Customer Success and Customer Support can be easily confused. Even experienced companies sometimes struggle to pinpoint the differences between them. However, they are indeed distinct areas.
While both concern the customer, it’s crucial to understand their specificities to comprehend when each is used and when one is more appropriate than the other.
Let’s dissect these differences and complementarities to clear up any confusion.
Don’t forget to visit our Customer Success Outsourcing page if you need this service!
Customer Success vs. Customer Support: The Basics
It is not wrong to say that Customer Success and Customer Support are both models of customer relationship management. They both involve one or more interactions between the brand and the customer.
However, while Customer Support is reactive, Customer Success is proactive.
We’ll explain further. Customer Support happens when a customer has a problem or technical barrier and contacts the company. Therefore, the service is reactive, as it is entirely based on the situation previously brought by the client.
In contrast, Customer Success is proactive. The strategy aims to act before any problems are reported. Hence, we can say it has a preventive profile.
Customer Success uses data and insights to identify problems and demands that even the clients themselves have not yet recognized. It is a strategy that strives to stay a step ahead to propose the best solutions.
To learn more about customer success, read this article.
Differences Across the Customer Journey
The differences between Customer Success and Customer Support can be seen at all stages of the Customer Journey. Here are some examples:
Approach: In Customer Support, there is always a problem received and solved. In Customer Success, there is engagement and resolution that may involve the product team, making it more proactive regarding the issue brought up.
Objective: The main objective of Customer Support is to solve a problem. Customer Success focuses more on the customer’s results with the solution, aiming to achieve them by optimizing the customer journey.
Metrics: There are also essential differences regarding the metrics used in each. Customer Support metrics analyze the customer’s satisfaction with the specific incident. Customer Success metrics focus on the overall impact of the service or product, the feelings, and pains that make the client evaluate the business’s purpose more broadly.
These examples help us understand the main differences between Customer Success and Customer Support.
Customer Success + Customer Support: A Perfect Combination
Despite their particular characteristics, Customer Success and Customer Support complement each other. Both can perform infinitely better with the help of each other.
Customer Support is essential for mitigating technical barriers that may not have been addressed during onboarding and for understanding customer demands regarding your SaaS software.
Data extracted from this interaction—one of the most important for the company—supports Customer Success strategies.
For instance, when a problem is frequent or recurring, or when the same customer calls multiple times reporting an issue, the Customer Success team needs to investigate.
Therefore, both teams must maintain honest and efficient communication to report such occurrences.
Besides acting to prevent the problem from recurring in the future, the Customer Success team must also work to minimize the impacts on the customer experience, ensuring they achieve success with the product.
Benefits of Combining Customer Success and Customer Support
Now, let’s look at some situations where the joint action of these two sectors can benefit the company:
Dealing with More Critical Customers: Critical and demanding customers can receive more satisfactory service based on data obtained by the Customer Success team and passed on to the support team.
Feedback Records: In the classic relationship, feedback is received by Customer Support and passed on to the Customer Success team, which can use this data to structure new strategies and actions.
Efficient Communication: We cannot discuss efficiency in Customer Success or Customer Support without considering communication as a fundamental key. Here are some strategies to improve communication, especially between these two departments.
- Access to Data: Essential data, such as customer records, should be available to both teams when necessary. Using management software to centralize information properly and control access only to authorized individuals is one way to achieve this.
- Standardized Service: While personalizing the service is crucial, it is also essential to standardize some basic procedures to avoid information mismatches. Therefore, information should be shared between Customer Success and Customer Support through playbooks to maintain aligned guidance for customers, preventing frustrations.
- Fewer Meetings, More Autonomy: The goal should always be to simplify. Therefore, consider reducing unnecessary meetings and facilitating access to essential data for both teams to provide service.
Customer Success or Customer Support: Which Is More Important?
If you wonder which is more important for your company, the answer is: that both are essential.
Customer Support is indispensable for addressing queries and solutions. It is a vital department for receiving problems and requests and for damage control.
However, Customer Success stands out as a differential, an essential plus to reach a new level in relationship quality throughout the customer journey.
Companies aiming for healthy growth, greater market share, or revenue generation should invest in both.
When working together, Customer Success and Customer Support become commercial powerhouses that drive your company toward the success you desire.
Structuring and maintaining a successful business is no easy task. However, through innovation and the pursuit of excellence, you can achieve great results.
Follow our frequent blog content on Customer Success and Customer Support. Use the information as your ally to improve your strategies and captivate your clientele
If you want to know more about customer success, read our full guide about the topic.
