What’s the Difference Between Customer Service and Customer Experience?
Customer service refers to how you assist customers when they encounter issues or have questions. This usually involves direct interaction with a support team through channels like chat, email, or phone, and it strongly shapes how customers feel after a problem occurs.
Customer experience (CX) is broader. It includes marketing, onboarding, product usage, checkout, support, and post-purchase communication. CX reflects the overall impression customers form as they move through every stage of their journey with your brand.
Understanding the difference matters because strong customer service alone does not guarantee a strong customer experience. A fast support response can resolve a single issue, but confusing workflows, unclear messaging, or poor onboarding can still lead to frustration elsewhere.
Surveys are one of the most effective ways to evaluate both customer service and customer experience. Asking targeted questions helps you understand how customers feel about individual support interactions as well as the overall journey.
Examples of customer service survey questions include:
- How satisfied were you with the support you received?
- Was your issue resolved clearly and efficiently?
- How easy was it to get help when you needed it?
Examples of customer experience survey questions include:
- How easy was it to get started with our product or service?
- Did our communication match your expectations?
- How likely are you to recommend us based on your overall experience?
Gleam supports this approach through the Typeform Action, which allows you to connect a Typeform survey directly to a campaign. This makes it easy to collect structured feedback while tracking participation alongside other engagement actions.
To improve response rates, many teams pair surveys with light incentives. Running a Typeform survey as part of a giveaway encourages participation while keeping the experience optional and respectful of the user’s time.
Using survey data to evaluate both customer service and customer experience helps teams identify gaps, align improvements across departments, and deliver more consistent outcomes throughout the customer journey.
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