The Difference Between User Experience (UX) and Customer Experience (CX)
To thrive in a competitive marketplace, your company needs to provide both satisfactory user experience (UX) and customer experience (CX). When only one of those goals is achieved, you are not maximizing your potential for growth.
The UX is what happens first. If it is a positive and pleasant experience, the odds are good that the UX will naturally transition into the CX as the potential customer interacts with your brand either online or face-to-face with staff in a brick-and-mortar setting.
How to Green-Light Your UX
Picture your morning commute. Snarled traffic, surly riders, detours and other unpleasant experiences abound. Not a pleasant thing to endure. That’s what a negative or needlessly complex UX is like for your customers.
Now, picture yourself driving down a beach road just before sunset with the top down. You’re the only car on the road, the air is warm and a cool breeze is blowing. That’s the UX you are seeking, and a good web design agency can make it happen for your brand.
Transitioning a Good UX into a Lasting CX
The UX is all about good first impressions — which can launch your trajectory. But an ongoing positive CX is the stuff relationships are made of. A seamless and streamlined CX will turn into your brand’s bread and butter.
Once a consumer connects online with your company, there is a literal five-second window where the consumer can either connect with your brand and delve deeper or close that window and move on. Here is where your web design agency needs to knock it out of the park.
It all starts with the website. This is true even if you have a physical location because online searches are how your customers find you. Forget about the Yellow Pages. It’s all about the URL and how easy your website is to navigate, or, as stated by GreyBox Creative, “converting web traffic to long-term client relationships.”
Is your website ADA compliant? Can someone with low vision make their way around it or is there insufficient contrast between the background and the text? A web design agency can eliminate these problems.
Is Your CX Up to Par?
Conversely, a seamless UX that fails to deliver the same high-quality CX can tank a company’s brand as well because consumers will be expecting a better quality experience than they receive.
Like most things in life, a balance must be achieved for your company to reap the most profits. Making sure that your UX and CX consistently deliver the same high-quality experiences will make your brand even more successful.
Combining the UX with the CX to Present a Winning Brand
Get a feel for your digital UX by gathering feedback from both outside and in-house sources. What works? What’s wonky? Find it and fix it.
If you’re unsure whether your CX delivers, use customer satisfaction surveys to gauge the impression you make. If it falls short, you know what needs to be tightened up. Secret shoppers can also offer an unvarnished look into the CX your brand provides.
Once you learn how to connect with users and convert them to satisfied clients, your brand will really take off.