A good company understands that customer service is not just about resolving issues but also about building and maintaining relationships with customers. By anticipating their needs and providing timely solutions, companies can offer a personalized experience. The most effective customer service isalways proactive, seeking to prevent problems before they occur.

Common methods of customer service include conversations over chat or through messaging apps, responses to emails, addressing the customer over the phone, and even self-service features.
Taking a comprehensive approach can help create a positive brand image and foster a loyal customer base. Offering several options for customer service is just one way to ensure that every customer can have a positive experience.

Customer service is a strategic element of any business, playing an important role in growth and sustainability. It requires a cohesive effort across various communication channels to deliver consistent, high-quality support that is tailored to the changing needs of customers.

• Customer satisfaction: Customers should ideally indicate their customer service experience was positive and that they will continue to do business with a company. Post-interaction surveys can indicate the extent to which an experience was positive or negative. These metrics should be recorded, reported, analyzed, and applied to future customer service strategies. 
  
• Contacts per day and types of issues: The number of calls, emails, or other contacts per day are indicative of the frequency of customer problems, which can be indicative of a larger product or service issue. The number of calls may also correlate with any new releases or upgrades, and whether they have been successful—i.e., it’s why the customers are calling that is important to understand. 
  
• Length of calls: Shows the length of time it takes to reach a resolution, and whether or not resolutions are taking too long or if there are multiple complicated issues. 
  
• First contact resolution: If possible, address customer issues on the first call, email, or chat if possito resolve the issue and eliminate the customer’s need to return.
  
• Total resolution time: It is important to measure not just call length, but how long it takes to resolve the customer's issue. Analyzing this can help companies identify and fix process inefficiencies.
  
• Customer service feedback: Team member morale directly influences the quality of customer service. Regularly gather feedback to get an idea of how the customer service representatives are feeling, and whether or not actions need to be taken to ensure better morale.

The thing that sets great customer service apart from mediocrity is its ability to exceed customer expectations and provide a memorable, positive experience. This means prioritizing promptness, where response times are quick and issues are resolved efficiently. It also means personalizing service based on specific situations, which demonstrates an understanding of customer’s unique preferences—and history with the company. It is also important to follow up with customers to make sure they were satisfied with the resolution. Doing so demonstrates an ongoing commitment to their overall experience. Of course, customer service teams need to have certain skills to help them respond appropriately and provide great customer service.

Important skills needed for a customer service representative

• Active listening: Displaying empathy is crucial, as it helps the customer immediately feel heard and understood—especially when they are escalating or stressed.
• Interpersonal: Customer service involves a degree of personalization and personability to navigate through an issue and better understand a customer’s concern in order to find an amicable solution.
• Attention to detail: Customers can become flustered and unspecific in their complaints. Excellent customer service involves careful examination of a written or verbal complaint to ensure every part of the issue is understood and communicated before proceeding.
• Collaboration: Autre teams are often involved in the customer support process, and the ability to work seamlessly with other teams is crucial. Create workflows that help teams communicate well and understand each other so any handoffs or communication between teams can create a smooth customer experience. 
• Multitasking: An agent answering emails, running multiple chats, or fielding different types of phone calls needs to be able to do so without becoming flustered or overwhelmed.
• Communication: Agents should be able to adequately understand a customer and make sure the customer understands the agent as well. There also needs to be a clear indication of when a call is being handed over or when a customer is being put on hold, and why those are occurring.
• Patience: Customers may come from a place of anger. An agent needs the patience to de-escalate the customer, understand their concern through the anger, and ease them to a comfortable place for a resolution.
• Knowledge and troubleshooting: An agent who does not understand a product or service is unlikely to provide much assistance, and that can lead to customer frustration—when agents need to research a product or service, they need contextually relevant knowledge at their fingertips to minimize lag time.
• Personalization: Tailoring the service to fit the individual needs of the customer can transform a standard interaction into a memorable experience. Showing that the company recognizes the customer as an individual can foster a stronger connection and enhance customer loyalty.
• Product knowledge: Customer service representatives need to understand the company’s products or services so that they can confidently answer questions and provide accurate information.
• Professionalism: Maintaining a professional demeanor throughout customer interactions is crucial, regardless of the customer’s behavior. Showing respect and staying calm under pressure reassures customers that they are in capable hands.

Basically, customer support is the practice of facilitating customer service, which leads to customer success.

