To many people, customer service and customer experience are the same. However, they have different meanings and produce different results.

Customer service is the act of placing customers high at the point of purchase and assuring them with making the right choices.

In customer service, what matters most is that the customer does not have any reason to complain about your service right from the point of making inquiries until when all transactions have ended.

Customer service specialists are polite and attend to customers promptly. They do everything to resolve issues with customers. And once they can get angry customers to smile, the mission is accomplished.

Everything about customer service sounds great, but that’s not to say it is enough to sustain a business.

Customer experience on the other hand, according to the business dictionary, is the entirety of interactions a customer has with a company and its product.

It focuses on the overall experience a customer has with the company and the feedback from the products.

Customer experience involves data collection and filling of feedback forms by customers.

Advantages of outstanding customer experience

Every company should have excellent customer service, but there is more to do. The aspect of customer experience should never be neglected.

Take, for instance, an angry customer called his internet service provider to demand why his subscription got terminated.

He was so angry that he threatened to sue the company for the losses he incurred because of being abruptly cut off during a business transaction.

A competent customer service specialist apologized to the customer and stated the reasons why the unexpected happened.

After much explanation, she succeeded in calming the angry customer.

Then, she proceeded to tell him that the next subscription would be free for him as compensation. That got the customer smiling.

The call ended well and the service provider felt relieved that the customer didn't cut them off or worse still, charge them to court.

And that was about it for such company and the issue they had with that customer.

However, another company with a similar issue, after resolving it decided to take things a step further.

They contacted the customer a few days later to apologize again and asked if the service was working perfectly.

They also asked if there was anything else they could do to make things better.

A month later, they renewed the subscription without charging the customer and still made sure that they reached out to the customer for feedback.

The strategy of the second company is simply called customer experience and this could make a customer subscribe to a company for good.

There are obvious reasons why businesses should focus more on customer experience than just customer service. Some are:

It improves customer loyalty

When you give your customers a memorable experience, they wouldn't have a choice than to be loyal to you.

From the illustration above, most customers would subscribe to the second company. This is because humans generally stay committed when they are valued.

When you show your customers that you hold them in high esteem, you get to reap their unwavering loyalty as a reward.

It gives you an edge over your competitors

No matter how unique your business model is, you surely have competition. And when you don't treat your customers well, they switch to your competitors.

Always remember that your customers have choices and it is their experience with you that would keep them from your competitors.

For this, you need to give your customers reason to stay with you by prioritizing outstanding customer experience.

It increases referrals

As a customer, when you experience something spectacular, you wouldn't want to keep it from your loved ones.

A lady recently shared a story Facebook about a slice of cake she ate and her experience with the company that baked it.

She was totally blown away. Within minutes, people started asking for the contact of the company.

There is no gimmick about the whole idea. If you give your customers reasons to smile, they would also make you grin.

You can read more about customer service and experience on https://ideasplusbusiness.com