What Is Customer Care & How Does It Impact Your Business?

Customer care focuses on making sure that a customer has a positive experience before, during, and after a purchase. Customer care is important because it helps customers connect with a brand in a special way. When a customer feels like they were valued and listened to during an interaction with your brand, that’s good quality customer service.

Customer care vs customer service

There’s a difference between customer care vs. customer service. Both are important for a business, but you should know the difference between the two. With customer service, you’re providing assistance to your customers who need help. For example, if they need help making a return and the cashier facilitates that that’s customer service.

Customer care, on the other hand, is the emotional connection that a brand builds with its customers. Customer care involves an employee going above and beyond for a customer in a way that is truly meaningful for them.

For example, if a customer wants to return a pair of pants that ripped but it’s beyond the return window, and the salesperson makes an exception for them because of the circumstances, that’s customer care. Customer care focuses on resolving the issue quickly and making sure the customer is thought about during their entire shopping experience.

Customer care vs customer support

There’s also a difference between customer care vs customer support. Customer support involves assisting a customer with how to use a product. It will typically include assistance with technical problem solving and troubleshooting. An example of customer support is if their phone stops working and they call the customer support number for help on how to fix it.

Customer care, as we know, is the process of forming a more meaningful connection with your customer. In the case of a phone not working, customer care would involve someone going out of their way to help their customer fix their phone and providing them with as much assistance as possible.

Examples of customer care

There are countless ways you can implement customer care into your business, but here are some examples that you can use for inspiration:

• Providing a personalized response when a customer reaches out for help, rather than sending them a generic message.
• Providing top-tier customer service that goes above and beyond for the customer.
• Making things more convenient for your customers.
• Staying late for your customers when they come to you about a problem.
• Providing creative customer service and making sure your customers feel special and cared for.
• Building a connection with your customers so they know you’re actually listening to them.

How to improve your customer care

Working on your customer care will be more beneficial than you think, so here are some ways you can improve your customer care for your business:

Follow industry best practices

Whatever your industry has set as the standards for customer care, make sure you and all your employees strictly adhere to them. No one should be slacking off or disregarding customer care. Customer care can make or break the success of a business, so it’s important that everyone who works for your business follows the industry’s best practices.

This can mean making sure your employees nail the first impression with customers or that they personalize their customer relationships. It’s important that your employees have some sort of standard that they can follow so they know what to do regarding customer care.

Get to know your customers

There’s nothing better than walking into a store and actually having the salespeople remember who you are. Remembering your customers and actually taking the time to get to know them is one way to form a memorable customer experience.

Whether you’re meeting your customers online or face-to-face, it’s still important to prioritize getting to know the people who support your brand. There are a lot of ways you can do this. Strike up a conversation with them when you’re ringing them up. Respond personally to their reviews, whether they be positive or negative. Get personal with your deals and discounts so your customers know you actually listen to them. Getting to know your customers is a great way to build a relationship with them.

Be open to feedback

At the end of the day, every business can be improved in one way or another, so it’s crucial that you’re open to feedback. Feedback can feel personal at times, but it can also be a really valuable way to gain audience insights so you can figure out what is working and what isn't. They’re the ones supporting your business, after all. So if multiple people say something needs improvement, that probably means it needs improvement.

Why you should prioritize customer care

There are many reasons why you should prioritize customer care for your business, such as:

• Improves employee retention: If your employees know that the business they work for actually cares about their customers, they’re more likely to want to continue to work there.
• It represents your brand image: The way you treat your customers is a direct reflection of your brand image. You can act like the most genuine brand in the world, but if your actions don’t reflect that, it’s not going to look good on your brand image.
• Strengthens company culture: If everyone who works for the company can come together and revel in the fact that their business prioritizes customer service, it’s going to build company culture and strengthen your relationships with your employees.
• Increases customer retention: If a customer is happy with your customer care, that means they’re most likely going to continue to support your business. Quality customer care is a great way to build a loyal customer base that you know you can count on.
• Can lead to more revenue: Since your customers are going to be so impressed with your customer care service, that also means they’re more likely to recommend your business to their friends and family, which can lead to more revenue. A happy customer will typically also be more willing to buy from your business more often because they want to support you and watch you grow.
• Helps you stand out from competitors: Having good customer care can give you a competitive edge and help you stand out from competitors. If a customer has to choose between two very similar companies who offer the same products at the same prices, but one offers much better customer care, they’re most likely going to go with that one.

Doing something as simple as striking up a conversation with a customer every day is one step closer to having the best customer care service possible. Whether you interact with your customers in person or via email, your customer care standards should be the same nonetheless.

Take customer care to the next level

If you’re looking to make your business more customer-friendly, you can use Mailchimp to help you out. Mailchimp is an all-in-one email marketing platform that helps businesses manage their client lists and create effective marketing campaigns. But Mailchimp can also help you improve your customer care.

When you sign up for Mailchimp, you’ll get access to all of our free resources and tools, like our CRM marketing software that will help you create stronger relationships with your customers. So whether you’re focusing on customer re-engagement or building connections with your customers, we can handle it all–and more– with Mailchimp.