Customer support refers to all the ‘hands-on’ activities of customer service, including troubleshooting, fulfilling customer requests, responding to inquiries, and fixing technical issues on the back end for short-term service. It’s the practical side of things, where the focus is on handling the day-to-day problems as they arise and providing customers with prompt and effective solutions.

Customer service, on the other hand, is why it is important to establish customer support. Goodrelationships and strong service are built on the foundation of a supportive environment that sets up customer service teams for success. This is the overarching strategy that decides how customer interactions are managed.

Customer success is the long-term achievement that stems from effective customer service and support. It’s a more holistic approach, looking beyond customer interactions to consider the entire customer journey. Some companies offer customer success programs that work with customers to understand their goals and help them achieve them using the company’s products and services. This strategic engagement is designed to foster a deeper relationship and drive mutual growth.

Each of these components—customer support, service, and success—operates with distinct metrics and measurable returns on investment (ROI) that reflect their unique roles and objectives. Customer support metrics often focus on efficiency and effectiveness, such as response time and customer satisfaction with individual interactions. In contrast, customer service measures might encompass broader indicators like overall service quality and repeat contact rate, which reflect the quality of the customer journey as a whole.
Meanwhile, customer success metrics extend further to evaluate long-term value, including customer retention rates, lifetime value (LTV), upsell and cross-sell success, and the overall health of the customer relationship. These differing metrics underscore the specialized functions and contributions of each area to the overarching goal of fostering positive, profitable, and lasting customer relationships.

Businesses today have a variety of customer service channels at their disposal, each of which offers unique benefits. Utilizing a combination of these channels can go a long way to enhance the customer experience. Some of the main types of customer service channels include:

• Phone: This traditional and direct channel allows customers to have real-time conversations with service representatives. This makes it ideal for immediate assistance and resolving more complex issues.
• Email: Email provides a formal and documented way of communication. It is particularly suitable for customers who prefer to have a written record of their interactions and need to send detailed information.
• Social media: Offering support through social media platforms meets customers where they spend a lot of their time and provides an easily accessible way to get help. It also publicly demonstrates the company’s commitment to customer service.
• Self-service: These tools, including FAQs and knowledge bases, help companies empower customers to find solutions independently. This is a great option for those who prefer quick, self-directed problem-solving. Each of these channels plays an important role in a comprehensive customer service strategy. They enable businesses to meet diverse customer needs and preferences. The different types of channels can also be divided into two main categories: proactive support and reactive response.

Proactive support

Anticipating customer needs is the basis for proactive customer support. Identify trends in customer issues and customer satisfaction, then tailor solutions to predict when a problem may be imminent. Monitoring digitally-delivered services for failure and fixing issues can also quickly provide another means of proactive services.

Reactive response

A customer reaches out to a business with an inquiry or an issue, and the customer service team reacts and mitigates accordingly.

Customer service, while crucial for business success, is not without challenges. Here are some of the most common obstacles when providing excellent customer service:

• Communication gaps: One of the primary hurdles is the failure to fully grasp and address customer concerns, which can stem from insufficient listening skills or a lack of empathetic engagement. Enhancing communication skills through targeted training in active listening and empathy can help bridge these gaps. Representatives should also be encouraged to engage in meaningful dialogue, ensuring they understand and validate the customer’s perspective.
• Delayed responses: It’s no secret that the availability of instant communication and 24/7 service causes customers to expect prompt service. Delays can lead to dissatisfaction and erode trust in the brand. To address this, organizations need to set and meet strict response time benchmarks, utilizing technology to streamline and expedite the service process. It may even be necessary to automate standard responses to common questions.
• Insufficient knowledge: Understandably, customers expect service representatives to be knowledgeable and capable of resolving their issues efficiently. That is why continuous training programs are essential to keep the team updated on product or service changes. A well-organized and easily navigable information system can also support staff in quickly finding the information they need to assist customers effectively.

Customer service is crucial; it's what defines the interactions between a company and its buyers.
Good customer service leaves people happy with the company, which means they'll likely come back and buy more. Additionally, happy customers often tell their friends about the company, which can bring in more business.

Good customer service also makes a company stand out from others. When many companies sell similar things, how they treat their customers can be the reason a customer chooses one over another. It shows the company cares, building trust and a good reputation.

Plus, talking to customers helps a company learn what people like or do not like about their products or services. This information can help the company make better decisions and improve what they sell.

In short, customer service is essential because it helps keep customers coming back, makes the company look good, and provides valuable information that can help the company do better in the future.

