CX is not marketing, EX is not fancy branding material and UX is not cool graphics.
Customer Experience (CX), User Experience (UX), Experience Design (XD), Employee Experience (EX), Service Design (SD), Brand Design (BD), User Research, Customer/User Journey Mapping, Customer Engagement, Data Activation...
After 20+ years of client-facing positions, this is probably the first time that I see professionals in the so-called “client-side” being confused. About what all these new terms mean, whether they refer to “what they’ve always done”, are totally new or a combination of older mentalities combined with new approaches. And of course, about whether they are relevant to their business.
And it’s all our fault (where “our” refers to us: consultants, agency people, professionals, traditionally branded as the ones who are always on… the cutting edge, exploring, learning and practicing innovative methods, tools, approaches that better serve clients’ business needs).
It’s our fault because in many ways, we do not help clients understand what these shiny new terminologies enshrine, which of them address the issues they have at hand and, most importantly, if we are equipped to help them get to that new magical place (if it’s new, anyway).
So, why not — briefly — provide some first level clarity on some conveniently or naively misinterpreted terms:
Customer Experience (CX)
It refers to what a customer faces, interacts with and subsequently feels in every touchpoint of a brand, a product, a company or a service. It certainly cannot be used interchangeably to “marketing”, although it often is. Marketing obviously adds to CX and promotes the experience, but it’s the “tail” of what the experience is designed to and finally offers to the customer.
If a company is serious about delivering a consistently good CX, it has to embrace a truly customer-centric culture, which we all know, is not a simple thing.
Following the “oh well, everybody sucks” positioning will probably bring in new customers when “money is no issue” in shiny marketing, but only until a challenger comes along and really takes care of what’s important to customers and the rest of the (established) players were only average in until then.
In any case, if you don’t organise a steady flow of customer feedback, analysis, mapping, prioritisation of actions, materialisation of what you’ve designed and then everything all over again (across departments, with no silos), there’s no point of talking about CX.
User Experience (UX)
The wholistic experience mentioned above, but here, it refers to a digital asset: a website, a mobile application, a system. We’ve all come across i.e. a website with cool graphics and effects, only to realise that you cannot access the information you’re looking for easily, or that browsing is a nightmare because you may have a — minor, even non-permanent — disability nobody cared to take into account when designing. Well, that is a website whose creators aimed to look cool, but did not research the users, nor tested the “solution”.
User Experience is a broad term, which includes Research, Design, Writing, etc. So, I have to confess that I do not understand how the “UX/UI Designer” job ads are still a thing.
But maybe it’s just me.
Employee Experience (EX)
It’s what an employee experiences as a member of a company (kind of self-explanatory). Cannot be stressed enough that if the EX is not looked after, no team can offer a great, sustainable, effective and efficient CX. How can you offer a great experience to your customers, when the person who is responsible for this experience “suffers” on the inside?
This is a territory that has sadly been a luxury up until recent years for most companies. However, in my little bubble. (so no serious data we’re utilized for this statement), I’d like to think that lately, there is a good percentage of companies who have a specific plan about looking after their employees vs. all those who say they do.
An issue is that many companies don’t want or do not dare to go deep into what’s happening with their employees and / or candidates, so they prefer to tell themselves that they are into EX because they make fancy employee branding material (you know, posters, videos, invitations, welcome kits) that promotes and explains what the employees roll their eyes about when they realise said companies’ processes, benefits, career paths, etc.
That is probably how the above percentage is tampered with.
EX goes beyond the pool table or free snacks for everyone and includes structured efforts towards Diversity and Inclusion, maintaining the employees mental health, offering accessible information about every aspect of employee life within the company, when a new candidate comes along, but also when life happens.
As a former employee of companies big and small, multinationals and local, I always remember those who made a difference in how they took care of my experience there and certainly those who made me run for dear life. Also when I’m asked by a potential candidate, I cannot help but being sincere. So one can understand how important EX is.
When you see companies with big turnover, you know what’s going on with their EX. When you see people leaving in great terms and coming back, you can also tell.
If only (most) companies could, too…
Dear client, if anyone tries to confuse you, there is one thing to remember when you come across any kind of Experience Design:
No user feedback, no party.
Change “user” with customer, employee, citizen, whoever you are designing your solution for. And then, address that as a constant process, which - when organised based on the right research methods and with an iterative approach of human centric methods overall - can provide you with solutions that will truly effect your bottom line and business goals.
Is this whole piece about using terminology correctly? Not really.
When understood and consciously utilised in business, these human-centred disciplines provide the users with experiences that make them come back to a product, company, brand or service and become advocates to their circle.
On the company’s side, these disciplines bring an iterative mindset based on user feedback that minimises the risk of developing solutions nobody cares about and brings in the serious potential of increased usage, visits, purchases, advocacy — whatever the business goal is.
How is that for a win-win situation?
P.S.: there is another approach which says “I don’t care what it’s called, I just have a need that has to be addressed. Can you help me get to where I have to go?”. And I’m all for that. Let’s see how we get there, in a next post.
I’m very keen on creating inclusive conversations where methods, tools and disciplines I have knowledge of are talked about in ways everyone can relate with and join. If you’d like me to touch upon a subject, a case or an issue you need to tackle in your business life, let me know in the comments or at linak@thedollphin.com.
