Customer experience (CX) can be described as the impression made upon a customer by each of their interactions with a brand. There is no business relationship more important than the one between a company and its clients. Every product we design and each service we provide revolves around them.

Since customer experience influences how a brand is perceived, it impacts the business on many levels, including a company’s revenue. In fact, 84% of the organizations that invested in their customer experience have reported an increase in their annual profits.

Nowadays, customers care about more than just good quality and fair prices. In the current competitive market, there are multiple products highly similar to each other. While some services have a clear high-09poend/low-end option, for the most part, you have to choose between a company that is just slightly different from the other. So, as a customer, how do you make that choice?

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Customers stick with a brand based on positive interactions and principles. It’s not even a case of good experience vs. bad experience, sometimes it all boils down to how much they relate with that company’s approach. Do they feel understood, are their needs taken care of and anticipated?

With a great customer experience, you gain the trust of your customers and build brand loyalty. It’s time to consider your CX practices and invest in a dedicated team. 

Here is what you need to know about customer experience and the people responsible for designing and delivering it.

Customer Experience vs Customer Service vs Customer Care. What is the difference?

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The three terms are often used interchangeably and incorrectly. They all refer to client relationships, so it’s easy to see why people would confuse them. However, they each represent different aspects of customer interaction. To understand where customer experience comes in and what it means, we must understand these differences. 

Let’s take a look at what each of these terms implies — customer experience, customer service, and customer care.

Customer service

Customer service is the assistance that customers receive throughout their buying process. Whenever they reach out to make a purchase, ask for guidance, or report an issue, the customer service representatives take care of their requests and solve their problems.

Most of the interactions with customer service happen after the client has made the purchase. Usually, when they look for additional information or they need to submit a complaint, they reach out to the responsible department.

Customer care

Customer care refers to how the interactions between a customer and the representatives of a company are handled. Were the employees attentive and intuitive to the client’s needs? Did they use empathy to understand the customer’s perspective and provide tailored solutions?

Customer care requires building a personal relationship with your clients and showing a human approach towards them.

Customer experience 

Customer experience embodies all the interactions that a customer has with a brand, from the first time they hear about a company or a product to every other step of their journey. We can observe and build customer experience through different touchpoints, such as:

 Branding Advertising Customer service discussions: live, chats, calls, automated services Websites and online shops Newsletters Special offers Social media posts Resources: blog posts, eBooks, guides, tutorials Brick and mortar shops Events

Each time clients interact with a company in any form, it has an impact on the overall experience. This impact can be positive, negative, or it can build on the current perception.

Who is Responsible for Customer Experience?

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Customer experience requires a holistic approach to client relationships, which means that it’s not limited solely to customer-facing roles. In fact, many people from an organization shape customer experience without being aware of it or without putting too much thought into it.

Here is how different departments of a company actually influence the way customers see your business:

HR	Company culture impacts customer experience. The HR department is responsible for perpetuating a culture that aligns with the company values and the overall message.
Recruiting	Recruiters can hire employees who are the right cultural fit but also bring their unique voices to the table.
Design	Designers offer a vision for the projects based on the current market and the specific needs of the target audience.The visual design team creates impactful images to create memorable impressions of your products and services.
Development	Developers and production teams implement the vision and are directly responsible for the experience of using your services.
Marketing	Marketers launch, maintain and promote the brand. They reach out to the customers through multiple channels and communicate on behalf of the company.
Quality Assurance	QA teams test products and report problems. Apart from the technical aspects, testers also look for the quality of the experience.  They perform tests with a client’s mindset, to make sure that the final product will create the intended experience.
Customer Service	Customer service representatives speak directly with the clients. They take care of any requests using proper procedures, as well as their own expertise in handling human interactions.

As we can observe, each department contributes to customer experience to a certain extent. But even in the most client-oriented companies, a team of CX experts can bring value to the business.

The Role of a Customer Experience Team

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Since customer experience is holistic, the best way to approach it is to use customer-centric guidelines for your business operations. A CX team can provide you with a map for future projects, while also working to improve the current customer experience.

CX teams design experiences taking into account all departments of the company. Like putting together a puzzle, CX specialists are able to observe all the pieces of different departments to create a cohesive image out of them. 

Here are their main responsibilities:

 Develop a strategy for better customer experiences. Design comprehensive customer journey maps. Conduct surveys, interviews, and research to obtain relevant customer feedback. Analyze customer experience metrics, identify pain points, and provide solutions for improvement. Both hard metrics (such as sales, net promoter score, customer engagement, or cart abandonment rate) and soft metrics (like social listening or empathy) are taken into consideration. Create and develop tools specifically designed to improve customer experience. Ensure that their suggestions and plans are implemented on all levels of the business.

Depending on the size of the organization, your customer experience department can be a one-person operation or an entire team of people. The number of team members ranges, going up to 50 people for larger corporations. However, around 63% of the companies with a CX department have a dedicated team of 10 people. 

The most common customer experience roles are:

• CX designer: journey mapping, service design
• CX specialist: team coordination, management
• CX strategist: customer experience strategies, improvement plans
• Customer success manager: customer loyalty, customer support
• VOC (voice of customer) analyst: customer reports, customer feedback
• CX operations manager: tools, procedures

Ultimately, the impression made on customers is subjective, but professionals can guide them on the desired path. This is what a dedicated team can do. Customer experience specialists use research, expertise, and professional intuition to design experiences suited for the target audience.

Design Better Customer Experiences with a Service Design Team 

We are a service design company that uses design thinking to build fiercely loyal customers. Our engaging and creative approach can help you improve your services and offer the best for your clients.

If you are ready to stand apart from the competition, get in touch with us and let’s talk!