Customer experience and user experience (CX and UX respectively) are sometimes used interchangeably. Other times, they are completely different and unrelated components.
Reality lies somewhere in between. Customer experience and user experience are closely related but distinct. The difference comes down to experience Buy Product or service and actual experience use it.
It’s important to understand the difference between CX and UX because they each focus on different parts of the customer journey. Only if you are able to separate the two and focus on each separately can you ensure that your UX and CX are flawless.
Customer experience vs. user experience: The difference lies in purchasing vs. using
There is a lot of literature that exaggerates the differences between UX and CX, but you can think of them as opposite yet related.
It all depends on what people on the consumer side are doing.
this customer experience Refers to the feeling of being a customer of a brand, specifically the journey a customer goes through when purchasing their first product. CX encompasses all interactions a person has with a brand. This includes:
- first impression
- Learn more about the brand
- Make your first purchase
Unlike user experience, customer experience is a person’s overall experience with a brand at every step of the buyer’s journey. Little to do with human experience use Specific products or services and everything related to them how They’ve gotten to the point where they’re buying it.
Imagine this from the customer’s perspective.
Remember the last time you bought a new product? Maybe a budgeting app or a fitness tracker? CX is every step of the way from learning about the app to downloading it on your phone and signing up for a subscription.
this User experience Refers to someone’s experience using a specific product or service.
Let’s go back to the budgeting app example.
Now that you have purchased the app, you are no longer just a customer.
You are now a user. You have to learn how to operate the application, from entering bank account information to adding expenses and income. Everything you experience while interacting with an app—the highs and lows—encompasses your user experience.
Another important difference to note when improving CX and UX
When you’re working on improving your CX or UX, you need to know World Health Organization You are improving any of them.
Many companies mistakenly believe that customers are users. Therefore, they design user and customer experiences for the same people. This is a big reason why one person may be less successful than another.
You have to remember that when it comes to UX and CX, the journey of becoming a customer versus the journey of becoming a user yes Different.
Yes, sometimes the client and the user are the same person. When someone downloads a fitness app and pays for a subscription, they:
- customer: People who purchased the app
- user: People who track workouts and progress
But importantly, their journey as a customer is separate from their journey as a user.
While your CX and UX improvements may be focused on the same person, they’ll still be focused on two different journeys.
one person’s experience as user will be different from their experience as a customer Make a purchasing decision.
But in other cases, customers and users are two different people or groups.
Consider, for example, a software company that sells project management tools. this customer Typically the decision maker (such as a manager) purchasing software for a team. but user Be a team member who uses the software every day.
If a company is solely focused on customer experience, it might focus on marketing features that are attractive to managers, such as budget tracking or reporting tools. But this ignores the user experience needs of actual users, who may prioritize an intuitive experience in task management.
So even if a tool meets a purchasing decision maker’s CX goals, it may feel clunky or frustrating to use on a day-to-day basis.
Keeping your customer and user journey unique should be at the forefront of every improvement decision you make.
How to create a customer experience map and a user experience map
The first step to improving customer and user experience is identifying exactly what each person is experiencing.
This is what CX maps and UX maps are for.
A customer experience map is an intuitive representation of every interaction a customer has with your brand.
A user experience map is a visual representation of a person’s journey using a specific product or service or completing a task.
These maps can help you find friction points—things that negatively impact your customer or user experience. For example, a CX map can show you that the buying process is too long. User experience mapping, on the other hand, can reveal that a feature isn’t being used the way you thought it was being used.
When you find these friction points, you can fix them For better CX or UX.
Before you start creating your first CX and UX map, we have one more important tip. you should no What to rely on you Think of the customer and user experience as you create these maps.
It’s just a waste of time. No matter how hard you try, you can never be 100% objective and see things from the customer’s or user’s perspective.
If you don’t believe us, take a look at any study on the false consensus fallacy. Kathleen P. Bauman and Glenn Geher argue in False Consensus that, in essence, “false consensus is a form of social projection in which individuals overestimate others the extent to which they share their characteristics or beliefs”. Works from 2002 current psychology.
This fallacy affects even the most experienced marketers. one Articles published in the 2022 Keller Center Research Report“, “Why Marketers Can’t Understand Their Customers,” reports data the authors collected from six studies of 714 marketing executives.
What are the goals of these studies? Learn how the false consensus effect affects top marketers.
Among other things, the results show that the false consensus effect can have a negative impact on marketers. Especially if they don’t actively suppress the tendency to assume that other people think and feel the way they do.
But research also shows that this myth can have a negative impact on how marketers use data. It can guide marketers to cherry-pick customer data they agree with and ignore those they don’t.
So don’t do it. Look for data that represents honest, objective facts.
The more data you include objectively, the more accurately you can map your customer and user journey.
Taken from:
- Customer surveys and interviews Provide feedback on their feelings and behaviors
- heat map Let products demonstrate how they are actually used
- Analyze data From your digital sources, such as purchase history, time spent on page, page views, link clicks, browsing history, most visited pages, and chats from your support team
One more thing: create a map using two or three ideal customer and user profiles.
Don’t rely on just one point of view. You want to optimize your user and customer experience to support more than one kind of person.
What should be included in a CX and UX map
Not sure what to include in your CX and UX map? These quick checklists will help.
This is a segment What should be included in a customer experience (CX) map:
- First interaction or introduction to your brand
- Every touchpoint a customer passes through allows them to learn more about your brand and develop a relationship with you
- resources they use
- The content they consume at every touchpoint
- How they are involved in the buying process
- What do they do immediately after purchasing?
- How long does each touchpoint interaction last?
- How long does it take to make your first purchase or conversion
- when they give up on something
You could put it into a table, like the one below for FreshBlend Smoothies, a fictional company. Alternatively, you can build a flowchart, diagram, or other visual representation that works for you and your team.
Now, here it is What should be included in a user experience (UX) map:
- How they open the product or start using the service
- their first move after
- Every interaction they have until they use the product or service that day, or everything they do until they complete a task
- What they do most
- Stuff they don’t touch at all
- when they give up on something
- How long each interaction lasts
- how long do they take to complete
Unlike CX maps, UX maps focus entirely on the experience people have while using the app.
Creating CX and UX maps helps differentiate between the two An independent yet connected journey. Best of all, they make it easier for you to resolve individual issues that reduce customer and user satisfaction.
