UX And CX — The Perfect Couple!
Is the CX a subset of UX?
Or is it that the UX is a subset of CX?
Is the only thing that differentiates them is that one is about post-sale and the other about pre-sale?
No matter which of these “CX vs UX” debates have made you confused, as long as you’re confused, this article is what you need. Let’s start everything from the beginning (which means, first, clear your mind from the wrong assumptions!).
You might have heard people talking about how crucial UX and CX are for a brand’s success. But due to the lack of a clear idea about these two disciplines, you have either believed the two to be the same or any one of the two to be more important than the other.
But guess what! Neither of these is correct. Because they do have differences, yet they are the “Perfect Couple”.
Sounds intriguing? Then read on to find the simplest answers for what is what and how they are different yet connected.
What Does UX Signify?
UX stands for User Experience and encompasses all the aspects of end-user's interaction with the company, its products, and services.
UX design, as a specific component of CX, focuses on the usability of your website or product.
What Does CX Signify?
CX stands for Customer Experience and refers to the ways through which a business engages with the customers at every point of their journey of purchasing. From sales to marketing and everything that is there in between, CX refers to all of them.
It stands for how companies are reaching the market and engaging the people with not just one single product or service but everything that helps the customer develop a relationship of trust with the brand.
From numerous customer touchpoints like human contact, brochures, mobile, and web to end-to-end customer interactions, customer experience design principles cover it all.
CX vs UX — The Difference Lies In The Origin
UX Origin:
The term came into existence somewhere in the ’90s when Don Norman, the Vice President of Apple’s Product Design team coined user experience as UX.
The Nelson Norman Group, the consultancy company owned by Don Norman, explains UX to be ”all aspects of the end user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products”.
CX Origin:
CX is more like a ‘new kid on the block’ that have gained popularity and recognition over the last 6 or 8 years.
As per Forrester, customer experience is “how customers perceive their interactions with your company”.
And out of these different origin stories, one primary difference between the two surfaced that is: UX concentrates on the users who use a service or product i.e. the “end-user” and CX focuses on the paying customers.
CX vs UX — The Debate Continues
UX and CX are indeed similar concepts, but that doesn’t make the two terms interchangeable. Some of their other notable differences contributing to the CX design vs UX design debate further are:
- The focus of UX is more specific than CX. While UX pays attention to a particular website or application, CX considered the entire experience, which includes all the different channels of a brand.
- Unlike UXers who are more dedicated to knowing about a small group of people, CXers conduct their surveys on a massive number of people to find out what exactly they think of a particular service or product.
- While UXers usually come from a variety of backgrounds such as designing, technical, psychology, etc; CXers tend to have a marketing background.
- By UX, it is the digital marketing products to which the experience of users is referred to. However, by the term CX, various service-related industries can be referred to such as the retail industry, hospitality industry, etc. where ideas like a customer loyalty scheme, service mapping, etc. are implemented.
- Though UXers are aware of how advertising, making the brand more powerful, and offering better customer service can help in increasing the company’s revenue. But still, they focus on improving usability to achieve the business goal. On the contrary, the CXers focus on higher revenue generation through the ways UXers know but don’t use i.e enhancing customer service, better advertising, etc.
How UX And CX Determine The Success Of A Product/Service?
Despite their differences, both UX and CX design impacts the overall customer journey. To help you understand how, we have presented the information in the simplest way possible.
Why UX Matter?
A good user experience matters because:
- It offers your users emotional satisfaction.
- It improves the perceptions of your users about your brand when they intercept your service or product.
- It helps your customers to find information more easily and quickly.
- It improves the quality of the relationship that your customers share with your organization.
- It ensures that your users will come back again.
- No matter how pretty your website looks, unless the UX is good, the users won’t be able to find what they are looking for or navigate through it easily.
It only takes a matter of seconds for your users to determine whether your app or website is worth their time or not. However, when the UX is rich, the efficiency and effectiveness of your product or services automatically improve and the users don’t leave dissatisfied.
Why CX Matter?
Just like the UX, customer experience matters too, because:
- Since CX involves designing as well as reacting to the customers’ interactions, the better the CX the better the customer satisfaction, advocacy, and loyalty.
- It helps your customers have a pleasant, complete, and positive experience with your organization.
- It ensures that customers will repeat transactions with your company.
- Customers are pretty tech-savvy these days. So, it’s them who decide whether to choose you or anyone from your multitude of competitors. In such a scenario, greater CX gives you a competitive advantage and increases your chances of being chosen by your customers over your competitors.
- A great CX also helps in differentiating your services and products from others which can result in boosting your sales and revenues.
Even studies have shown that almost 86% of customers are ready to pay more when it’s a better CX we are talking about. And to improve your CX, you gotta pay attention to your customer experience design methodology as it is through improving the UX, it will be possible to enhance the customer experience.
For example, to keep receiving customer feedback, you need to make the channel easy to find which involves creating better UX.
How UX And CX Are Connected?
But wait, not everything is CX vs UX. There are certain similarities between them too.
When it comes to ensuring a better experience as well as value to the people and boosting business profits, both UX and CX are very much connected.
A seamless experience across a brand’s applications, website, and physical stores is something that everyone wants these days. And, the way UX and CX complement each other, it’s together that they can ensure a better outcome.
Take the example of the holographic lens, created by the Lowes Innovation Labs in 2017.
While the holographic lens or the HoloLens, being a piece of technical equipment, comes under the area of UX; you already know what is customer experience design here. Yes, the entire thing of showing customers what to do or how to do, falls under CX. And without UX, such great CX seems impossible.
Do You Need Both UX And CX?
Yes, there are certain differences between these two disciplines. But as technology is getting more and more blended into our everyday lives; UX and CX are, too, believed to get closer.
Sooner or later, the integration of UX and CX is inevitable despite the debate on CX vs UX vs UI.
And to survive and keep growing as a business, your priority should be harnessing your expertise in both of them.
After all, to ensure that all the customer touchpoints are checked for friction, properly optimized and function beyond what competitors have to offer, you need to pay attention to both UX and CX, the two different areas of your organization.
Perfecting the UX and CX Journey for Your Business
In case your business needs professional help in UI UX development, you can get in touch with any company having sheer expertise in this domain.
We have a dedicated team of highly-skilled developers and designers, who are proficient in creating pixel-perfect UX and UI designs from mere scratch. Our designers utilize the best and latest designing practices, and never compromises the usability of your website.
