customers.
Customer Service is transactional by nature. The business provides, while the customer receives, and the transaction ends. It is simple but effective in creating a positive brand image.
While customer service is qualitative, the main purpose is to create a positive outlook in the customer’s mind through social interaction and experience. Customer service is overarching, and customer support is a part of good customer service experience.
What is Customer Support?
Customer support is a part of customer servicing. Good customer support deals with problem solving and technical documentation.
Customer service is a process that starts when business and customer interact. Customer support often comes in the picture as a post-sale service. Customer support becomes involved in the process after a customer has purchased and started using a product.
The support provided is often related to the technical aspects of the product. Assistance revolves around solving issues and alleviating grievances that might arise regarding the product
.
Let’s have a look at a real-life example of customer support.
You have recently purchased a laptop, and it was working completely fine up until now. You tried to solve the problem yourself but could not find a fix.
You decided to get help from the company. You call up their customer service helpline. A very friendly customer service representative carefully hears out your situation and problem, registers your query, and connects you with a customer support representative. Once again, you are greeted by a friendly representative who assesses your situation.
Upon assessment, he provides you with official company documentation on how to solve your problem. With his help, you can solve the problem and are now equipped with a supportive document to solve the problem if it ever arises again. You thank the representative, and he shares with you his company contact details to get in touch for any other technical issues in the future.
The scenario you read above gives you a perfect example of how customer support functions. Customer support is the post-sale customer service experience that deals with solving customers’ product associated problems.
The scenario you read above gives you a perfect example of how customer support functions. Customer support is the post-sale customer service experience that deals with solving customers’ product associated problems.
The benefits of good customer support experience are many such as:
- Enhances the customer service experience
- Creates a positive brand image for the customer
- Engages customers in post-sale services and transactions
- Creates a familial bond with a customer
- Creates an opportunity for the business to create repeat customers through loyalty
While having a customer service and support team can be a bit expensive for some companies, there should always be a way to provide customer service and support to customers. This is because the benefits of these are far more than their cost. Even the smallest of products should have a proper pre and post-sale service experience.
This brings up the next topic which every business owner or manager should be aware of.
How can you create a seamless and comfortable Customer Service and Support for your customers?
The answer is PeppyBiz.
PeppyBiz is the perfect solution for all your business needs. With PeppyBiz, you can engage with your ideal customers at every touchpoint of business, helping you create that deep, multi-layered customer service experience for your customers.
You can achieve this by using the PeppyBiz Marketing Hub to create detailed marketing campaigns personalized for your specific target audience.
The results?
Your customers will see your business at every digital touchpoint, creating an impactful response. Take this customer service engagement a step further with PeppyBiz Email Marketing or PeppyBiz Customer Service Hub. Empower your business with tools to communicate and reach out to your customers, especially in these dire times when human contact is minimal, increases your digital presence and communication.
With PeppyBiz, you will never lose another customer to bad customer service. PeppyBiz offers a slew of Customer Support and Service tools such as:
Create quick and personalized digital marketing campaigns to reach your customers at every digital touchpoint. Never lose communication with your customers.
Email is very important; use it to benefit and communicate with your customers right through email. Create and send personalized offers to your customers and take the business-customer relationship to the next level.
Worried, you are missing out on customer emails? Now automate your replies to respond to customers with PeppyBiz Autoresponder immediately. Let your customers feel important with quick automated replies.
Get connected with your customers through SMS and send quick updates to your customers, which will reach them instantly. Easy and secure.
The best customer is a happy customer. With the PeppyBiz help desk, become an active listener to all your customers’ grievances and problems. Solve problems on time, and all your customers will come back again. Create loyal and satisfied customers with an accessible help desk. Let your customers know you care and will help them when they need it.
Who doesn’t love to chat? Become your customers’ friend by answering all their questions with PeppyBiz chat. Your brand won’t just be a name anymore. Add the human element of direct communication and instantly create new customers and make your communication more effective.
7. PeppyBiz Unified User Profiles
A brand that knows its customers and what they like is a successful brand that knows how to communicate. Create digital customer profiles through insights gained in your marketing campaigns. Get to understand your customers to be able to personalize and communicate with them effectively.
Becoming a successful business has never been this easy. PeppyBiz provides you with all the tools to help you create an effective and pocket-friendly customer service experience. Happy Customers, Happy Businesses, now possible with PeppyBiz
Conclusion
Understanding customer support and good customer service have now become very simple for you as you read to the end.
Boost your business today, and don’t forget to try out PeppyBiz.
