DIFFERENCES
What is the difference between Customer Experience, Customer Service and Customer Success?”
Author: Marcus Barbosa (2018)
In the last few months, I have noticed many people working in my Customer Experience area. As we discuss a relatively new field, many concepts are not yet concrete and aligned among professionals.
I was surprised how each company understands this area differently, mixing work and packaging everything into a “box”—that of Customer Experience. I won’t play Mr. Palestrinha here and say that everyone is wrong. No! We live in a constantly changing world, and I believe that there is still no right or wrong for concepts involving the new economy.
However, I decided to research with references and write this article explaining the differences between Customer Experience, Customer Service, and Customer Success. I hope it helps!
Warming up your mind
Before working with the concepts, imagine that you are a user/customer of any company. This company has 3 managers, one for each area that we will conceptualize. If they had the opportunity to ask you a question, taking into account the objective of their work, what would it be? I believe it would be more or less like this:
- Customer Experience – What do you think of my product/service?
- Customer Success – Did you achieve results with my product/service?
- Customer Service – What problems did you have with my product/service?
Suppose you can’t understand the difference, no problem. Let’s explain now!
What is Customer Service?
Customer Service means all help or support a company provides to its users/customers purchasing or using its product/service (Oxford Dictionary). It’s very much about answering questions and solving problems. In other words, we can classify it as a complementary area of Customer Experience, as it considerably impacts the user’s decision to use, or continue using, your product/service.
What is Customer Success?
According to Lyncon Murphy, a world authority on this subject, Customer Success (CS) is when your user/client manages to achieve success or the Desired Outcome through their interactions with your company. This goes far beyond just using the product to be successful (UX area); customer success management is the process by which it can achieve success.
Lilian Oliveira, Head of CS at MOIP, explains that you and your company need to deliver value to your users/customers so that they can achieve a goal and be successful using your service/platform. Therefore, it is correct to say that Customer Success complements Customer Experience; they are peers.
What is Customer Experience?
Customer Experience or CX is the product of the interaction between your company and your customer/user throughout your relationship with them; in other words, it is the total journey of interactions with your brand. We understand that all aspects that make you feel something about a brand, which consequently create contact points between you and it, are considered CX points or touchpoints. CX involves the entire physical, psychological, and emotional process throughout the user/customer journey (Martin Powton).
A relevant point: passive x active relationship
We can highlight these areas’ passive and active nature with clearer concepts. Customer Service can be understood as 100% passive work, waiting for a problem or question to appear to be resolved by agents.
However, CS and CX are based on active actions, as many work challenges are outside the company’s control. CX goes a little further, as what the user/customer thinks of your brand comes from the interaction between these two agents, who will say whether the experience is good or bad. In other words, it doesn’t matter what you think or do; what matters is what they will feel and understand.
Customer Service is friction-driven. Customer Success is driven by success and results. Customer Experience, on the other hand, has a more emotional and feeling orientation, being very subjective.
Do you do Customer Experience?
In recent years, I have understood that many professionals in the field do not do Customer Experience but rather Customer Service. This is normal. However, understanding each area’s difference and role is fundamental to developing a scalable and successful strategy to bring the best experience to your user/client.
Treating the user/customer with care and love, like NuBank, after they have had a problem with your service/product, is not actually “doing” Customer Experience. This is just a tiny part of a much more complex and vital work for your company.