Customer service vs. customer support: 6 major differences

Customer service is the assistance a company provides to its customers before, during, and after purchasing products or services. It encompasses various activities, including addressing customer inquiries, resolving basic issues, and ensuring a positive customer experience. Effective customer service aims to build and maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty, often involving communication through various customer service channels such as phone, email, chat, online communities, and social media. The goal of customer service is to create a seamless, helpful, and pleasant experience for the customer, fostering long-term relationships and repeat business.

Customer support is a specific aspect of customer service that focuses on helping customers resolve technical problems and issues related to products or services. This involves troubleshooting, providing guidance on product usage, and addressing malfunctions or errors customers encounter. Customer support is often delivered through various channels, including phone, email, live chat, and support tickets, and requires specialized knowledge to solve complex problems effectively.

Customer service and customer support overlap in some ways, especially since customer service is an “umbrella” term that encompasses support. For instance, both:

• Aim to enhance customer satisfaction and improve customer retention rates

• Involve direct communication with customers

• Delivered through multiple channels, sometimes the same ones

• Use the same digital tools to connect and deliver service

• Require good communication skills and a customer-centric approach

• Often provide feedback to other departments to help improve products or services

While they share similarities, customer service and customer support have a few key differences, and businesses need to understand them to direct customers to the right place. For example, suppose a customer contacts the brand about a product that was delivered with damages. In that case, it makes sense to direct them to customer service to start the return and replacement process. On the other hand, a customer asking a technical question related to setup should be directed to customer support so they can talk to a specialist to help troubleshoot.

Here are the top ways in which customer support vs. customer service compares:

The most notable difference between customer service and customer support is what they do. Customer service seeks to provide answers like the cost of a product, differences between offerings, or shipping status for a recent order. Meanwhile, customer support focuses on addressing issues that require more technical expertise, such as how to set up and use a product or troubleshoot why something isn’t working.

Exceptional communication skills are important for both customer service and customer support. However, each type of role has its own set of skill requirements for agents. Customer service agents need to be well versed in information about all the company’s offerings and procedures so they can provide assistance for a wide range of requests. On the other hand, customer support agents may need specialized training to be experts in a specific area, like knowing the ins and outs of how one product works so anyone with a related issue can be directed towards them. In this sense, customer service agents need to be a jack of all trades while customer support agents should focus on being a master of one.

Almost every company offers some level of customer service, as almost every business needs customers to survive and progress. Typically, only Information Technology (IT) companies, equipment manufacturers, appliance retailers, Software as a Service (SaaS) businesses, and other similar companies offer customer support due to the nature of their products and services, which may require more extensive support post-purchase.

The nature of inquiries varies between customer service and support. Customer service requests may be simple and fast to resolve, especially if they involve just looking up or providing basic information that requires little back-and-forth. Meanwhile, customer support requests can be more complex because the customer may need to explain their unique situation so the agent can troubleshoot step-by-step with the customer to resolve the issue.

When do service and support take place? Customer service begins at the first connection between the business and the customer and continues throughout the purchasing process. Meanwhile, customer support is exclusively post-purchase because it involves troubleshooting issues when setting up or using the product. A person asking questions about a product should be directed to customer service, while a customer with an issue post-purchase should be directed to customer support.

Customer service primarily targets metrics related to interaction efficiency and satisfaction, such as response time and first contact resolution. Conversely, customer support focuses on metrics tied to technical assistance and product experience, like reducing churn rates through issue resolution and ensuring effective product utilization. Customer service and customer support contribute jointly to enhancing the customer experience.

Businesses that understand and leverage the differences between customer support and customer service are better equipped to meet customer needs effectively, ultimately leading to higher customer retention rates. Ignoring these differences can result in missed opportunities to connect with customers and may lead to losing valuable relations, impacting overall business success and reputation. Therefore, recognizing and addressing these nuances is crucial for businesses aiming to create positive and lasting customer experiences.

For instance, a company excelling in customer support but lacking in customer service risks losing customers from day one. Conversely, offering customer service without robust support can drive customers to seek alternatives for future purchases. Consider this scenario: A customer’s smartwatch freezes whenever they attempt to connect their Bluetooth headphones. Your customer support teams should be able to swiftly solve this issue without making the customer feel any further distrust. If they cannot accomplish this, customers may choose to align their next purchase with a competing brand.

There are various ways to improve digital customer service and support. Here are our top tips to provide high-quality service and support to your customers:

1. Truly listen to the customer

Whether an agent is providing customer service or customer support, it’s essential to listen carefully to what the customer is saying. Your team can do this through the Voice of the Customer — a process that captures customer feedback about their experience with a businesses’ product or service. This information can be captured through surveys, reviews, and other feedback in public spaces like social media, which will provide your brand insight into what your customers truly want and need so you can improve your products, services, and the customer experience overall.

2. Hire qualified team members

Hiring qualified personnel for your support and service teams sets you up for success and lessens the pressure on managers and trainers. Ensure you hire the right people for each team, keeping in mind your support team will require more technical experience with specific products or services. You can do this by communicating clear goals to hiring managers and potential employees alike.

3. Give your teams the tools they need

It’s impossible to expect your team to catch every concern and issue reported by customers, especially with managing multiple service channels simultaneously. Utilizing customer care tools like a digital contact center software that offers an omnichannel agent desktop can give your team what they need to succeed. It can increase agent productivity and automatically assign and route tickets to agents, ensuring no customer inquiries fall through the cracks.

4. Encourage self-service

Encouraging your customers to find answers on their own can be beneficial to your businesses. In fact, you can reduce inquiries significantly by implementing self-service through online communities, FAQ pages, and chatbot support, among others. It can bring exact information to a customer in real time without making them wait for a human to be available. In some cases, they can even solve a more technical customer issue.

The Khoros contact center solution features an AI-powered chatbot, allowing you to create customizable automation experiences for customers with AI that understands every customer’s intent.

5. Pair human talent with AI capabilities

While basic issues may be resolved through self-service, even an AI chatbot that’s been extensively trained won’t be able to handle every situation. However, in those cases, AI can still provide value by assisting human agents. For example, the AI can gather basic information about a request — saving time that human agents would otherwise have to spend at the start of an interaction. Furthermore, AI can also analyze customer sentiment and provide suggested responses for the human agent, improving communication with the customer and making agents’ jobs easier.

Khoros Service can help you meet modern customer service demands, delivering an all-in-one, omnichannel contact center to supercharge your agents. Our software surfaces all the information customer service agents need precisely when they need it and provides AI-powered self-service and omnichannel workflows, reducing response time and improving customer satisfaction. Learn more about how we can help you improve your customer service and support offerings by requesting a demo today.