When someone asks what the difference is between customer experience and customer service this is my analogy and story, I give based off my retail experience and when I started in IT. I used to work for a big box hardware store for about 10 years and providing excellent customer service was engrained into me since I started there and that evolved into providing customers the best customer experience. I will give a couple of examples of how I used to provide customer service and customer experience from both retail and IT.
Retail scenario:
Customer service...
A customer walks into store and asks what aisle the light bulbs in. I would tell them what aisle they were in and pointed in the direction of the aisle.
Customer service with customer experience...
A customer walks into the store, and I greet and acknowledge them before they ask for help. Instead of them asking me what aisle the light bulbs in I have already asked them what they are looking for and will walk them to the aisle while striking a conversation with them. I would ask them questions about what kind of bulb they are looking for or how their day is going. When I was able to find what they were looking for I would ask if they needed any more help or have any more questions. If that is all they needed help with I thank them for coming in.
IT scenario:
Customer service...
A customer calls in frustrated because they are unable to log into anything because their account is locked out. I would check if their account was locked and proceed to unlock it so that they can log in. I would ask if they needed help with anything else and if not, I would tell them to have nice day and move on to the next call.
Customer service with customer experience...
A customer calls in frustrated because they are unable to log into anything because their account is locked out. I would check if their account was locked and proceed to unlock it so that they can log in. If the customer has the time I would then ask if this was a one-time thing and if they recently changed password. During that conversation I would be utilizing tools to see if I could identify any other devices that could be causing a lockout. If I couldn't keep the customer on the phone, I would still do my due diligence to check and see if maybe there could be any devices causing a lockout. If I did find anything that could cause future lockouts, I would do my best to contact the customer to let them know what I found and hopefully prevent them from getting locked out again.
Providing an amazing customer experience in any setting shows customers that not only are we there to provide a service, but we want to make a great lasting impression of the entire experience. When we go above and beyond for customers it amplifies that we care for them and their needs. Placing value in the experience provides an opportunity to be crazy amazing.