CX

December 10, 2017 Last Updated: August 23, 2023
Justin

Now I’d like to pretend that CX is some amazingly clever acronym but sadly CX is just short for Customer Experience.

Bit of a let down hey, much like finding out there isn’t actually a place called Summer Bay in Australia.

Now we could also have a debate about how CX should more likely be shortened to CE but hey, haven’t we all got something better to do?

So what actually is the definition of CX?

Believe it or not, this isn’t as clear cut as you’d think.

According to the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), CX refers to the perception that customers have of an organisation – one that is formed based on interactions across all touchpoints, people, and technology over time.

The Australian Customer Experience Professionals Association (ACXPA) has taken it a step further, linking the definition of CX to a business outcome:

Customer Experience is a profession that optimises a customer’s perceptions and interactions with a brand to deliver better business outcomes. 

So it’s not just the contact centre or the retail counter staff, but every single interaction a customer has with a brand from marketing, the website, the delivery driver, reading the instructions, the packaging of a product and so on.

 

What does Customer Experience mean chart
What Customer Experience means as defined by the CXPA

Why is customer experience important?

With businesses across the world becoming commoditised, one of the key points of difference is how businesses are looking after their customers.

While it has always made sense to focus on your customer experience to most people, the link between a great customer experience and profitability has bever been clearer (check the stats at the bottom of the article).

 

 

How is CX Measured?

There are a number of popular methods used to measure CX although they each have a different methodology and focus on different drivers. Some of the popular ones include:

Most organisations will not rely on a single metric and will rather use multiple metrics and methodologies to determine their levels of customer engagement, satisfaction and loyalty.

Is it really all about the CX?

Clearly, delivering a great customer experience is a good formula for business success.

After all, if a customer has a poor experience with your brand they are more than likely going to never do business with you again.

And also tell thousands (or millions) of people about their poor experience via Social Media.

No pressure đŸ˜‰

But there are many leading business minds suggesting that rather than focus on your customer experience, you should focus on the employee experience.

And yes, there is an acronym for Employee Experience called EX.

Richard Branson is famously credited for the saying “Look after your employees and they will look after your customers”.

Of course, we should never just focus on one thing though, should we?

So the industry has now coined a new phrase, CEX merging customer experience and employee experience.

 

 

CX Stats

There are always new industry stats being released but the ones below are used frequently:

  • 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience
  • 73% of buyers point to customer experience as an important factor in purchasing decisions
  • 65% of buyers find a positive experience with a brand to be more influential than great advertising
  • 84% of organisations working to improve CX report an increase in revenue
  • The size of the US CX industry is expected to grow annually by 15% from 2021 to 2028 and you can expect the same in Australia
  • Two-thirds of companies compete on customer experience, an increase from 36% in 2010

Recommended links:

It’s a pretty broad topic so to help you we’ve included some key links below to help you learn more about customer experience:

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