Are User Experience And Customer Experience, One And The Same?

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A customer is a user so customer experience is just another term for user experience. No, wait, it’s true that one word has different meanings or vice versa, but here, these two experiences are completely different things. It’s no one’s fault since the name sound so identical, but, let’s dig deeper to find out what’s the difference between CX and UX.

User experience is what a customer experience while interacting with the product, website or an app. It is measured by gathering satisfaction reports, calculating clicks, customer care inquiries etc. If the user finds the product/service difficult to use or navigate, it has a poor user experience.

difference between CX and UX

The Nielsen Norman Group defined UX as:

All aspects of the end user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products

While on the other hand, Customer Experience (CX) is a big picture. It is the experience a user (customer) has whenever they interact with our company or brand. Again, it can also be measured with satisfaction reports, recommendation rates, customer loyalty, and customer satisfaction.

Forrester defines CX as:

How customers perceive their interactions with your company, is what CX is

User Experience Vs Customer Experience

Though both are different concepts, both are incredibly important. User experience is a subset of customer experience. For your product/service to impress the customer, its UX should be flawless so as to give a flawless CX. For eg., if a website/app is not at all aesthetically pleasing and is cumbersome to navigate, the user will be lost and frustrated which is not a good sign as it can cost you bad. You will lose not one but many users, as he/she won’t recommend it to anybody no matter how innovative or useful your product/service is.

Below are the 4 notable differences between UX and CX:

  • CX focuses on the whole experience including all channels of the brand, whereas UX is more specific, tending to focus on a particular app or website.
  • CX is believed to have a marketing background while UX comes from a variety of backgrounds, e.g. technical, design, or psychology.
  • CXers tend to survey large amounts of people to see what they think of a product or service, whereas UX is all about placing more emphasis on getting to know smaller groups of people really well.
  • CXers are focusing mainly on boosting revenues via advertising, improving customer service and creating a stronger brand. UXers tend to be aware of these too, but they are focusing on usability as their primary way of getting there.

In a nutshell

CX and UX have both differences as well as similarities. The two are equally necessary for your product/service to satisfy a user. If you want your user to be happy and return to you as well as recommend you, consider yourself as an ‘Experience Manager’ rather than thinking solely as the user. Once you succeed in providing a great experience for any interaction with your product that goes above and beyond what is offered by competitors, the sky will be the limit for your product/service.

If you too want to give an excellent UX and CX to your users, tell us your requirements at [email protected] or give us a call at +1 773 377 6499 or you can and then let us know how and what experience you want to give to your users/customers.

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