According to a report by Fortune Business Insights, the global loyalty management market may expand significantly, increasing from $6.47 billion in 2023 to $28.65 billion by 2030. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.7% over the forecast period, which signifies that companies must ensure a better customer experience for their clients.
“Customer experience (CX) is the overall experience that a company aspires to offer its customers. It summarizes a business’s customer-centric efforts to deliver good CX, value, and lasting customer satisfaction and relationships.”
-Sudarshan Somanathan, Customer Experience vs. User Experience: Key Differences
CX is not just a limited set of actions; it also focuses on customers’ feelings for the brand or company during the relationship between the customer and the company. It covers everything a business does to meet customers’ expectations and manage customer lifecycle and serve their needs.
How customers perceive your brand is tied to customer retention and brand loyalty. Here are some key aspects of CX:
Touchpoints: Customer interaction points—websites, social media, email, and in-store visits.
Customer journey: The customer’s lifetime value from awareness to purchase and post-purchase support, retention and advocacy.
Service and product quality: The performance of the product or service and the support offered by staff, including responsiveness and friendliness.
Brand image: The customers’ perception is based on its values, messaging, and reputation.
Emotional engagement: Customers’ feelings and connections with the brand influence loyalty.
Post-purchase interaction: Collecting feedback, such as surveys and reviews, to improve experience, create loyalty and advocacy.
The User Experience Within the Customer Experience
As opposed to CX, the term user experience (UX) is specifically about how the customers “end-user” interact with your product system or service, particularly regarding product usability, accessibility within the entire customer experience.
A great user experience strategy ensures satisfaction before, during, and after the product interaction. UX focuses on deeply understanding expectations, value systems, abilities, and limitations.
Here are some important aspects of UX:
Usability: How easy it is for your customer to get what they want when using the product.
Visual design: The visual and functional aspects of the product.
Emotional design: Whether it evokes emotions and engagement.
Accessibility: Availability and usability for diverse audiences.
Information architecture: How well the placement of the information caters to what customers are looking for.
User research: Prioritizing customer’s needs and behaviors through interviews, surveys, and usability testing.
Consistency: Maintaining a uniform experience throughout the product.
A well-designed UX is more likely to make interactions more satisfactory and make your customer feel valued with their specific needs catered to. Satisfied customers are more likely to return and become repeat business, and they feel happy to share their experiences, leading to organic referrals and new customers.
A great UX can set your product apart, enhancing customers’ views of your brand and credibility. It also encourages them to spend more time with the product, keeping them engaged and exploring.
Comparing CX and UX
UX design is concerned with the interaction between the customer and a specific product or service. It involves designing interfaces that are intuitive, efficient, and enjoyable to use. CX encompasses a customer’s entire journey with a brand, from initial awareness to post-purchase interactions. Here are some measures that matter:
| Aspect | Customer experience (CX) | User experience (UX) |
| Scope | Entire customer journey with the brand | Interaction with a specific product or service |
| Focus | Overall brand perception and customer satisfaction | Usability and functionality of the product |
| Goal | Create a positive overall experience | Ensure ease of use and efficiency |
| Measurement | Net Promoter Score (NPS) | Customer Effort Score (CES) |
| Touchpoints | entire journey from awareness through advocacy | product and service interactions |
| Duration | Long-term relationship | Long-term interaction |
| Responsibility | Customer services | Product and Services |
| Examples | Customer service quality, brand reputation | Website navigation, app usability |
How Do CX and UX Work Together in Marketing and Sales?
CX and UX are complementary elements that create a holistic customer journey, integrating product interactions and the overall brand experience. You can’t maintain customer brand loyalty for long without good UX.
CX informs UX design decisions, ensuring alignment with business and customer goals. UX enhances CX through usability and design. They must come together to:
- Integrate touchpoints (website, mobile apps, customer support, social media)
- Improve customer satisfaction and loyalty
- Increase conversion rates and revenue
- Enhance competitiveness
CX and UX both aim to create seamless customer experiences across marketing and sales touchpoints. When aligned, they help coordinate messaging and branding across different channels, design intuitive websites and landing pages, and optimize customer journeys for conversion.
In an effective collaboration where CX and UX are in sync with your business’s marketing goals, it’s more efficient to develop personalized content and recommendations, simplify checkout and onboarding processes, and provide omnichannel support. When a business’s long-term goals inform its CX and UX efforts, the benefits include:
- Seamless experience
- Increased loyalty
- Higher conversion rates
- Better feedback utilization
- Personalization
- Efficient sales processes
CX and UX Examples
CX vs UX targets are the same, but strategies differ. CX plans are all-encompassing and focus on the overall customer journey. Here are some examples of CX best practices to follow:
Customer mapping: Visualize the customer experience from initial contact to post-purchase interactions to identify pain points and improve experiences.
Personalization: Gather information on preferences, demographics, and purchase history to provide tailored content recommendations.
Feedback loops: Collect data through surveys, social media, or customer support interactions to address concerns and improve services.
Loyalty programs: Provide incentives at different levels of engagement or spending to incentivizes repeat purchases.
Empathy training for staff: Equip employees with the skills to understand and respond to customer needs to provide personalized, empathetic service.
“We’ve found that on average, our customers telephone us at least once at some point, and if we handle the call well, we have an opportunity to create an emotional impact and a lasting memory. We receive thousands of phone calls and e-mails every day, and we view each one as an opportunity to build the Zappos brand into being about the very best customer service. Our philosophy has been that most of the money we might ordinarily have spent on advertising should be invested in customer service, so that our customers will do the marketing for us through word of mouth.”
-Tony Hsieh, Former CEO, Zappos.com
UX tasks focus on a specific product or service experiences. Here are some examples of UX best practices to follow for teams:
User testing: Observe customers as they interact with a product or service. Conduct usability tests to identify pain points.
Responsive design: Design websites and apps that adapt to different screen sizes and devices – interface switches to a wider, less cluttered Car view with bigger buttons if your phone/app is connected to your car’s audio system.
Wireframing and prototyping: Visualize layouts and interactions without detailed design elements. Make changes and improvements based on feedback and testing.
Clear navigation: Organize information in a logical and easy-to-understand manner.
Accessibility features: Follow guidelines like WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) and describe images for visually impaired people. Ensure text is readable for people with visual impairments.
Consistent branding: Follow organizations brand guide and visual design best practices.
“According to customer feedback, it’s clear that many Prime Video users want ‘a more intuitive streaming experience.’ With the improvements we have made to the user experience, customers will be presented with an easy-to-navigate entertainment destination where they can discover new titles and enjoy favorites, as well as sign-up or switch add-on subscriptions with just a few clicks.”
-Kam Keshmiri, Prime Video’s VP of design
A positive CX can enhance loyalty, while an effective UX can significantly improve satisfaction. By integrating CX and UX strategies, businesses can create seamless interactions across all touchpoints, drive customer loyalty, and ultimately boost sales.
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Van Tyne, Sean. Easy to Use 2.0: User Experience in Agile Development for Enterprise Software. Crystal Point Media. 2017
Bean, Jeofrey, Van Tyne, Sean. The Customer Experience Revolution: How Companies Like Apple, Amazon, and Starbucks Have Changed Business Forever Paperback. Brigantine Media. 2011
Somanathan, Sudarshan. Customer Experience vs. User Experience: Key Differences. Clickup. October 10, 2024. https://clickup.com/blog/customer-experience-vs-user-experience/