CX vs. UX: CX Mini Masterclass – E56

This CX Mini Masterclass provides clarity on the difference between user experience (UX) and customer experience (CX). Show host and customer experience expert, Julia Ahlfeldt, provides a definition of each and then explains the roles of CX vs. UX teams and how their work can complement one another. If you are looking to understand the distinction between UX and CX, then this episode is for you. Navigating the buzzwords User experience (UX) is a buzzword in the business world. It’s sometimes confused with customer experience. As the field of customer experience continues to gain momentum, it’s important to understand how other disciplines like user experience fit into the picture, so that CX professionals can effectively collaborate with these teams and help business leaders understand what’s what. Customer experience and user experience are related. We could think of them as cousins and good friends. Related, but still different. If we want to make a comparison between customer experience and user experience, the most logical place to start is with a definition of each. Understanding CX On CX Day, the CXPA released a great video with a definition of customer experience. The definition that I use is similar to the CXPA. I cover this in detail in episode 14, but as a quick refresher, we can think of a brand’s customer experience as all the ways that a consumer interfaces with that particular brand. Customer experience is the combined effect of things like touchpoints, products, service support, communication, plus a whole bunch of other things. While the definition of a brand’s customer experience is all encompassing, we must remember that as customers move through their lives, their individual journeys will include experiences beyond the confines of just one brand. Customer journeys don’t happen in a vacuum, they happen in the real world where people talk with their friends, read online reviews and interact with any number of other entities before or after they interface with your brand. Defining UX I’m pleased that the CXPA has provided some clarity around the definition of CX. The professional community needed this clarity, and it’s probably safe to say that the UX community could benefit from the same. There are a wide range of definitions out there. One of the most commonly referenced definitions is from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). They’ve defined UX as a person’s perceptions and responses resulting from the use and or anticipated use of a product, system or service. We could also interpret this as how a customer feels about every interaction they have with what’s in front of them while they’re using it. CX vs. UX While UX and CX both pertain to a person’s interactions and their responses, user experience tends to look at this through the lens of an interaction with a particular system or touchpoint. And in practice, user experience assessment or user interface design normally hone in on an individual’s interactions with a specific thing. This makes UX essentially a subset of CX, and it explains why user experience maps often feel like a zoomed in look at a particular facet of the customer journey. In the business world, UX has gained notoriety as a practice for improving user experiences in the digital space. The definition of user experience isn’t necessarily restricted to the digital realm, but this is why people so often associate user experience design with developing tech solutions. It’s obvious that UX plays an important role in CX. With more and more of our experiences happening in the digital world, it’s crucial that UX and CX teams to work together. We don’t always need to think of things in terms of CX vs. UX. In fact there are many opportunities for the two fields of work to collaborate and complement each other. For example, CX teams can help UX teams understand the bigger picture by incorporating customer experience principles or the vision for the overall customer journey into UX design. UX teams can help organizations understand, create and refine experiences. The UX team might be the CX team’s best ally for establishing a robust insights-to-action feedback loop or instilling design thinking into a company’s way of working. Transcript Prefer to read? Here’s the transcript. Click to expand full transcript Welcome to Decoding the Customer, a podcast about customer experience and how to realize customer-centric change in today’s dynamic business world. I’m Julia Ahlfeldt, certified customer experience professional, business advisor, and host of this program. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you’re new to the show, welcome. If you’re a returning listener, thanks, and it’s great to have you back. This episode is part of my CX Mini Masterclass series here on Decoding the Customer. These weekly episodes are published each Thursday and designed to be punchy, bite-sized overviews of key customer experience concepts and ideas for how you can help your organization thrive through customer centricity. Whether you’re new to the field of customer experience, are preparing for the CCXP exam, or are a seasoned professional looking to brush up on a few basics, this series will help you improve your knowledge, skills, and performance to stand out as a CX professional. Regular listeners will know that the first Thursday of the month is normally a longer format interview episode, but for the month of October, I’m mixing things up a little bit and doing a series of just mini masterclasses. If you’re a fan of the interview episodes, fear not, I will be doing more, but this month, I’ve been inspired by all of the learning buzz that’s happening around Customer Experience Day, which happened Tuesday, October 1st. And as a result, I wanted to share perspectives on some of the topics that have caught my attention. This is episode 56, and today, I’m covering the topic of user experience, or UX. UX is a buzzword in the business world, and it’s sometimes confused with customer experience. Customer experience and user experience are related. We could kind of think of them as cousins that are also good friends, so they’re related, and they’re close, but they’re still very different. As the field of customer experience continues to gain momentum, it’s important to understand how other disciplines, like UX, fit into the picture, so that customer experience professionals can effectively collaborate with these teams