Customer experience (CX) is the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier of goods or services, over the duration of their relationship with that supplier. From awareness, discovery, attraction, interaction, through to purchase, use, cultivation and advocacy. It can also be used to mean an individual experience over one transaction; the distinction is usually clear in context.
Analysts and commentators who write about CX and customer relationship management have increasingly recognised the importance of managing the customer’s experience. CX is defined as the sum total of conscious and unconscious events, ranging from positive to negative, that customers receive during the course of buying goods and services. As such, a supplier cannot avoid creating an experience every time it interacts with a customer. Furthermore, it has been shown that a customer’s perception of an organisation is built as a result of their interaction across multiple-channels, not through one channel, and that a positive customer experience can result in an increased share of their wallet and repeat business.
An organisation’s ability to deliver an experience that sets it apart in the eyes of its customers serves to increase their allegiance to that organisation and, where relevant, the amount they spend. This is how you inspire, optimally, loyalty to your brand. To create a superior customer experience requires understanding the customer’s point of view, say Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D in Rules to Break and Laws to Follow. “What’s it really like to be your customer? What is the day-in, day-out ‘customer experience’ your organisation is delivering? How does it feel to wait on hold on the phone? To open a package and not be certain how to follow the poorly written instructions? To stand in line, be charged a fee, wait for a service call that was promised two hours ago, come back to an online shopping cart that’s no longer there an hour later? Or, on the other hand, what’s it like to be remembered? To receive helpful suggestions? To get everything exactly as it was promised? To be confident that the answers you get are the best ones for you?” (Peppers and Rogers 2008).
In short, customer experience means a customer journey which makes the customer feel happy, satisfied, justified, with a sense of being respected, served and cared, according to his/her expectation or standard - starting from first contact and throughout the whole relationship.
In The Bible it says “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”. And there’s the problem! At TLC our mantra goes “Do unto others as they would have done unto themselves”. With us, you can be assured of a first-class customer experience and we can work with you to develop the same for your customers.