Enhanced Definition of Customer Experience
Now that I’ve defined what the customer experience isn’t, let’s take a look at what it is and should be.
In my post “What is Customer Experience” I started with a general definition from Wikipedia. It says that the customer experience is “the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier of goods or services…“
This is definitely a good basic starting point. However, in our society of an open web and social interactions, is it enough?
In a comment, Wim Rampen indicated that in defining the customer experience “a company should try to understand everything about [the experience], is not limited to experiences with the supplier.”
I agree with Wim. Products and services aren’t used and valued in a vacuum. We need to extend the customer experience to everything that influences the customer’s perception of the product.
Wim continues with: “The Customer’s experience with a brand extends all the way to experiences with the product or service itself and/or the partners involved in delivery of the value proposition, to name but a few.”
Going even further, we should include the customer’s social interactions which affect the brand perception. What do I mean? Let’s try a crazy example…
Wild Lawn Maintenance
Let’s say that your company produces lawnmowers but instead of making them red or green, you paint them hot pink. Your customer gets up Saturday morning and goes out to cut his/her lawn with their new hot pink mower.
What kind of reaction and interaction will they get from their neighbours? It will almost certainly bring about comments and discussion but will this be a positive or negative influence and for whom. Your customer may very well get positive comments from people who like the originality but also get negative comments from those who resist change.
This will impact the customer’s experience and their likelihood of purchasing from you again or recommending your product. It will also influence those neighbours who see it and comment on it.
Now, what if, to reduce the price point, your company has skimped on the motor and it is underpowered or needs frequent maintenance? This may take more time to elicit a reaction but their now ill-maintained lawn may elicit negative reactions from neighbours.
Or, let’s say that you want to tout your mowers as being eco-friendly and make them run on alcohol? Your customers may feel good about doing something for the environment which is a positive influence, but will it still be positive when they have to find sources of this alcohol and notice that they’re buying it in plastic 1 litre bottles?
These may seem like ridiculous examples but I wanted to show the breadth of the potential impact. Many things that are outside of your direct control will influence the customer’s perception. If you don’t take them into account, you aren’t looking at the “customer” experience, your still focusing on yourself.
New Enhanced Definition
So let’s try a new enhanced definition of the customer experience that is about the customer.
The Customer Experience is the sum of all experiences that a customer has with or about a specific product or service. This includes interactions with the supplier, related suppliers/distributors/vendors, usage and social interactions. It is about how the customer experiences the product and/or service; not about how it affects the supplier.
What do you think? Am I missing something? Or is it too complex?
Cheers!
Eric
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photo credit: Matt McGee
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Comments
Eric,
You’re absolutely right here. Not only are social interactions an extremely important part of the customer experience, most often they are forgotten when people talk about customer experience.
This also shows the power of communities. If you can have your customers create communities around your products or services it will greatly enhance the customer experience. (think about Harley Davidson measuring customer satisfaction by the number of people that have the Harley logo tattooed on their arm)
Bart.
Hi Eric,
The “total picture” is exactly how customers assess their satisfaction with products and services. Bravo to your post for with just a couple of examples, you have brought the “total picture” into clear focus.
I would add that this is what makes the frontline customer service role not only important but also a true profession. Understanding where the customer is coming from at any moment is as big as the picture you painted above.
Thanks for writing this and I will RT your post on Twitter.
Here’s to the continuing journey of growth from understanding the customer!
Kate Nasser
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach´s last blog ..The Dividends of Professional Workplace People Skills
I’ve been pondering a post on this topic for some time. Perhaps I’ll have a chance to write something this weekend.
I am a proponent of simple definitions whenever possible, but I still think yours is applicable. Loved the examples you gave too.
Tim Sanchez´s last blog ..Follow Friday – Edition #5
Pondering now…I really like this discussion Eric. Really understanding and being able to articulate what “Customer Experience” is to my clients really sets the baseline for all my further discussions. I agree with an earlier comment that the 2nd sentence almost repeats the first. But I see where that wants to include the social component. But to another commenter, tattoos of a product do not represent the customer experience but their satisfaction. I can be satisfied with a product but still unhappy with the overall experience.
Andrew
Andrew Maher´s last blog ..The “Applification” of Customer Service
Hi Eric,
As much as it is important to understand that the Customer Experience is really about how the Customer perceives it, it is of the utmost importance to understand what experience is most important.
I believe that most companies focus too much on non-core experiences, such as external influencing factors outside of the core-experience. Typically these are the elements a company can hardly influence directly, yet seeks actively to do so. My favorite example is actively pursuing positive word-of-mouth through marketing campaigns.. I too believe that wom is important, yet the most authentic & effective way of pursuing this is through excellent delivery of your value proposition.
So, what is the “core-experience”? The best framework to understand this is Customer-jobs & outcomes. In other words: the customer’s experience of getting the job he/she needs to get done, resulting in the outcomes he/she desires.. (people don’t need a drill, the need a hole in the wall; most cheesy, yet clear example).
Of course this requires a Company to understand what job a Customer is trying to get done, and then seeking to understand how he/she goes about doing it (with your product/service). Any company should map this job-to-be-done experience from the Customer’s perspective.
One great example is this Starbuck Experience Map.
Take a close look at the 1st “touch point”, which starts at the office where the Customer decides to grab a coffee and work on a design report. This is valuable “job-to-be-done” information and there is a lot to be found on that “job” throughout the experience map.. All feedback/knowledge/information of significant value to Starbucks when they are redesigning the “customer experience”.
Lot’s more to discover in the map. I’ll leave that up to you. Bottom line: keep a clear focus on the elements of the Customer experience that matter to your Customers most. My take is that the key element is best found through a thorough analysis of the Customer’s job and mapping the Customer’s experience of getting that job done..
What do you think?
Wim Rampen
@wimrampen on twitter
http://wimrampen.com
@Wim @Eric Enjoyed your thoughtful comments. I have been a business coach for a number of years and have used a model we call content/context.In essence we encourage managers to “chunk up” to answer the question “what’s this really about” and “chunk down” when we need to look at specific activities/problems/solutions. My concern with much of the discussion around the roles in business which “own” the customer experience is that at the highest contextual level their underlying aim is to sell more product to make more profit. I believe we need to create at least one new cross functional role which has as it’s context, listening, understanding and feeding back to the traditional silos of a business. In doing this we get rid of the “it’s all common sense”, “we do that anyway” “of course we know what our customers think” attitudes that are currently so hard to eliminate/change. Of course as CEO of Clienteerhub.com I’m keen on the new concept of a Clienteer, but more important is the recognition that new market conditions and the empowered customer requires new roles, new competencies and even new structures. Add to this the potential for social learning and we have a fantastic opportunity to change the business world.
Ray Brown´s last blog ..Porter Airlines Redefines Travel and Customer Experience
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Hi Eric I like your first sentence. I might add in the word “business” somewhere because a customer can interact with a business independent of the actual product or service e.g. he might see an interview with the CEO on TV speaking about a non product/service related related topic. The second sentence I think is seeking to “cover all the bases” and that seems like a big ask.