The outsourcing industry offers many services to growing and established businesses, and it can sometimes be challenging to know their specifics. With the plethora of different names, we take it upon ourselves to explain to you in detail what these are and put forward their differences.

The terms “customer support” and “customer service” are often seen as two names for the same service, but the story is quite the opposite. Here we will explain in detail how customer support differs from customer service to make outsourcing much simpler.

Outsourcing – What’s in it for you?

Customer support and customer service are both tasks that are usually outsourced to overseas experts. However, this question can pop up repeatedly, and that is, why do corporations outsource? 

The answer to this might amaze the masses, but outsourcing has its long list of benefits for enterprises of all sizes. Through outsourcing, businesses can flourish and grow exponentially, and this is due to its cost reduction and labor efficiency. Knowing how outsourcing and benefit your business organization can prove to be extremely useful.

If you wish to learn more about outsourcing, read about them in our previously published blogs or contact us. Let us get straight to the point and explain customer service and customer support in sheer detail.

Customer Service at a glance

Among the two, customer service stands out as the more significant task. It includes everything that deals with customers. It is a term used to describe a vast number of more minor services that include customer support. This collective term often involves the collaboration of the customers along with the staff. 

Customer service can be anything from guiding a customer to choose the right product or service to help them out with issues with the product. This service can also include selling the product itself. 

Customer service follows a particular flow and often requires multiple teams to handle each stage. Its complexity can be broken down into several smaller tasks. Scouting for customers or prospecting is the initial stage of customer service. This is the stage when customer service seeks out clients and customers to engage with them, know their feedback and what they might need to prepare a list of products and services that might suit them.

Selling a product or service to a customer is the next stage in customer service. This is where the sales take place, and transactions are made guided by the customer service staff. The customer service specialists can suggest or add more products or services to sell more to the customers.

The next stage includes aftersales services for costumes, including customer support, troubleshooting, and seeking customer feedback. During this stage, customer service can also allow selling more products and services; however, the main motive is to create a strong rapport and increase brand loyalty. Customer service also aims to reclaim older customers by staying in touch. 

Suppose a business organization seeks to outsource customer services; in that case, they will need to pick a team that can tackle the overall customer experience while also selling the product and providing support services.

What is Customer Support?

Customer support is a more concise service that business organizations usually outsource. This service involves a team of representatives who either seek out or receive customers to provide support. It is common for most companies to hire customer support services as it increases their value as a growing brand.

Customer support personnel are expertly trained individuals who help customers reach resolutions or guide others to sales. It falls under the category of customer services and is a vital part of it. Customer support has only one stage for operations, but it can serve different purposes.

A customer support representative on basic duty is tasked with receiving complaints and queries from distraught customers and providing quick resolutions. These customer support personnel are trained to handle customers of all temperaments while remaining calm and composed as they serve each customer. They are also required to have a good knowledge of the product or service in question.

Customer support teams can also be tasked with receiving inbound sales calls. These individuals have to receive incoming calls and help customers find the right product or service and purchasing them over the phone. They are trained to be courteous and thorough since it requires them to run through several verification processes while collaborating with the customer.

Outbound customer support services are also quite common. These individuals are trained to call up existing customers and engage with them in ways that help build brand loyalty through rapport.

The customer support personnel in this region can also ask customers and clients for feedback and suggestions during their call and attempt to offer them additional services. This ensures customer experience while providing them with steady support.

What’s the difference?

As we can see after having gone through both tasks in question, customer service deals with a broader range of functions that can often involve a few necessary stages that help customers build trust in the brand, drive sales and boost customer retention. This task focuses on customers and their role in the business through calls, chats, emails, or in person.

Customer support, however, is a part of customer service, and it tackles a small portion of all the responsibilities. The customer support personnel are purely tasked with aftersales services only. They are tasked with helping customers with issues they might be having with the product or service.

Knowing what you need

Businesses looking to outsource their customer support or customer service to boost and maintain their consumer base usually do not find it difficult while choosing the right services. A thoroughly established business knows exactly which direction they are headed and where they need to go.

However, outsourcing businesses often make this task much easier through proper consultation and guidance if an enterprise knows the benefits of outsourcing and doesn’t yet fully comprehend what to do next. Expert BPO organizations are always on their toes to help businesses reach their maximum potential with specialist staff and low operational costs.

Conclusion

Customer support and customer service are interrelated tasks that are often outsourced to increase their efficiency. They, however, can’t be used interchangeably since customer support is one task within the list of tasks involved in customer service.

They both deal with customers, but customer support only engages customers after the sales of products or services. Professional BPO companies will know what you need, and they can help guide your business organization to new heights. 

Need help with outsourcing? Contact professionals operating in your area and find out what they can do for you.