What is customer service?

Customer service is the support businesses give their customers throughout the entire relationship lifecycle—from the moment they walk through the door to long after they make a purchase.

The way you treat your customers (and potential customers) shapes their perception of your brand and determines whether they’ll stay with you for years to come.

The stakes are high: according to Klaviyo’s 2025 future of consumer marketing report, around 1 in 4 customers would give a brand a second chance if they received exceptional customer service after a negative experience.

Customer service has evolved far beyond picking up the phone and answering basic questions. It’s a critical part of the customer experience that spans multiple channels, such as:

Phone calls
Text messages
Email
Chatbots
Customer hubs
Help centers
Social media

For B2C brands, customer service isn’t just about solving problems. You also need to create exceptional experiences at scale to drive loyalty and revenue in the long run.

What are the differences between B2C and B2B customer experience?

B2C and B2B customer service share the same core goal: supporting customers. But there are several key differences, including:

	B2C customer service	B2B customer service
Customer volume	Millions of individual customers	Hundreds or thousands of business accounts
Interaction frequency	Higher frequency, simpler inquiries	Lower frequency, more complex interactions
Resolution expectations	Immediate answers, quick solutions	Detailed solutions, longer timelines
Communication channels	Email, SMS, mobile, web, social, in-store, help center	Email, phone, video meetings
Self-service preferences	Strong preference for intuitive self-service	More 1:1 assistance from customer service professionals
Personalization requirement	Individual consumer level	Account/company level
Decision-making speed	Rapid, often immediate	Slower, multiple stakeholders involved
Purchase value	Lower individual transaction value	Higher contract/account value
Support team structure	Larger teams handling high volume	Dedicated account managers for key clients
Problem complexity	Simpler, more standardized solutions	Complex, customized solutions
Emotional component	More emotionally driven, impulse purchases	More logically driven, calculated decisions
Loyalty drivers	Brand experience, convenience, emotional connection	ROI, reliability, strategic partnership

Why is customer service important?

Imagine this: a customer orders a black dress but receives the wrong size. Frustrated, they reach out to support for a resolution. But the very next day, they receive an email promoting the same dress—adding fuel to the fire and potentially damaging the relationship you spent time building.

Excellent customer service eliminates this gap from the get-go and integrates support across all channels—creating one cohesive experience, rather than thousands of disparate interactions.

Here are a few other benefits of customer service:

It generates positive word-of-mouth

According to our future of consumer marketing report, reviews are the most important factor for consumers when making an initial purchase with a B2C brand across industries—and 1 in 5 consumers discover new restaurants through word-of-mouth recommendations.

And if customers experience excellent service, they’re more likely to share their experiences through:

Public reviews
Social media posts
Personal recommendations (word of mouth)

Given that every positive interaction can reach hundreds of potential customers, this creates a powerful flywheel effect where exceptional service ultimately attracts new customers.

It improves brand reputation and perception

According to our report, when consumers have a negative experience with a brand, the first thing 32% of them do is contact customer service. If customers don’t feel like a brand is addressing their concerns after they’ve contacted customer service, the brand’s reputation could suffer.

On the other hand, a brand that quickly resolves an issue uncovered during a customer service complaint can rebuild trust and even improve their reputation because they’re showing they value customer feedback.

It strengthens customer loyalty and retention

Our report also uncovered that customer service is among the top 3 reasons why consumers stay loyal to brands across all industries.

There’s a good chance your loyal customers and brand advocates will continue to buy from you in the near future. And the longer you retain customers, the better it is for your bottom line.

It creates opportunities for up- and cross-sells

Offering customer service across multiple channels has several advantages, not least of which is the ability to recommend complementary products or services based on the customer’s needs or purchase history.

The customer journey doesn’t end with a one-time purchase. You need to retain as many customers for as long as possible. This is where you can use engagement or purchase data to keep them shopping—in a way that feels organic to the customer.

For instance, let’s say a customer bought one of your newest facial moisturizers for acne-prone skin. If you have complementary products, you can send a targeted campaign geared to a complete skincare routine. When these kinds of recommendations come within the context of helping solve customer problems, they don’t come off as a forced sale.

It reduces customer acquisition costs (CAC)

Over time, many B2C companies expand their acquisition channels to grow their business. But that comes at a cost.

New channels require upfront investments, which increase your CAC. By retaining a large portion of your customer base, you can stop relying as much on expensive channels.

Also, if you’re investing time and resources into building stronger customer relationships, you can reduce churn, which lets you focus your budget on growth instead of acquisition.

It increases customer lifetime value (CLV)

Good customer service experiences tend to drive repeat purchases and higher average order value (AOV).

When you prioritize the customer at every step of the journey, the customer learns they can rely on your brand. And if you consolidate data from multiple channels to personalize the overall experience, your customers might feel more seen and spend more money on your offers—increasing their CLV.

