1. The definition of customer experience is:

Multifaceted

When I started researching customer experience (CX), I expected to find a standard definition for the term pretty easily. I figured I’d read a few blogs and immediately understand what Customer Experience is. Actually, I thought I already knew what it was, to some degree. My definition of CX was the overall experience that a customer has while shopping, and that experience came down to two strategies, both of which are ingrained in the core values of almost every company out there today: customer service and user experience.

Certainly these are both a part of what makes up the overall CX, but as I’m finding out in my research, there is so much more to the story. According to Harley Manning, vice president and research director at Forrester Research, customer experience is:

"how customers perceive their interactions with a company along each step of a customer journey, from discovery, to purchase and use, to getting service."

So, CX covers the customer’s perceived experience from beginning to end, at all touch points within a company. UX deals mainly with digital touch points, such as web and mobile user interface, and is a subset of CX. Customer service is just one part of the entire shopping experience, which also puts it in the subset category.

Ambiguous

The definition of CX varies with each company, and with each customer. Every company’s process in dealing with customers is different; so one company’s definition of a good CX may not be another company’s definition of a good CX. Another key word in Manning’s definition is “perceived.” A company may perceive to have given a good overall customer experience, but that’s only one side of the equation. A customer’s perception is what really matters. No matter what kind of experience you think you gave a customer, they may have perceived something entirely different. This makes the definition of CX – and its metrics – not just multifaceted, but also ambiguous.

2. There are people who “do” customer experience.

I didn’t realize that CX – like UX and customer service – was actually an entire discipline, equipped with scientific research, data, metrics, experts, thought leaders, etc. I was surprised to find out there are people who “do” this for a living, mainly because it seems like it would be very difficult, based on the ambiguous and multifaceted nature of the discipline.

I must say, when I started reading blogs and following some of the experts in this space on Twitter, I was highly impressed, and a little overwhelmed. I don’t expect that feeling to disappear anytime soon, but as scary as it is, it’s also kind of exciting. I know I’m going to learn a lot.

3. Employee Experience and Customer Experience are equally important.

This was a revelation that I really connected with, because I’ve worked at companies that claimed to be “customer-centric” and “employee-centric,” but somehow still seemed to miss the mark on both accounts. It makes sense though. In fact it’s business 101: keep your employees happy and they’re going to keep your customers happy. Any company that prides itself on having a good CX process in place should also have happy employees who understand and implement the company’s core values and overall CX strategy well. Their experience will determine whether your customers have a good experience.

4. Customer feedback isn’t always a reliable metric for evaluating CX.

Surveys are a very popular method for finding out what customers want. But rarely is what you think you want what you actually need. That's what Walmart found out when a new CX strategy to reduce clutter in their stores – based on a customer feedback survey – backfired. If you can’t rely solely on feedback to figure out what customers need, then what else can you rely on? 

5. A good Customer Experience Strategy saves companies money.

This concept itself did not really surprise me. What does surprise me is how few companies implement a strong CX strategy as part of an effort to save money. Customer experience drives customer loyalty, which cuts down on the budget needed to attract new customers. So often, companies that need to save money will immediately slash marketing dollars or lay off employees – both of which probably result in quick, short-term, measurable results. But the long-term impact may be detrimental. Instead of cutting costs, perhaps the solution is to implement a strong CX process that helps retain customers, motivate employees, and reduces the marketing budget naturally, over time.

6. Customer Experience is not always a top priority.

Many companies tend to focus on User Experience or Customer Service – both of which are strong subsets of the overall Customer Experience – and both of which only make up a very small portion of the whole story. Other companies choose to focus on profit, with little consideration given to what their customers need and how that fits into their profit goals. The more I read about CX, the more I began to realize how important it is that we understand customer needs and perception. It surprised me that some companies devalue or even neglect the CX space altogether, and I’d like to learn more about why that’s the case.

7. There will always be more to learn about Customer Experience.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, CX is a multifaceted discipline. I've explored the space for a few months and still don’t think I’ve even begun to scratch the surface. The more blogs I read and the more links I click, the more I realize how incredibly vast the world of CX really is. As technology evolves, a customer’s perception of the shopping experience will continue to change. As such, there will always be more to explore within the space, and I look forward to learning something new with each study.

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