For the sake of the chicken and egg debate, user experience is the “egg” in this story, and CX expands on UX by going beyond the product experience alone.
Although they differ fundamentally, they're often used interchangeably in business today. Our goal in this article is to help you understand the difference between the two and how it applies to your business.
Customer Experience vs. User Experience
Customer experience is the impression your customers have of your brand based on all of their interactions with you. User experience refers to the way your products are used and perceived by users.
What is customer experience?
Customer experience is the result of your brand's perceptions, feelings, and beliefs throughout the entire buyer's journey. Think about CX as the overall impression you’ve left on your customers.
For instance, your customer is having trouble using your product or service. In order to resolve the issue, they submitted a ticket through your help desk portal. Here are some CX questions your customer may consider:
- - From the very beginning to the very end, did this process feel seamless?
- - Did you find the customer service representative to be friendly and responsive?
- - Would I recommend this company to a friend or use it again?
CX is all about how your customers view your brand based on the quality of your products and the people they interact with along the way. According to our recent State of Customer Service Report, 93% of service teams agree that customers today have higher expectations than ever before.
Don't forget, it's the little things that make people shout about your company - both the good and the bad.
What is user experience?
User experience focuses on all of the end user’s interactions with your product or service. Providing a great user experience keeps customers happy before, during, and after their experience with the product.
Using the same example from above, your customer may have asked themselves the following UX questions while using your help desk portal:
- - Is this website visually appealing?
- - Can you easily access and navigate the information?
- - Is this website compatible with both desktop and mobile devices?
Take a look at the video below to learn more about UX from Don Norman.
The elements of UX, such as intuitive design and minimal friction, ultimately contribute to the overall CX. It means creating a holistic customer experience, from sales support to customer service.
In spite of the fact that CX and UX are complementary by nature, they don't always solve the same problems. Due to this, it's still important to understand the differences between them.
Let’s tackle that next.
What’s the difference between CX and UX?
The goal of CX is to delight customers at every stage of the brand experience. Metrics such as loyalty and satisfaction can be used to measure customer experience success. From beginning to end, UX objectives aim to improve product design and usability. Task-based metrics can be used to measure successful UX.
Target Audience
The audiences that CX and UX processes and tasks focus on are different.
CX target audience:
CX professionals focus on the entire customer experience, from researching the business to making a purchase. There may be one individual or multiple people in different departments involved.
UX target audience:
The main focus of UX professionals is always on the actual user, regardless of whether the product or service is purchased or not.
Goals and Objectives
Through every business interaction, both CX and UX professionals strive to keep customers happy. Nevertheless, CX and UX strategists have their own unique objectives to meet. CX people concentrate on the entire customer experience, while UX people concentrate solely on the product or service experience.
Common CX goals and objectives may include:
- - Designing a brand experience that attracts, engages, and delights customers
- - Enhancing customer satisfaction throughout the buyer's journey
- - Creating a continuous feedback loop for customers
Common UX goals and objectives may include:
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- Designing a seamless product experience with minimal friction
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- Developing products that are interactive, fun, and easy to use
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- Ensuring products solve the most important problems customers face
Ultimately, CX professionals strive to cultivate positive experiences with your brand. A UX professional focuses on improving product interactions to create positive user experiences.
Metrics and Measurement
Customer experience can't be measured in a one-size-fits-all way. Customer experience essentially boils down to customer satisfaction and whether customers would recommend you to others.
Metrics you can use to measure customer experience include:
- - Customer satisfaction - Based on interactions with your business, the level of customer satisfaction with your brand.
- - Net Promoter Score® or NPS - Measuring customer loyalty and spreading the word about your business
- Churn rate and reasons for churn - The number of customers your business loses in a given period (and why)
Measuring UX requires you to consider the usability of your products. A great way to solve common usability problems is to conduct user testing.
UX can be measured using the following metrics:
- - Speed of loading your website or page - the amount of time it takes for your website to display content
- - Your customers' time on task - how long it takes them to accomplish a goal (e.g., finding the help desk portal on your website).
- - Adoption rate — the ratio between new users and all users for a product or service
Why the Difference Matters
Is it really important to distinguish CX from UX? For one thing, distinguishing internal roles and responsibilities is essential. Enhancing product usability should be the focus of your UX team.
CX success is not measured by usability alone, but by a positive brand experience. For your business, it's important to have separate but integrated strategies for each.
The result: happy customers.
Let's discuss CX and UX across the customer journey.
How CX and UX Work Together
Customer experience is a subset of user experience. A positive customer experience is unlikely to occur without good UX.
The focus of UX is on products. Customer experience is all about people and products. Your product or service's UX directly impacts your customer's CX.
Together, these concepts create a frictionless customer journey. Try mapping out what that journey might look like if you're not sure what it might look like. A customer journey map helps you visualize the entire customer experience with your company.
Moreover, journey maps can also be used to assess UX and CX at each touchpoint. As an example:
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- Do you have any pain points? You may have an app that takes a long time to load, and people are getting stuck before they reach their goal. That’s UX.
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- What is the mood of your customers? Perhaps they feel supported anytime they have a problem and can't wait to tell their friends about your brand. That’s CX.
Customers' feelings about you and your product are shaped by UX and CX interactions throughout the customer journey.
CX and UX Examples
CX in Practice
As mentioned, CX tasks are broader and focus on the customer journey. CX teams may complete the following tasks:
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- Get insights into people's experiences with your brand by conducting a customer satisfaction survey
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- Identify and resolve recurring customer issues by reviewing customer service tickets
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- Analyze brand sentiment on social media to learn how customers feel
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- Develop strategies to improve customer retention by analyzing churn rates
UX in Practice
A UX task targets end users who interact with/use a product or service. UX teams may complete the following tasks:
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- Using user feedback, brainstorm ways to make an app more interactive and fun to use
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- Identify obstacles users face when trying to use a product or service by running a usability test for the site
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- Use heat maps and usability tests to refresh the look and feel of a product or service landing page
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- Improve the user interface's information architecture so it's more intuitive to use
Ultimately, it doesn't really matter whether CX or UX came first (still Team Egg).
In the end, the best thing a business can do is provide its customers with the best experience.