What does Customer Experience mean?

Steve Jobs once said, "You've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology." The late Apple founder, like no other, poured emotionality, simplicity, intuition, convenience and beauty into and around his products. He created an Apple universe.

In doing so, he inspired consumers to an extent that revolutionized the technology market. His understanding of customer experience has become a flagship - a model to strive for.  

But in the reality of business, it's a different story. According to the 2018 New Voice Media study, 67 percent of consumers in the U.S. switch brands because they were not satisfied with the customer experience. 

Customer Experience: Both Experience and Experience

In German, experience means both Erlebnis and Erfahrung. But these are not identical terms.

• In a Experience all mental processes such as thinking, imagining, sensing, perceiving, feeling are bundled. 
• Behind the Experience stand understood and reflected experiences. 

When people talk about customer experience, they mean the two dimensions: 

• the Customer experience, which includes short-term, emotional experiences and
• the Customer Experience, which results from the reflection and evaluation of individual customer experiences.

Together, they form the world of customer experience.

Definition of Customer Experience (CX)

When we talk about customer experience, the term implies the totality of all impressions that a customer gathers during the entire duration of the customer relationship with a company. It includes all individual perceptions and interactions of the customer at the various customer touchpoints.

The customer experience is a holistic construct: it encompasses several process phases and forms the basis for customer loyalty. The process phases of the customer experience are also referred to as the customer journey or customer path.¹ designated. 

How is excellent customer experience created?

Every interaction of the customer is compared with experiences he has had with other companies or products. This forms an expectation profile that a company must meet or exceed. 

The degree of expectation fulfillment is measured by customer satisfaction. This remains high as long as expectations are met. If they are not met, it drops. If a company achieves high customer satisfaction levels, this is an indication of a good or very good customer experience. This strengthens loyalty to the company and its products.

The result is a higher repurchase intention, increasing up-selling and cross-selling propensity and a high recommendation rate. 

If a company wants to maintain a long-term relationship with its customers, it must ensure that it meets or exceeds its customers' needs and expectations at all times, at every touchpoint, and in every interaction. 

This sounds simple, but it is much more complex to implement. Customer experience requires systematic observation (collection of data), evaluation and assessment of the observations. It requires that corporate processes are consistently aligned with the customer and that the customer voice (Voice of the Customer) is continuously recorded, evaluated, and assessed across all relevant customer contact points on the customer journey in order to tap potential.

The next two articles in this three-part series will also deal with these two aspects.

What are the key takeaways?

• CX comprises the two dimensions of customer experience and customer experience
• CX is the totality of all impressions of a customer over the entire duration of a customer relationship 
• CX forms the basis for customer loyalty 
• High customer satisfaction scores across all touchpoints are an indication of good to excellent CX
• The CX process phases are mapped in the Customer Journey 
• For a good CX, the company processes are aligned with the customer
• CX measurement and optimization requires consistent collection, evaluation, and assessment of the Voice of the Customer across the entire customer journey

The next article in the customer experience three-parter takes a closer look at why CX leads to success.