The Difference Between Customer Care And Customer Service
Surely you already know the saying "Customer is God" - a customer-centered principle from the Japanese motto of serving customers. Many Asian countries, including Vietnam, are gradually applying this concept. In the US, the saying used a lot in the customer service industry is "Customer is King."
Amid the rapidly developing e-commerce landscape, customer experience is important for businesses to compete and thrive.
In a customer analysis report, Walker said that from 2020, customer experience would be the main feature of brand identity, not product quality and price. And according to this survey, 86% of shoppers are willing to pay more for a better experience.
All customers are demanding more from customer care services. Therefore, investing in customer satisfaction is also creating huge returns.
Salespeople are part of the customer service team
So what exactly is customer care? Are customer care and customer service similar to each other?
Let's explore these two concepts with FieldCheck and ways to improve the service of the retail industry in the article below!
What Is Customer Care?
Customer care is all business activities related to customers to reach target customers and maintain interaction with old customers.
In today's fiercely competitive business environment, customer care is indispensable to every business. This service takes place not only during the buying and selling phase but also before and after the customer uses the product or service of the business.
Today, most customer care tasks can be done through support tools such as customer care software or CRM (Customer Relationship Management). This helps businesses improve the efficiency of connecting with customers and saves time and human resources.
Customer Care
However, the role of the customer care department is still extremely necessary for businesses, with specific responsibilities such as:
- Receive calls from customers to solve problems
- Call customer care
- Survey of customer satisfaction with products or services sold
- Answer customer questions on the company's website and social media channels
- Support incentive programs, gift vouchers for VIP/loyal customers
- In general, customer service is a fairly broad category and plays a significant role in conquering consumers, bringing many benefits to businesses.
What Is Customer Service?
Most people easily confuse customer service with the term "customer care service" and tend to think the two are the same.
However, compared to customer care, customer service has a narrower scope and refers to the interaction between consumers and businesses after customers buy the business's products.
Customer service can be simply defined as an accompanying service that businesses provide to customers to ensure customer satisfaction during and after the purchase process.
Customer Service
If a company's products or services always have uncontrollable risks in terms of quality and appearance, that business can still bring a great experience to its customers with customer service. It is a vital factor that helps retailers compete during the wave of e-commerce and leave a positive brand impression in the hearts of consumers.
The Difference Between Customer Care And Customer Service
After learning the definitions of the two terms above, you can probably also imagine the difference between customer care and customer service in the service industry. But to distinguish them more clearly, let's compare the characteristics of the two terms in the section below:
What is the difference between customer care and customer service?
About the Purpose
Customer care: creating satisfaction for all customer groups to build loyal customers, stick with the business, and attract new customer groups.
Customer service: bringing satisfaction to existing customers as a service that businesses provide with products/services.
Customer care is customer satisfaction
About Subjects
Customer care: all customers have been, are, and will use the products or services of the business.
Customer service: customers who are using your product or service.
About Activities
Customer care: all activities from consulting, answering, and serving, to supporting and taking care of current and potential customers.
Customer Service: Assist in solving product and service-related problems that customers encounter in purchasing and transacting with the business.
Solutions to Increase the Quality of Customer Care
Applying Technology to Improve Service
In the current technology landscape, almost all activities in every field can apply technology to make everything more efficient and convenient.
Especially in the pandemic, where social distancing is required everywhere, a large number of customers have had to switch to buying goods on e-commerce platforms and leave traditional stores. Therefore, if businesses do not convert digitally in time, it will easily make their customers turn away.
Bringing a satisfying customer experience is now not only about the staff at the store but also the journey of contact and communication with customers through smart devices.
Today, retail businesses are using at least one or more sales support tools or sales support software to record customer transactions, classify customer groups, and support customer care.
Customer relationship management software
You will not be able to store customer information such as birthdays to give vouchers or total transactions of guests to evaluate membership without the help of management software.
In addition, when applying customer care software, businesses can optimize care calls, connect with customers, and manage more effectively, bringing a better experience to their customers.
Enhancing Employee Skills
Businesses need to build a professional customer care service system to create the foundation for a reliable brand and sustainable development.
Of course, to improve the customer service team, it is extremely important to strengthen the skills and knowledge required for the sales department and customer service staff.
See more: Professional sales training process for enterprises
Therefore, recruit and train your employees with the following qualities to meet customer requirements and satisfy these "gods".
- Understand information about products/services of the business, and related knowledge
- Capturing good customer psychology
- Patiently listen to and empathize with customer needs
- Ability to adapt quickly in any situation
- Ability to communicate, concisely, and concisely
- Honest, dedicated, and enthusiastic
Customer care staff
Maintaining Relationships With Customers
In interacting with customers, customer service staff need to listen to and deeply connect with their customers.
Show interest in your customers' problems and expand the story by openly sharing your personal views. At that time, customers will remember your employees and have a good impression of the business.
Build a good relationship with customers
In addition, one of the duties of the customer service staff is to keep in touch and regularly interact with customers. Congratulatory messages on special occasions or emails announcing periodic offers can boost customer buying behavior.
Building Effective Customer Care Strategies And Policies
Not only your business efforts on the journey to win the hearts of customers, but your other competitors are also increasingly fierce in winning this battle. Therefore, businesses that want to retain customers for a long time must have reasonable and specific policies.
Today's consumers, especially female guests, are often very interested in promotions or big promotional events. If you often launch such policies, it will attract the attention of many potential customers.
Promotions always attract consumers
Attaching a handwritten letter to thank customers for shopping or using your services is also a way to make “Gods” feel they are cared for.
Wrapping Up
So that's is the difference between customer care and customer service. Customer care refers to the activities of taking care of current customers like receiving calls from customers to solve problems, calling customer care, to name a few. Meanwhile, customer service involves all customer-related tasks like consulting, warranty, etc.
