The overall impression created by every interaction a person has with a brand before, during, and after a purchase.
A broad view of how easy, useful, consistent, and satisfying the relationship feels.
Short and sweet:
The overall impression created by every interaction a person has with a brand before, during, and after a purchase.
A broad view of how easy, useful, consistent, and satisfying the relationship feels.
See also: Customer Journey, User Experience, Customer Satisfaction
Customer experience is the overall impression someone forms from every interaction with a business, spanning far beyond a single digital product to include things like how a phone call with support felt or how smoothly an in-store return went. Unlike user experience, which focuses specifically on a digital interface, customer experience considers the emotional tone of every touchpoint, digital and otherwise, across the entire relationship. Businesses that treat this holistically, rather than optimizing each department’s piece in isolation, tend to catch the disconnects, like a friendly sales team followed by an indifferent support experience, that a narrower departmental view would likely miss entirely.
Zappos built its entire reputation around customer experience, empowering call center reps to spend hours on the phone or ship surprise upgrades just to leave a shopper feeling genuinely cared for.
Disney is famous for engineering this same feeling down to the smallest detail, training park employees to stay in character and greet guests warmly at every single interaction.
A frustrating return process can undo months of goodwill a retailer built through great products, which is why this overall impression has to hold up even after the sale is technically complete.
