What is Customer Experience?
Customer experience (CX) is the natural result of the subjective ‘digital’ perception of companies, products and services that existing and prospective customers come into contact with. This also includes any indirect experiences with companies, for instance, when users hear about the experiences of others or when consumer organisations publish test results on products. The perception refers to services provided or to any experience that is part of a purchase process – including the phase before purchase (research), the usage phase and the phase after completion of the purchase. The goal of CX is to create a consistently positive experience for customers – along all touchpoints of the particular omnichannel or multichannel strategy.
Why is a positive customer experience important?
Today, most products are mass-produced. Users will rarely see a difference or significant added value. Product properties and functionality still play a key role in the purchase process but a positive experience with the company is equally important to customers. It is very easy for users today to find a similar or identical product or service offered by a different provider. According to the German Markenartikel Magazin, 50 per cent of users will switch to a competitor after a single bad experience. This is why CX has become such a crucial aspect, one that can make all the difference when competition is tough. It is closely linked to the user experience or rather is a part of it. Good CX is essential for a user-friendly digital presence (website, app, shop).
Customer Purchase Experience
There are two aspects to customer experience:
One aspect is users’ immediate perception, based on emotions and impressions. A customer’s assessment based on these aspects is not necessarily rational. It is registered through emotions as well as cognitive processes (intellectual perception of the environment) and sensory perceptions (e.g., visual and acoustic) and processed in the brain.
The other aspect is users’ rationalisation of these emotions and reflection on the immediate experience with a goal in mind. This results in a comprehensible opinion of a product or service. Both aspects are part of the customer experience.
Editorial comment: For existing and prospective customers, the individual experience phases usually begin before their first contact with sales staff or other company employees (see also: CX management). That is why two different types of contact are recognised: direct and indirect. Direct contact is when customers themselves initiate contact with the respective provider and/or the provider’s employees. However, direct contact also includes the website, the applications of a company as well as specific advertising formats influenced directly by the company. Indirect contact, on the other hand, refers to recommendations, general advertising, news portals (reporting/reviews) and conventional internet research which the company cannot influence directly.
Customer Experience Management – CX Advantages
Customer experience management (CXM) orchestrates all processes within a single customer journey and therefore also those of a complete customer lifecycle. It supports the marketing and sales teams in their customer interactions, providing the right framework. All touchpoints are covered by CXM. This places companies in the comfortable situation of being able to individually address customers before they actively look for a service or product. This may sound simple, but it is very complex for an entire customer journey. It is a mix of guidelines, past communication, trends and, of course, customer needs. It also includes complaints handling and customer loyalty programmes.
Information collected, for example, is stored in a customer relationship management system, or CRM. CXM is also refined with the help of marketing automation and/or personalisation (customer data management). Based on a customer profile, personalised content can be sent out in a newsletter. The information collected may include documented preferences as well as past purchases.
The goal of CX is to positively influence the decision of existing or prospective customers – do they feel taken care of and well-advised, do employees succeed in communicating the unique selling proposition (USP) of a company early on? This is what makes a company stand out: actual customer benefits anchored in the corporate philosophy and its products and services.
Advantages of a Positive CX
Emphasis on the company’s unique selling propositions (USPs)
Long-term customer loyalty (ideally emotional)
High customer satisfaction may increase employee retention
Strong company image
Topics such as the environment, services and product development are addressed actively
Transparent customers (moments of truth)
Increasing revenue
Free advertising by happy customers
Standing out from the competition (see USP)
Contact for your Digital Solution with Unic
Book an appointmentAre you keen too discuss your digital tasks with us? We would be happy to exchange ideas with you.
Contact for your Digital Solution
Book an appointmentAre you keen to talk about your next project? We will be happy exchange ideas with you.
