Customer service or customer experience? What’s the difference?

What do the words ‘customer service’ mean to you? If we take the strict definition, then it’s all about the support a business offers a customer before, during and after the purchase of its services.

But that definition seems rather basic, even old fashioned; it makes customer service sound like a one-way street – the business provides a service and the consumer is on the receiving end of that service, be it good or bad.

At OCS, we regard our interaction with our customers as a two-way relationship, and this is why we’ve recently changed the name of our team from ‘Customer Service’ to ‘Customer Experience’. We believe this far better describes the relationship we have with our customers.

Who are our customers? Well the biggest market we serve are eCommerce retailers, offering a circular eCommerce cross-border parcel service, from the point of collection, to the delivery to their end customer. And, if those goods are being returned, we transport them back again. Their customers are also our customers, because while the item is en route to the consignee, we are responsible for its safe passage.

There are multiple stages during that circular journey, so it’s essential we have an ongoing dialogue between customers and our Client Experience team, which is headed by Customer Experience Manager Jason Wills.

As Jason says, the customer service – or experience – we provide has evolved.

“Following Brexit, the shipping model has changed. There are many more cogs to the machine now, to ensure the delivery works, with more paperwork and more borders to cross.

“We are specialists in that eCommerce journey and we can explain every stage to our client, from the moment of despatch to the point of delivery. So we are offering a much more agile and proactive customer experience.

“Things can change daily and there are different rules for different countries. We are the experts in keeping on top of this, and relaying information to our customers. And – importantly – implementing solutions when an issue arises, or stopping an issue arising through preventative action.”

We have been pre-empting and solving delivery problems for more than 60 years. Our company, founded in 1957, was built on the delivery of periodicals and newspapers. Our customer experience team still take care of the customer subscription base for many newspapers and magazines.

As Jason says, “The customer experience also goes hand-in-hand with the customer journey. We talk our customers through the process, explain all the steps and what will happen, and deliver the service that they are expecting. And it doesn’t matter whether they are entrusting us with the delivery of a small parcel of nominal value or thousands of kilos worth of freight, they deserve and get the same experience.”

We are generally on first-name terms with our customers, which is all part of building a relationship. When a new customer comes on board, our team will be contacting and greeting them as soon as possible.

We have a highly experienced team, who all understand the process from start to finish and they are adept at problem-solving and thinking on their feet. They even once checked in an OCS colleague as an air passenger in order to get an urgent delivery overseas.

One significant change in recent years is how our customers reach us. Where once this was by phone, the shift is now towards email, social media or online chat.

But there is one thing that hasn’t changed. We have bucked the trend of customer services being outsourced, often being handled by overseas call centres. Our team are all in-house with OCS and based in the UK. Many have been part of the team for 20 to 30 plus years.