Customer service is the help you provide in individual interactions, while customer experience is the overall impression across every touchpoint.
Customer service
Help given in specific interactions: support calls, chats, returns. It is reactive and measured by response time and resolution.
Customer experience (CX)
The sum of all interactions across the whole customer journey: website, product, delivery, support and billing.
Key difference
Service is one part of CX. CX covers the full journey.
Measures
- Service: first response time, CSAT.
- CX: NPS, retention, customer effort score.
Why it matters
PwC found 73% of consumers say experience is an important factor in purchasing decisions.
Scope
Customer service is a specific interaction, such as a support call, a chat or a return. Customer experience (CX) is the total perception across every touchpoint, including advertising, website, purchase, delivery, product use and support.
Timing
Service is reactive and happens when a customer needs help. CX is proactive and covers the entire customer journey, before, during and after purchase.
Owner
Service is usually handled by a support team. CX involves marketing, product, sales, operations and leadership.
Metrics for service
- First response time.
- First contact resolution rate.
- Average handle time.
- Customer satisfaction score (CSAT).
Metrics for CX
- Net Promoter Score (NPS), based on the question “How likely are you to recommend us?” on a 0 to 10 scale.
- Customer Effort Score (CES).
- Customer lifetime value.
- Retention and churn.
Business impact
PwC’s Future of Customer Experience survey found that about 73% of consumers say customer experience is an important factor in their purchasing decisions. A Salesforce State of the Connected Customer report finds that most customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products.
Cost of poor experience
Many customers leave after a few bad interactions, and acquiring a new customer typically costs more than retaining an existing one. A commonly quoted range is 5 to 25 times more.
Improving CX
- Map customer journeys to find pain points.
- Collect feedback after key interactions.
- Train staff and give them authority to solve issues.
- Use data across departments.
Relationship
Good customer service is one part of a good customer experience.
Definitions and metrics
Customer service is the help a company gives when a customer contacts it with a question or problem, through phone, chat, email or in person. Customer experience (CX) is the sum of every interaction a customer has with a brand across the entire journey, including marketing, website, purchase, delivery, product use and support. Service is one part of CX. Service teams track customer satisfaction (CSAT), first contact resolution and average handle time, while CX teams track net promoter score (NPS), customer effort score, retention and lifetime value.
Business impact
A PwC survey found that 32 percent of customers would stop doing business with a brand they love after one bad experience. Companies that improve CX often see higher loyalty and lower cost of acquiring customers. Improving CX requires mapping the customer journey, collecting feedback, fixing friction points across departments and training staff. Customer service is often reactive, while CX is proactive and strategic. Both work best when data is shared across sales, support and product teams.
Based on data from PwC and Harvard Business Review
