What Is CX and Why Is It Important?

Customer experience, or CX, refers to an individual’s perception and satisfaction with your company or brand. It encompasses their feelings about their interactions with your business throughout their customer journey. A positive CX offers several rewards. That’s why more businesses employ CX strategy and hire individuals with CX knowledge to help drive their success.

Explore aspects of customer experience, such as customer touchpoints, journeys, and expectations, to better understand this critical element. Additionally, discover tips for improving your customer’s associations with your brand.

What is CX? 

CX stands for customer experience, an all-encompassing term describing individuals’ encounters with a business or brand throughout their buying journeys. You might have a positive customer experience at an amusement park when one of the employees helps you track down your lost wallet, or you could have one in a coffee shop where the barista knows your name and favorite drink without you saying it. These customer interactions, though, represent only a few touchpoints in the overall CX. 

CX considers every engagement a customer has with your company. The analysis includes pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase experiences.

Main elements of customer experience 

CX covers many components of the individual’s interaction or engagement with your product, service, or brand. To deliver positive customer experiences, you’ll need to consider how to meet customers on their journey—providing what they need or want when they need or want it. 

Achieving the results you want requires you to understand the main elements of CX, including:

• Customer touchpoints: Touchpoints include a website, social media channels, physical stores, customer service interactions, mobile apps, emails, and more. At each of these points, you have the potential to sway customers and increase their satisfaction. 

• Customer journey: The entire process starts with the customer realizing they need something and continues even through post-purchase engagement. The journey encompasses all touchpoints and interactions, including research, evaluation, purchase, and ongoing support. 

• Personalization: Tailoring recommendations, content, and marketing messages to meet the individual customer’s preferences and needs can boost engagement and better meet customers’ needs and wants. 

• Customer expectations: The more you know what customers want, the better you can meet and exceed their expectations. For example, one customer might prioritize cost savings over the convenience of next-day delivery. 

• Emotional connection: Of course, providing a consistent, reliable experience matters. But you can also deliver valuable CX by connecting with people’s feelings and providing moments that surprise and delight them.

• Employee engagement: Happy, motivated employees provide more exceptional experiences to your customers. Invest in employee training, empowerment, and recognition to ensure your people want to deliver positive CX and increase customer satisfaction.

Read more: What Is a Social Media Marketer? And How to Become One

What’s the difference between CX vs. UX?

CX and user experience (UX) refer to two different situations where people interact with your brand: first as customers and then later as product users. Customer experience considers the journey people take from the moment they first hear of your brand to the moment when they make a purchase. It might include factors like how likely a customer is to refer your brand to a friend after the buying experience. 

User experience, on the other hand, speaks to how people use a specific product, such as your website or a tangible good they’ve purchased from you. UX and CX can influence each other, but they are not interchangeable.

How does CX compare to customer service? 

Like user experience, customer service intertwines with CX but refers to a different situation where a customer interacts with your company. Customer service refers to a specific touchpoint where a customer reaches out for help with an issue or asks a question. Although this is an integral part of customer experience, it only represents a particular type of interaction between customer and brand. CX, conversely, refers to the entire buyer’s journey. 

Read more: Good Customer Service: Definition, Examples, and Tips

How customer experience drives business growth 

Customer experience can drive business growth in numerous ways, from boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty to increasing the chances that customers will give favorable feedback to others and spark new sales. Providing a positive CX offers several advantages:

• Enhanced customer satisfaction: A positive CX leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction. A satisfying experience makes loyal, repeat customers more likely and grows your volume of brand advocates. 

• Competitive advantage: Providing exceptional experiences can differentiate your business from its competitors. In doing so, CX also has the potential to aid in customer retention and attract more new customers. 

• Brand perception: Positive CX builds trust, credibility, and a positive brand image. It can also make customers more likely to view your products or services favorably.

• Increased customer lifetime value: Increasing customer loyalty and retention saves you from the revenue spent recruiting new customers. Additionally, loyal customers typically engage with a brand for more extended periods and spend more.

• Word of mouth: Positive feedback and referrals from individuals with positive CX can be powerful marketing tools for attracting new customers and expanding the customer base.

What is CX strategy?

CX strategy focuses on delivering positive experiences to your customers, wherever they are in the buying journey. The people responsible for CX define a plan for creating and providing experiences that enhance customer satisfaction overall.

To effectively implement CX strategy, you’ll need the following:

• Deep understanding of your customers’ objectives, standards, and preferences

• Customer journey maps to help you see the entire lifecycle of that customer.

• Clearly defined objectives for CX

• Top-down support for positive customer interactions

• Cross-department collaboration that recognizes all organizational areas can impact positive CX.

• Customer feedback and data analysis to discover areas that need to be improved and strategies producing the desired effects 

• Digital tools to help you track, compare, and assess CX

Developing your CX strategy

Your CX strategy should involve gathering feedback and data from your customers. You can also benefit from consulting all departments for their insights. Market research and competitive analysis data can provide the necessary insights to shape your CX strategy. You’ll also want to ensure your plan aligns with your business goals, mission, vision, and brand values. 

Understanding customers’ preferences and pain points can help you provide the products and services they seek and create an exceptional customer experience.

Read more: What Is a Customer Relationship? Definition + Business Strategies

What kind of work is there in CX? 

Recognizing the importance of CX, many businesses have created a chief experience officer  (CXO) role. It is also sometimes called a chief customer officer. As this is a high-level position, you may need to spend time gaining experience in an entry-level position before you’re qualified for this role or similar positions, which might include:

• CX research specialist: You’ll collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data about customers to help map their journeys, identify trends, and personalize CX efforts.

• CX manager: You’ll get to understand customer touchpoints, analyze CX activities against established objectives, and constantly track metrics for iteration and improvement. 

• CX strategist: Using data, customer feedback, and other research, you’ll develop a CX strategy and get others to understand the importance of those objectives. 

• Customer service representative: You’ll support a positive customer journey by working directly with customers to support issues, resolve concerns, and answer questions. 

• Customer service manager: You’ll oversee the agents working directly with customers and provide support and training to continue to prioritize CX and other business objectives.

Learn more about CX on Coursera.

Customer experience refers to every interaction that a customer has with your brand. Creating a customer experience strategy can help you think through the customer’s journey and make improvements that lead to more loyal customers. Build your customer experience knowledge and skill set with online courses. 

Explore connections between branding efforts and CX in the Branding and Customer Experience offering on Coursera. Alternatively, consider gaining an in-depth understanding of Customer Analytics with the Wharton School of Business, also on Coursera.