and help business leaders understand what’s what. If you’ve been curious to understand a bit more about user experience or have been wanting clarity on how to distinguish between UX and CX, then stay tuned. And as always, if you’re out and about while listening to this episode and here’s something that you’d like to remember later, don’t worry about writing it down. You can find an overview of the key concepts that we’ve covered today in the show notes for this episode, which are on my website, juliaahlfeldt.com or decodingthecustomer.com. If we want to make a comparison between customer experience and user experience, the most logical place to start is with a definition of each. On CX Day, the Customer Experience Professionals Association released a great video with their definition of customer experience. I’ll include a link to this in the episode show notes, but it’s pretty similar to the definition and explanation that I provided listeners way back in episode 14. But as a quick refresher, we can think of a brand’s customer experience as all the ways that a consumer interfaces with that particular brand. That includes things like touch points, which are the channels of interaction. It includes products, pricing, service support, communication, plus a whole bunch of other things. The definition of CX is all encompassing. We also have to remember that as customers move through their lives, their individual journeys will definitely include experiences beyond the confines of just one brand. Customer journeys don’t happen in a branded vacuum. They happen in the real world, where people talk to their friends, read reviews online, and interact with any number of other entities before or after they interface with your brand. So that’s customer experience. But what about user experience? In preparation for this episode, I did a bit of research on the definitions that are out there. And if you think that CX professionals were a bit confused about the definition of customer experience, then buckle up, because I think that user experience is just as bad, if not worse. There was a really wide range of definitions out there. One user research company defined UX as encompassing all the aspects of an end user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products. Not only is that quite broad, but it also sounds eerily similar to the definition of customer experience. Fortunately, most of the definitions out there were quite different. The Oxford Dictionary, for example, defines UX as the overall experience of a person using a product, such as a website or computer application, especially in terms of how easy or pleasing it is to use. Now, that’s much narrower, and the reference to technology is an important one, something that we’ll get into in just a minute. The definition that seemed to be the most commonly referenced was one outlined by the International Organization for Standardization, otherwise known as ISO. They define UX as a person’s perceptions and responses resulting from the use and or anticipated use of a product, system, or service. We could also interpret this as how a customer feels about every interaction they have with what’s in front of them while they’re using it. So, as you can see, while UX and CX both pertain to a person’s interactions and their responses, user experience tends to look at things through the lens of an interaction with a particular system or a touch point, which would make it essentially a subset of customer experience, which is how I and many others have always thought of user experience. And in practice, user experience assessment or user interface design normally hones in on an individual’s interactions with something very specific, a specific platform or touch point or thing. This is why user experience maps often feel like a really zoomed-in look at a particular facet of the customer journey, because that’s exactly what they are. In the business world, UX has gained traction as a practice for improving user experience in the digital space. The definition of user experience isn’t necessarily restricted to the digital realm, but this is where it’s gained notoriety. And while people so often associate UX with developing tech solutions, hence the reference in the Oxford Dictionary definition. Now that we’ve clarified the definitions and relationships between UX and CX, I’d like to quickly explore the implications for CX professionals. It’s obvious that user experience plays an important role in customer experience. And with more and more experiences happening in the digital world, it’s crucial that UX and CX teams work together. In terms of what collaboration looks like, I think that customer experience teams can help UX teams understand bigger picture by incorporating things like a brand’s customer experience principles or the vision for the desired overall customer journey into user experience design. UX teams can help organizations understand, create, and refine great experiences. The UX team might just be your best ally for establishing a robust insights to action feedback loop or instilling design thinking into your company’s way of working. Speaking of design thinking, I’ll be opening that can of worms next week. So be sure to tune in or subscribe to the show for updates when new episodes go live. Thanks so much for listening today. If you’re enjoying the show, please share the program with others who might be interested or head on over to iTunes and rate the podcast. This helps others find the show. I’ll be back next Thursday. If you’d like to get in touch in the meantime, you can send me an email, tweet, or LinkedIn message. My handle is at Julia Ahlfeldt. And my full contact details are also listed on my website, juliaahlfeldt.com or decodingthecustomer.com. Want to keep learning about CX? If you’d like to checkout more of these CX Mini Masterclasses or listen to my longer format CX expert interviews, check out the full listing of episodes for this CX podcast. Decoding the Customer is a series of customer experience podcasts created and produced by Julia Ahlfeldt, CCXP. Julia is a customer experience strategist, speaker and business advisor. She is a Certified Customer Experience Professional and one of the top experts in customer experience management. To find out more about how Julia can help your business achieve its CX goals, check out her customer experience advisory consulting services (including B2B CX strategy) or get in touch via email.