Differentiating UX, CX, BX.

Since we live in an experience-driven economy, it’s inevitable that there are different levels and perspectives for creating different types of experiences.

CX has been a term since the 1980s when companies started focusing on Service Quality as the main differentiation point. UX has been on the rise for the past years since digital products and a perfect user flow have become more and more relevant. BX has been around since companies started with branding, actually, it was never a big thing, but has now started to gain importance since branding became more relevant again with the rise of the Internet of Things and therefore the rise of Digital Brand Experience.

What they all have in common is putting the user/client/customer and their emotions in the center of their decision making. Here are the main characteristics of each:

• User Experience = User interaction with a system, product or service. It focuses on usability.
• Customer Experience = The sum of customer interactions with an organization. It focuses on service quality, viability, and feasibility.
• Brand Experience = The emotions & feelings toward your brand in different situations. It is a comprehensive and meaningful approach to differentiation: cohesion, surprise, and connection to purpose.

One major differentiation point is that User Experience and Customer Experience are rather immediate results, whereas Brand Experience is long-term focused.

A lot of experiences, here is a practical example:

Bob wants to get from A to B. He can choose among different options, such as going by bike, taking a bus, the subway, a cab, Cabify or Uber…

• Bob is a huge fan of share-economy, he is modern and open-minded, so he chooses to go by Uber. This gives him a certain status and adds value (Brand Experience).

• So he opens the Uber App and orders a car. This is where User Experience comes into the game. Does the map recognize where he is at the moment? Who is the driver? How long does he take to arrive? Bob is engaged and tracks the driver’s location until he arrives at the meeting point (User Experience).

• Bob really likes the layout of the app, it’s black and classy (Brand Experience)

• During the ride, the driver offers him a bottle of water and Bob chooses his favorite song. Bob also talks to the driver about the latest soccer match. After a 10-minutes ride, Bob arrives safely at home (Customer Experience).

• At the end of the ride, he gets a notification on his phone and confirms the amount he got charged for on his phone (User Experience).

• He has also the option to rate the driver which gives him the feeling of being in control and being heard (Brand Experience)

• The ride was easy-going and smooth. Bob used technology to order the car, he had transparency about the pricing right before he hopped on, he was sure that the driver would use the shortest way as indicated on Google Maps, he felt safe because his ride got tracked, he felt he had a good service because other people also had positive experiences with the driver.

Next time he will go again with Uber since he had an overall positive (Brand) Experience.

As we can see from the example, all of these concepts UX/CX/BX are equally important to revenue generation and brand loyalty. They are ultimately rooted in a user’s brand affinity, and whether or not they will do business with you again. Each works interdependently and help others accomplish their goals.