What is customer service?
Customer service or customer service is all services that companies provide to their customers. The primary aim of customer service is to retain customers with the company — both before, during and after the purchase. Customer service is the link between marketing, sales and customers. Classic customer service cases include customer inquiries due to post-purchase problems.
Is there a difference between customer service, customer support and customer care?
According to the classic understanding of customer service, these three fields actually have different focal points:
- Customer service: Reactive support for questions or warranty claims
- Customer Care: Proactive service, e.g. with information during the purchase
- Customer Support: Technical assistance with IT problems
However, customer service, care and support are now merging more and more. Why Companies are increasingly focusing on their customers and their needs. As a result, customer service today focuses holistically on customer service and no longer just reacting to problems.
Customer Service Tasks
Satisfied customers — that's what customer service is all about. To achieve this, Customer Service offers various services that inform customers, assist with problems or answer questions. These are typical customer service tasks:
- Answer customer inquiries: Many questions can arise about the purchase or the product or service. Whether it's about invoices, prices, order status, invoices or product functionalities — Customer Service is there to answer these questions. This can be done by phone, email, or chat. Chatbots are also often used, which can answer simple questions around the clock.
- Managing complaints and resolving issues: Customer service managers also take care of handling returns or complaints, for example if a product is defective and is still under warranty. Even when customers are dissatisfied with a product or service, they address their concerns and try to solve the problem.
- Get customer feedback: Valuable feedback for the company can be discussed in discussions with customers. Depending on the topic, customer service passes on these findings to product development, marketing or sales. However, he can also proactively obtain feedback, for example through surveys or by analyzing comments on social networks.
- Share information: Customer Service provides customers with important information about their contract, for example when it is about to end. Even if relevant things in the company such as contact details (address or telephone number) or company name change, Customer Service ensures that customers find out about them, for example through information on the website.
The channels in customer service
With the tasks above, you might automatically think of customer service phone calls. But in addition, the services also run via other channels:
- Messenger/Chat
- Website, e.g. via FAQ pages
- social media
Types of customer service
Customer service services and activities are not limited to the purchase phase. In the best case scenario, customers are supported along their entire customer journey. Depending on the phase in the purchase process, various types of customer service can therefore be differentiated.
How to measure success in customer service
Good customer service plays a central role for customers: In a study 93 percent stated that customer service influences how they perceive a company. And for the majority of respondents, good service is even more important than low prices. Good customer service is therefore worthwhile! But how do you know how successful you are in this area? The following four key figures show you this:
Net promoter score: The most well-known customer satisfaction indicator is the Net Promoter Score (NPS). It shows how likely it is that customers would recommend you. Customers report this on a scale of 0 “very unlikely” to 10 “very likely.
Those who report 9 or 10 are your promoters or advocates. Customers with the values 7 or 8 are undecided. Anyone who stated 0 through 6 would not recommend you — your critics or detractors. Your Net Promoter Score is calculated as follows: Calculate what percentage of participants are promoters and what percentage are critics. Then subtract the percentage of critics from the percentage of promoters — the result is your NPS.
Customer satisfaction score: After your customers receive a service or product, use the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) to determine how they would rate their experience with your company.
Customers rank their impression on a scale ranging from “very dissatisfied” to “very satisfied.” The CSAT is then calculated as follows: You divide the number of reviews as “satisfied” and “very satisfied” by the total number of reviews. You then multiply this result by 100 and get the CSAT as a percentage.
First response rate: When customers need assistance, they also want to get it quickly. How quickly customer service responds therefore significantly influences how satisfied they are in the end. The first response rate indicates how much time is left between a customer's request and a response from customer service. The shorter, the better for your customer satisfaction.
Customer Effort Score: Customer service must also be easy for customers. With the Customer Effort Score (CES), you can determine how easy the service was to solve a problem or how easy it was to reach the service. Customers agree with statements such as “It was easy for me to get customer service support” on a 5-point scale. The average value All details are your CES. The lower it is, the easier it is for customers to solve a problem.
Five tips for good customer service
A positive service experience is essential if you want to retain customers with your company in the long term. With these five tips, you're well on your way:
- Be realistic, but go the extra mile: Don't promise customers heaven and earth, it will only lead to disappointment. But do your best to solve the problem for your customers — even if it's an additional discount code. This allows you to positively surprise customers.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the customer issue: Even if you have heard this problem for the umpteenth time or, in your opinion, there is no problem at all, the customer service should always be empathetic and take customer concerns seriously.
- Be easily reachable and get back to you quickly: Speed is essential in customer service. If, for example, the service hotline cannot be staffed around the clock, then you still create opportunities for the customer to make an enquiry. For example, chatbots can also help solve problems outside of service hours.
- Create self-service options: With good FAQs or manuals, customers can often solve their concerns themselves and are flexible in terms of time. These should be easy to find on the company website.
- Show customer appreciation: If you want satisfied customers, you should always be friendly during a service conversation, regardless of the channel, and not interrupt the customer. Service employees should never be instructive or annoyed.
Best practices — three examples
Many companies show how really good customer service can work. The annual ranking of the best customer service in WirtschaftsWoche.
Car insurance shows how a good digital assistant can enrich customer service AdmiralDirect. ComputerBild and Statista honored their chatbot in the “Top Digital Assistant 2022" ranking. The ranking criteria also immediately show how a chatbot becomes a real best practice: It should be quickly and reliably found and accessible on the website. He should understand the questions asked and also express himself in an understandable way. Ideally, the dialog box is clear and well-structured. It should be obvious to users that they are not talking to a real employee, but a chatbot.
One example of proactive customer service after the purchase is the Scandinavian furniture company Bolia. Your furniture is custom made to order. As a result, delivery takes more time than customers may be used to today. How can you avoid them becoming impatient and thus dissatisfied? Bolia will send you a personal email including video, in which they show the production of the respective product. In this way, the waiting time can be bridged and customers actively receive a status update when ordering furniture.
dm's customer service shows how a good dialogue with customers works on social media. They take the customer's request seriously and remain polite in their answers and also answer all inquiries on the subject.
conclusion
Customers are becoming more and more the focus of the company and customer service is thus taking on an even more central role. Customer service, which is convincing, no longer only responds to incoming inquiries, but also supports customers proactively during the various phases of their customer journey and on various channels. The fact that this has a positive effect on customer satisfaction is then also reflected in corresponding key figures and thus also in the company's success: Because with good Customer Service can companies retain customers in the long term.
