What is Customer Care (And Why is it Important?)

When you think about the difference between a forgettable brand and a favorite brand—like Apple, Trader Joe’s, or Patagonia —it often boils down to one simple thing: customer care. How a brand treats its customers can be the difference between making one-off sales and building brand loyalty that lasts a lifetime.

If you’re interested in the latter, how do you improve your customer care to build a brand identity that customers want to be a part of? We’re glad you asked.

What is customer care?

Customer care is the act of consistently providing shoppers, guests, or clients with a thoughtful and personalized experience when they interact with a brand (or the customer service representatives of that brand). Just like the name suggests, customer care is taking care of people – making them feel seen, valued, and connected to your brand’s core values. 

What is a customer care representative?

All customer care starts with the people representing your brand. Customer care representatives are the individuals directly helping your customers feel seen and valued. They bridge the gap between the consumer and the brand, strengthening that relationship so that the customer not only has a good experience but one that compels them to keep coming back. 

What’s the difference between customer care and customer service?

It’s easy to see customer service and customer care as interchangeable because it’s easy to think of the words ‘service’ and ‘care’ as interchangeable, but there are some important differences between the two. Through customer service, your business provides assistance, answers, or advice to customers who need help. Customer care, on the other hand, is when your team builds genuine, personal, and emotional connections with the people who interact with your brand. While customer service is more quantitative and measurable in terms of goals and outcomes, customer care is more qualitative and helps brands build lasting, long-term relationships with the people they serve. 

What do consumers expect in their customer care experience?

Think of the customer experience as a relationship with a friend. Good friends offer help when you need it and give advice. Great friends care about the things you care about, remember your birthday, and go out of their way to make your day easier. 

While customers may not expect your brand to remember their birthday (although that is a great example of customer care that you should consider doing), what they do expect is to access support on their terms, be treated with respect, and be valued as a person, rather than as a potential sale. Essentially, your customers expect your brand to advocate for them.

How to improve customer care to meet consumer expectations

Customer care can seem pretty straightforward, but because so much of business is now conducted through digital forums—a 2019 UJET survey showed that 61% of customers are using mobile devices for support—it can be easy to forget that there’s a real person on the other end. While you may not always be able to speak with customers face to face, you can give them a great care experience that they’ll remember. 

One of the best ways to improve your customer care is to make it personal. Think about the individual. What does each customer need right now? What will make their life easier? How can your brand go above and beyond with the services you provide for them? 

Everything from the way you talk to a customer down to the tools you use to interface with them can go a long way in improving your customer care. Think about a customer who works long days and has an issue they need support for, but can never reach an agent to resolve it because they only really have time after hours. How do you go above and beyond for that customer when you have your own limitations as a business? You think outside the box to prioritize their needs. 

A customer who needs service outside of normal business hours can be cared for with something like AI customer service, through self-service options, or by outsourcing your after-hours support to a BPO organization. These tools not only provide measurable customer service metrics, but they improve the quality of the experience and care for your clients.

On a very basic level, good customer care comes down to personal touches, like using a customer’s name, remembering the little details, and seeking ways to make them feel special. 

How can improving customer care benefit my business?

Nobody likes to feel overlooked or uncared for, and when a business makes people feel that way, it can have lasting harmful effects. A person who’s treated poorly is unlikely to ever purchase services or products from you again. Even a customer who’s merely assisted and not cared for will likely leave your business without an impression lasting enough to stick in meaningful ways. But when your business personally cares for customers, it builds loyalty and ultimately accelerates growth. 

A 2021 ACA Study found that 75% of consumers “are more likely to be loyal to a company or brand that delivers a personalized customer experience.” That number speaks for itself.

How can I train my representatives to provide better customer care?

Better customer care starts with good customer service. You want to make sure you have a team that has the right skillset and software to engage empathetically and patiently with your clients in the service space. You also want to establish specific and actionable guiding standards that dictate how your customers should be treated. 

Training representatives to find common ground or common interests with customers is one way to humanize the experience and help them build better relationships with your customers. Help them determine intrapersonal goals they can work towards and provide them with feedback and follow up that can help them improve their customer care. That AI customer service tool we mentioned earlier? Not only can it improve your customer’s experience, but it can gather instant feedback to help your employees improve and understand your customer better, too.

Learn more about how AI customer service tools like UJET Virtual Agent can improve your overall customer care and help you build brand loyalty.