Elements of excellent customer service

You can’t offer good customer service without adopting a customer-first mindset. This means, at every step of the customer journey, you need to make sure they feel like your brand truly cares about and understands them.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when building a customer service strategy:

Self-service as the default: According to Microsoft’s Global State of Customer Service report, 90% of global consumers prefer to self-serve. They either conduct a Google search or run through a brand’s self-service portal to get answers fast.
Speed and responsiveness: Our future of consumer marketing report found that 92% of consumers expect brands to follow up within 24 hours after they’ve flagged a negative experience. Set clear response time expectations and meet them to maintain high customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores.
Empathy and understanding: Your customer service team needs to demonstrate genuine care for customers and validate their emotions to create connection and trust.
Proactive problem resolution: Anticipate customer concerns—like delayed shipments—before they escalate, and reach out proactively with solutions. This shows customers that you pay attention to their needs and follow through on solutions.
Clarity while communicating: Don’t bury your answers in corporate speak. Consumers might not speak your jargon, so tailor your answers to their level of understanding. Any type of confusing language only makes it harder for them and leads to a negative experience.
Consistency across touchpoints: Your customers should receive the same level of care and accessibility whether they engage through email, chat, social media, phone, or in person. If you deliver reliable service quality regardless of channel, time, or agent, you create predictability and, eventually, trust.
Continuous improvement through feedback: Keep collecting, analyzing, and implementing customer feedback to improve customer service. Leading B2C brands tend to close the loop with customers whenever they implement changes. This shows customers their feedback matters and shapes the overall company strategy, too.

6 ways to improve customer service as a B2C company

Now you know what matters when you’re creating a customer service strategy. Let’s look at how you can improve service:

1. Understand that service starts with strategy

Many B2C brands make the mistake of thinking that customer service starts at the post-purchase stage. That’s simply not true.

Every touchpoint influences how consumers perceive you. It starts at word-of-mouth or online search (discovery) stage of the journey. That’s why you need to create a customer service strategy to support potential or existing customers through multiple channels.

2. Give customers self-service options

Today’s consumers increasingly prefer finding answers independently because they don’t want to reach out to agents for small inquiries. Consider offering self-service options like:

Searchable knowledge bases
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Tutorial videos
AI chatbots

With Klaviyo Customer Hub, for example, your customers can sign in and access the answers they need in a centralized location, like when an order will be delivered or what products might complement their recent purchase.

A customer hub doesn’t replace human support—it complements it, letting agents focus on more complex or higher-value interactions.

3. Unify data to treat customer service as a revenue driver

The only way to turn customer service into a serious revenue driver is by using shared data.

Often, service and marketing teams each work from their own datasets. As a result, service teams have no idea what customers’ pre-purchase patterns look like. On the other hand, marketing has no idea what happens after customers click the “buy” button.

When both teams share customer data, visibility into how customers have interacted with your brand empowers you to create experiences that drive loyalty and growth rather than simply resolving problems.

Over time, these interactions drive more revenue impact, turning service into a profit center.

4. Make sure your brand is present on multiple channels

Modern consumers expect to reach brands through their preferred communication channels. They use what’s the most convenient for them, whether that’s email, SMS, mobile apps, or social media.

Also, consider the age and generation of your consumer base. According to our future of consumer marketing report, Gen X and baby boomers are more likely to use a web search or word-of-mouth recommendations to find products, but younger consumers prefer organic social media.

Start by investing in channels that matter to your audience first, then scale from there.

5. Use AI-powered solutions to provide excellence at scale

AI tools like chatbots, predictive analytics, and automated routing systems help deliver personalized service to large customer bases. You can offload manual work to these systems, freeing up your agents to focus on higher-value tasks like understanding what customers need.

For example, instead of assigning an agent for basic inquiries, use an AI chatbot. Customers can ask questions like, “How do I clean a chiffon shirt?” or “What’s the return policy for fermented products?” and get the right answers.

You can also use AI to identify patterns in customer behavior and anticipate their needs. For instance, Klaviyo uses predictive analytics to personalize product recommendations and identify the biggest churn risks.

6. Add human touchpoints at critical moments across channels

While automation and self-service are valuable, you need to weave in human intervention at key decision points to create memorable experiences.

Your agents are skilled—so employ them to offer nuanced support during:

Complex transactions
Emotionally charged situations
High-value purchases

Use Klaviyo to deliver exceptional B2C customer service

Customer service is no longer a cost center for businesses. As consumer expectations change (and rise), B2C companies need to deliver exceptional customer experiences at scale.

With Klaviyo, the only CRM built for B2C, you have all your marketing and service needs in one unified platform—making it easy to deliver a seamless, personalized customer service experience.

Whether it’s creating a single destination for customers to track an order, start a return, or talk to an agent with Klaviyo Customer Hub, or using AI Agent to drive more sales and answer questions, Klaviyo B2C CRM can help your brand deliver exceptional customer service.

Get started with Klaviyo to deliver top-notch B2C customer service.