“Always deliver more than expected.” – is, according to Larry Page, the essence of good business management.
Contemplating on his statement, we can reason that it sums up the prime philosophy behind providing a positive customer experience, too.
Nowadays, many businesses fail simply because they do not truly understand what this very line implies within the niche, i.e., understanding how to combine customer support with customer success.
While both share a similar purpose, customer support and customer success are, in fact, two separate methodologies, with a core distinction laying within their nature – one being reactive and the other proactive.
The key to customer retention, is to coalesce the two, but before doing so, learning the differences is critical.
Customer support
Support is what customers expect.
They come with an inquiry, or an issue and you react to it accordingly. As a skilled care agent, you must be aware of their needs and know how to tend to them in a timely manner.
You must be attentive and empathetic. Understanding the psychology principles of customer care and applying them is crucial. And although most of your work will usually revolve around solving simple matters, very often, independent cases will also occur. And they will require extra assistance. Nonetheless, your main goal is resolution and avoidance.
Customer success
Success is the “more than expected” you deliver to your customers.
As a customer success agent your job will supplement the one of the support agent.
To explain further.
As a customer success agent, you will need to evaluate the communication done with the client beforehand and assess it, identifying new opportunities and solutions for a different outcome.
You have to the take the bigger picture into consideration – how the gathered data insights can be turned into strategic actions, which will help your customer to reach his initial goal.
Understanding the Differences
In brief, customer support involves tending to your customers’ basic needs. Customer success, on the other hand, is when you work proactively towards fostering a stronger relationship with your clients by understanding their needs on a deeper level and helping them meet and even surpass their goals.
A key excerpt that can be taken – good customer support does not always guarantee retention. But by combining customer support and customer success, you can provide a positive journey for your customer no matter the setbacks along the way.
If you would like to learn more about what customer support and customer success can do for your business, reach out to us. Our expertise has been shaped by years of experience.
