Customer support vs. customer service
Customer support and customer service are related but distinct: customer support focuses on solving specific product problems, while customer service covers the broader relationship and experience a company delivers to customers.
Customer support is reactive and technical: a customer has a problem with a product or service, and the support team helps them fix it. It is measured by response speed, resolution rate, and satisfaction on individual interactions.
Customer service is a wider umbrella. It includes pre-purchase guidance, onboarding, billing, returns, and the general treatment a customer receives throughout their relationship with a company — not just when something breaks.
In practice, many small teams use the terms interchangeably because the same people handle both. The distinction becomes more useful in larger organizations where dedicated support agents handle break-fix issues separately from account managers, onboarding teams, or customer success managers who own the broader relationship.
From a metrics perspective: CSAT and first response time are support metrics. NPS is typically a service metric because it reflects the whole relationship, not one interaction.