Customer Experience (or User Experience) is often used to describe the interaction between a person and either a product/service, brand, software, or the combination of all of the above.
I define the Customer Experience as being the intended design of any interaction or experience someone has with your brand. Meaning, at any point in the process of your customer interacting with your product or brand, you’ve already considered it’s intended purpose AND the outcome attached to that interaction.
Customer driven design has been around for decades, and should be a major consideration when developing a product or positioning your brand.
Customer driven design means strategies that you put into place, and that are motivated by a group’s (mainly your customers) expectations, behaviors, and/or decision-making factors.
Since your customer is your direct outlet to making money, this would make sense. However, many brands aren’t actually practicing this. Many make assumptions about what customers want. It’s okay to make assumptions, but that’s only a part of the equation. Once you make assumptions, you should be validating them to know for certain if you’re on the right track.
So, how do you define the customer experience?
Gathering Insight
Listening to customer feedback and evolving what’s not working.
Designing Properly
Designing something that improves an existing process or environment for a community or industry.
Cultivating Community
Building and/or maintaining a community of followers by reaching out where they find and share information.
Following Through
Be sure to do what you say, and say what you mean. If you don’t, you lose trust. And, trust is one of your best assets when building a business, brand, or product.
Maintaining Simplicity
Creating a better experience that makes a job, task, or process easier or simpler. This means that your customer will be happy and continue to use your product, service, or solution.
Finding an innovative opportunity means having the opportunity to define a positive experience, and to create measurable outcomes for profitability.
Now it’s your turn: So, how do you define your customer experience? What does that process look like to you?
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I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to leave your thoughts, comments, and feedback in the comments below.
~ Christine