Overview

Every customer needs access to service, but not every customer needs access to customer support. Similarly, while every product or service needs customer service to ensure a satisfied customer base, not every product or service needs customer support.

To decide if you need a customer support center, you must determine if the product or service that you provide requires it. And to do that, you have to examine the difference between service and support.

Service is a universal term that encompasses most calls from customers. Service can include requests for general information about a company, like hours of operation, store locations, mailing addresses or Web site addresses. These types of calls can come from customers even if they do not purchase anything from your company.

If customers do buy from your company, service then involves a whole other set of calls. Customers who have questions about processes related to purchases, like dates that packages are supposed to arrive or logistics for returning items, often speak with agents in customer service. Callers also reach out to customer service to praise or complain about how they feel the company treated them.

But when customers have questions, suggestions or problems about the products or services your company provides, you enter the realm of support, which is another galaxy in the universe of customer service.

Support centers, unlike other kinds of call centers, focus on solving problems, not just on providing general customer service. There are a variety of ways a company can...