How to deliver customer service excellence

• Self-service: Many customers prefer the anywhere/anytime option that self-service provides. Ideally, self-service provides service channels that the customer wants, updates them with relevant information, and provides an easy route to a friendly agent if they can’t find an answer.
  Friendly service: Many customers still prefer the personal touch of a customer service agent. Add personality and customization to each interaction and ensure that each agent understands the customer’s feelings matter the most. 
• Empathy: A customer wants to feel heard and understood. Step into a customer’s shoes and think about what they need, why they feel a certain way, and their expected resolution.
• Every second counts: Customers become frustrated when they are put on hold, have to repeat themselves, or are forced to wait in a queue. Talking at length with a customer or taking an excessive amount of time to serve them can lead to further frustration and a poor customer service experience, which is damaging to a company’s reputation and bottom line
• Form a strong, connected team: A team that serves together succeeds together. Teams should be streamlined, connected, and communicative as each customer’s concern or issue is resolved. There should be a connected and effective web between customer service teams and other teams who can assist customers with their issues.
• Equip teams with an outstanding customer service workflow: Software can be at the crux of an excellent customer service team. The right workflow system has the necessary capabilities for customer service teams to find the right solutions for customers, collaborate across departments, and follow proper workflows to eliminate silos and roadblocks.

Customer service is essential for your customer's experience and your bottom line

Customers are only willing to stick around as long as they are consistently given a great experience. A business is much more likely to fail if they don’t focus on good customer service, as customers will easily find their way to a competitor for a better experience.
 

• Customer service shapes your reputation
  A product is not the only aspect of a company’s reputation—a company is only as good as their customer service. A customer can enjoy their experience if they can avoid interacting with an agent because there are processes in place to solve issues before contacting customer service is necessary. The goal is to create a process that addresses the issue as efficiently as possible so that the customer can return to using the product or service. Customers know what they want, and they have expectations every time they interact with a company. And now more than ever, customers are willing to share their experiences through word-of-mouth and online.
  An unpleasant experience can be enough to dissuade potential customers or current customers away from a product and service, and a good review can lead to more customers.
• Customers will pay more for excellent service
  Studies have indicated that most customers are willing to pay more money to a company that has excellent customer service every step of the way.
• Customer service excellence is best powered by workflows that break down silos
  Providing good customer service is more than just providing an answer. There can be more complex problems that may involve consultation with specialists outside of customer service. Any breakdown in communication can lead to a poor customer experience, and silos can lead to communication breakdowns. A proper workflow connects teams and automates steps while providing visibility to create a system that can keep the customer happy while efficiently solving their problem. Carefully account for workflows and how they guide the customer along a journey, how they improve communication, and how they can be optimized to deliver superior customer service.

Customer service functions as a key component of the overall customer experience, which encompasses a customer's feelings and perceptions about a company over time. It aims to make each interaction along the customer journey—from initial inquiry to post-purchase support—positive and memorable. Effective customer service involves promptly addressing customer needs and providing helpful solutions.

A single negative customer service experience can significantly impact a customer's perception of a company, potentially leading to a loss of loyalty and future business. Dissatisfied customers are more likely to share their negative experiences with others. That is why maintaining consistent, high-quality customer service is essential for encouraging repeat business and generating positive word-of-mouth. In essence, customer service is the frontline of ensuring customer satisfaction and loyalty, playing a pivotal role in shaping the company's success in the market.

Delivering memorable customer service involves combining stakeholders across the business, including anybody who would play a role in supporting the product or service. The goal is to assemble processes and systems that need to deliver on the customer service vision. The strategy should be top-to-bottom and powered by workflow to keep tasks accounted for.

A proper strategy should be implemented at all levels, while paying attention to the necessity of agility and adjusting at any level. Find the proper customer service software to meet individual goals and help you form new goals based on data that is gathered.

Superior customer service drives profitability by retaining customers and reducing the costs associated with acquiring new ones. However, many organizations face challenges in delivering effective customer service due to inefficiencies, poor service quality, and a reactive focus.

ServiceNow's Customer Service Management solution addresses these issues by providing a platform that facilitates effortless customer engagement, reduces case volumes through self-service, and proactively monitors for and addresses potential issues before they affect customers.

By integrating customer service with other departments and utilizing advanced analytics and automation, ServiceNow helps businesses transform their customer service from a cost center to a strategic asset that drives growth and improves customer satisfaction. Learn how ServiceNow’s solutions can streamline your processes to take your customer service to the next level.