Customer Service vs Customer Support: what are the differences between the two?

Even though customer support and service are used interchangeably, they are different from each other. They might look similar because:

• Both customer service and support are aimed at helping customers.
• Both of them aim at improving factors like customer satisfaction, conversion rates, etc.
• The channels that both use are similar. These include emails,?live chat, chatbots, phone calls etc.

However, customer support is a subset of customer service that aims at

• handling feedback and reviews
• documentation of all the calls and tickets for data and insights
• solving problems during product usage
• technical support

Let us take an example to understand the difference clearly. Let’s picture this: You walk into a store to buy a watch. There would be a customer service executive who will help you in choosing the product in mind. They will describe the product features and tell you if there are any offers.

They will also suggest additional products like extra bands that will go with the watch. And they will finally take you through the billing process. They also help you with returns or exchanges of your products and the overall buying process.

This service that they provide is known as customer service. The customer receives what they require, but there is no more feedback or information regarding the experience.

But now let us assume that the watch is malfunctioning or you are struggling with a bad battery. In that case, you will reach the Help Center of the company where a customer support team will help you with your issue.

When you raise a ticket stating that you are facing some issues with the product, a customer support executive will take note of it. They will then contact you?using your preferred mode of communication, like, emails, phone calls or live chat etc. After that, they will help you with the issue.

The support executive could also follow up a few days later to ensure you are not facing further problems. This is the specific work that customer support executives do to help customers.

To understand the two terms better and for actionable tips to help you deliver better customer support and service, read here.