You must have heard about the most commonly used expression in the business world “user experience.” It appeared on the horizon in the early 90s yet gained its popularity only in the last decade. People in all corners of the world are spending thousands and billions of dollars to become the most user-experience-friendly company in the area. And their efforts do get rewarded!
A well-designed interface of your website yields conversion rates up to 400% and website’s conversion up to 200%. The Forrester Customer Experience Index has also proven that the top 20% of the businesses on their list grow their stock price and total return by investing in UX.
The tendency is clear — UX matters. There is no doubt. But does that mean that the traditional customer service makes no difference today? And what does customer care have to do with business growth and customer satisfaction? Let’s begin from the basics — the definitions of these concepts. And then read on why (if) they matter and what you can do to increase the level of offered services to your target audience.
Customer care
Customer care comes first because this means how you take care of your audience while they are interacting with your brand. It is much easier to imagine with brick-and-mortar services. Whenever you sit in a restaurant, a server comes to you and asks if you need anything else or if you would like a refill on your drinks. This is customer care. While people are sitting in a restaurant, the care provided by the personnel on the spot, right there and now is customer care.
Regarding online product, customer care can be manifested by the online chats with ready-to-answer brand specialists or some hints on matching products at retail stores.
Customer service
Customer service exists to help your clients resolve any issues after they have interacted with your product. The customer support service is one of the most common instances of customer service. The main reason why customer service exists is to increase the overall satisfaction level among the customers and ensure that all their questions or problems are addressed on time. As a rule, customer service in physical stores comes in the form of answering the questions about how to treat a particular product or how to, for instance, wash it in the machine. Customer service focuses on troubleshooting all possible issues and guaranteeing that they are resolved in the shortest time possible.
Customer experience
There is no possibility to define on the timeline when customer (user) experience comes because it is omnipresent at all stages of your target audience’s interaction with the brand. Customer experience guarantees the ease of use across all possible interactions of a customer with your company over time.
In fact, one can say that customer care, and customer service are the indispensable parts of the customer experience. What a customer feels towards your brand, the emotions that stay in their hearts directly depend on their own interaction with a brand (for example, a website), the care they received in the process, and the service that comes afterward.
The “v’s” part
You remember that the title of this article was “Customer Care v’s Customer Service v’s Customer Experience” so it’s time to address this “v’s” part.
The numbers say that about 75% of customers leave because they are not satisfied with the customer service. Based on this statement you might consider dropping your efforts in all customer something and focusing on customer service only. Yet, this is faulty logic. To deliver the required level of support and customer service after your client interacts with a brand, you can create a department which will be responsible for customer service.
Customer care is very similar to customer service in this respect — this is only a fixed number of people who help your customers feel comfortable while interacting with your company. Recollect the example with a restaurant. These are servers who help a visitor feel perfect at the restaurant. And managers ensure that any inconveniences or problems are solved on the spot and that the customers leave happy — this is customer service.
When it comes to customer experience — this is all the staff working in the restaurant: from the cleaning person to the owner. Now transfer it to the online business. Every single element of your company’s website has an impact on the overall customer experience. The color and usability of an interface (web designer), the path a user goes through from the landing page to the payment finalization (UX/UI specialist), the recognizability of your brand (SEO and marketing) are all the particles of the general user experience idea. While customer service and customer care are reactive, customer experience works proactively as if predetermining the needs and problems of the customer.
To wrap up
To build a happy target audience and loyal “army” of customers you need to take care of all three elements of customer satisfaction. Of course, it is important to remember that you will not reach 100% customer satisfaction rate because there are always individuals who desire more. And to perfect your brand and service, make sure to collect those requests for more to improve yourself and stay ahead of the competition.