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UX vs CX

7 min read

The relationship between UX and CX

All businesses and organisations, regardless of operating model, recognise that their digital shop window has to be (at least) as good as the real thing. Why? Because UX – User Experience – is the tangible part of our story, and the part that leads to an overall great customer experience.

The difference between UX and CX

As we have learned by now, Customer Experience (CX) encompasses every touchpoint that a person has with your brand. It is the high-level vision, the flow, the journey. It is measured with things like ‘rate your experience’, NPS scores, and actual customer referrals.

In contrast, User Experience (UX) is measured on how it manages those interactions. A UX specialist is concerned with making things easier for the customer to move between the steps of the customer journey. It’s about taking the core principles of usability and applying them to understand what might be causing a bump in the road, and streamlining this to remove any barriers that might be causing anxiety. A UX design is measured on things like:

  • Task success rate
  • Time on task
  • Error rate
  • Page views
  • Time on page / bounce rate

How you think about UX and CX beyond marketing, into your website and beyond

Using UX best practices across the customer experience ultimately smooths and speeds up people’s journey when they’re considering your product or service. Any bump could slow the journey, or cause them to abandon it entirely. 

Take the example of Jordan, 27, who is looking for a new pair of trainers. He’s unsure of the make or model he likes, but knows the name of the brand.

He types in a few keywords, and because Brand X has an SEO strategy, he’s able to land on the right part of the site quickly. The website loads fast and displays well on his mobile device. He navigates through the menus easily, narrowing down his search in just a few minutes to find what he’s looking for. He works through the well-designed web pages to discover several one-tap payment options and boom – it’s done.

In this example, we’ve focused on UX within your website, but the following tips apply to every part of your customer journey, whether that’s how someone interacts with a social media ad, email or service centre ticket.

7 ways to embed great user experience into your CX

1. Be functional

Yes, your content has to look good, but overly designed ‘creative’ touches run the risk of irritating users and slowing down the purchase process. Conversely, you don’t want an ugly brand. You can still be functional while creating a buzz around your words and pictures.

2. Be responsive

Whether looking up web pages, clicking on an email special offer image, or waiting on a chat facility, quick responses keep customers moving through the funnel.

3. Be consistent

Be a stickler for your brand, so customers feel comfortable that you’ve got their back, even when you’re moving around different parts of the customer journey. This is particularly important when you have data silos.

4. Be useful

Check the fine details of the journey, such as alt text and information snippets, ensuring they guide your customer through to what they need. Make sure these elements read well and aren’t an afterthought.

5. Be clear

The ability to filter products by clearly defined attributes and price will decrease the time users need to spend on tasks/activities.

6. Be compelling

Get to the customers’ point quickly. Use FAQs and write headings around questions that people ask. Get your copy team to review the customer journey for signposting opportunities, prevent dead ends and get that journey flowing.

7. Be concise
If pages have a large wall of text, consider adding more buttons to ensure that important content doesn’t get missed.

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