What is Customer Service? - Helprace
Many companies have an idea of what is customer service, but few manage to understand how to actually provide it.
The definition of what is customer service varies, but many can agree it is the “provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase” according to Wikipedia. It’s also been described as all interactions between a business and a consumer – this means during and way after a purchase or initial offering of a product or service.
How do you define what is customer service and what is not?
Customer service has been around ever since the first businesses started popping up. “Traditional customer service” -as the name suggests, defines customer service through the familiar channels that we’re all used to. Ask the general public where to get customer service, and you’ll likely get directed to many of the “single point of contact” channels. A single point contact is a direct link to customer service representatives that can happen in person, through the phone or e-mail.
In Person
Up until the first half of the 20th century, customer service was done in-person, usually at the place the product or service was originally purchased from. Whether this was next door or in the next town, customers had no choice but to pay businesses a visit.
Phone
With the invention of the telephone, customer service couldn’t migrate quickly to this new platform due to costs. However, during 1960s it was finally feasible for many companies to start staffing dedicated call-centers.
E-mail
The internet and email revolutionized customer service. Similar to telephone communication, e-mail messages could be sent in a second, and likely read and answered in the same day. This avenue allowed greater company exposure as computer user base grew.
Web-based applications
Internet usage skyrocketed through the 1990s, and so began a proliferation of message boards, chat rooms and other social engagement tools. While businesses were slow in adapting to these changes, we did see an increase in email forms.
Contact Us forms
What is customer service made for? Surely it’s made for the customer, but it must be a user-friendly platform, as well. This is why the introduction of contact forms proved to be a popular first step towards web-based customer support.
What is customer service: Is non-traditional methods still considered customer service?
Yes! Non-traditional methods are explored in our next article, «what is customer service, part 2»
It is not to say that non-traditional methods are not customer service, they are just more likely to be overlooked by businesses because of their non-traditional nature.
If you have any more questions or if you’re still wondering what is customer service, consider customer service software.
The elusive question “What is customer service?” is likely never to be answered. However, customer service software can give insight on what is customer service from the point of view of your customer. The Helprace software suite is made with the customer in mind, so you don’t have to second-guess your service strategy again. We invite you to check out our tour to see how Helprace can help your organization.
