Customer #Experience, Customer #Engagement - it has to be about more than Customer #Service

In my last blog entry I proposed definitions of the phrases "customer service", "customer experience" and "customer engagement".

In summary, I suggested that:

Customer Service ...
is what an organisation does when delivering its products and services to customers, and how it does it. 

Customer Experience ...
is about how customers feel as a result of the service they receive. 

Customer Engagement ...
is the outcome an organisation wants as a result of the service they deliver and the experience the customer has.

I also suggested though that customer experience and engagement can't be delivered through customer service alone.

To expand on that .....in my view every customer experience, and the degree of engagement each customer feels with a brand, is influenced by two things other than customer service.  First, the fact that every customer is influenced by their previous experiences.  These could be:

• Experiences with the same brand - which create expectations for the future which, if not met, result in a negative experience.
• Experiences with other brands - which also create expectations.
• The experiences they have had that day (and perhaps longer than that) which influence how they're feeling beforehand.  To illustrate this point, have you ever had an argument with someone and been in a bad mood before receiving a service?  And did it affect how you felt about the service you received?

All of these things affect customer experience.

Second, the customers' perception of the brand, and therefore whether they are positively or negatively disposed towards it, influences their experience and their level of engagement.  It's entirely possible that the degree of engagement a customer has can be impacted by adverse media coverage, social media, peer group feedback etc, all of which may influence a customers disposition.  They influence a customers perception of the organisation and thus the relationship they have with it.

The implication for every organisation is that influencing customer experience and customer engagement has to be about more than just customer service.  It has to be about building relationships.

LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/timhadfield

Twitter: @accordengage

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