What is customer service?

Customer service is important because it can help:
Increase customer loyalty.
Increase the amount of money each customer spends with your business.
Increase how often a customer buys from you.
Generate positive word-of-mouth about your business.

Customer service is both a type of job and a set of job skills. As a job, customer service professionals are responsible for addressing customer needs and ensuring they have a good experience. As a skill set, customer service entails several qualities like active listening, empathy, problem-solving and communication. Customer service is used in many jobs at every level.

While traditionally you might think of customer care as a service from a business to a consumer, it is also applicable within a business. For example, you may be in a role that provides services to other, internal teams. In this case, you would want to ensure that you understood and were able to meet their needs.

“Customer service shouldn’t just be a department, it should be the entire company.” — Tony Hsieh