What is best-in-class customer experience, and how can It be defined?

Have you ever encountered the term 'best-in-class experience'? If so, you're not alone. When you see 'best-in-class experience,' they mean 'best-in-class customer experience,' which is called CX. In today's competitive market, delivering exceptional customer experiences is no longer a luxury; it's a necessity. As a company, we all play a crucial role in defining what 'best-in-class' truly means and how it's achieved. It's not just about individual efforts but a collective mission we're all part of, making each of us an integral part of the journey towards excellence. Your contribution is invaluable in this collective effort. 

So, what exactly makes an experience' best-in-class'? And how can businesses take the lead in identifying and implementing strategies to achieve this coveted standard? The responsibility lies with us, and we have the power to make it happen. For instance, a customer service representative can influence the experience by providing timely and accurate information, while a product developer can shape the experience by creating user-friendly and innovative products. In our respective roles, each of us has the power to influence and shape the customer experience, making us all powerful agents of change.

Experience is subjective, influenced by factors such as exposure to the service/product, level of observance, and individual behavioural patterns. But how do we define it? There's no one-size-fits-all answer. However, the key, which cannot be overstated, lies in a holistic understanding of your customers' needs, wants, behaviours, motivations, touchpoints, and triggers. By designing your business, services, and products around these insights, you can truly elevate the customer experience, and each of us, in our unique roles, contributes significantly to this understanding.

When defining experience, there are three critical paradigms for any business. 

• Customer experience (CX) 

• User experience (UX)

• Customer service (CS)

Imagine CX as an end-to-end journey where design and customer service are a subset that complements your overall CX journey.

Customer experience (CX)

It's a broad term that encompasses all aspects of a customer's interaction (offline and online) with our company, from initial brand awareness to > first contact done by us > business onboarding > becoming a happy customer. CX directs everything an organisation does to provide outstanding experiences, value, and growth for our customers.

We all experience this every day. How? We all intuitively understand what separates good CX, or customer experience, from evil. Envision: When you visit the restaurant, are staff members attentive? If you are a regular, do they greet you by your name? Was the restaurant designed intuitively? Do they take your order promptly and serve your food with a smile? Is it promptly determined if you have an issue, or is someone sent to assist you? Do they proactively reach out to understand your overall experience? All of those questions touch on elements of customer experience (CX).

User experience (UX)

At its core, UX design is about understanding and improving the user's overall experience when interacting with a product, tool, system, or service. It's a user-centric approach that considers all aspects of the user's interaction, from ease of use to the interface's intuitiveness and even the enjoyment of the experience. This approach is what sets good UX design apart, as it aims to create products that are not just functional but also deeply satisfying and enjoyable for users. 

UX design involves not just designing intuitive interfaces, but also deeply understanding user needs and behaviors. This understanding is gained through extensive research and testing of the product with real users. By doing so, we ensure that the product not only meets but exceeds their expectations, making them an integral part of the design process.

Customer service (CS)

Customer service (CS) is a crucial part of the customer experience, especially when customers reach out for support during their end-to-end journey. Whether it's by phone, message, email, or help centre, CS plays a significant role in shaping the overall customer experience. We have all had a bad experience with some company's CS, and it's a reminder of the importance of this aspect of CX.

How do we define customer experience (CX)?

Below is an example from one of my project

By developing a comprehensive understanding of our customers, adopting their perspective, and envisioning their entire journey, we can optimise all touchpoints, tools, services, and interactions. This approach, though unconventional, is the cornerstone of strategy. 

Let's shift our focus from the satisfaction at various individual touchpoints to the overall customer experience. This broader perspective can include many things before, during, or after the customer experiences a product or service. This shift in perspective not only motivates us to enhance the journey but also opens up new opportunities for improving customer satisfaction and loyalty, inspiring us to think differently about our approach. 

For example, a customer journey can include onboarding, how a business starts dialogues, how customers are exposed to your business processes and products, how they learn how to use a tool/service/product, the disconnected points, and the end. By doing this, we can focus on reimagining our holistic approach to service functions. This shift not only empowers us to solve issues within the context of the overall journey but also makes us more capable of providing a seamless customer experience, giving us the confidence to tackle any challenge. 

Across the tech and non-tech industries, ample evidence exists that attending to complete customer journeys instead of touchpoints can drive more substantial business outcomes. For instance, Starbucks has successfully crafted a customer journey that begins with the inviting aroma of its coffee, continues with the personalised service at the counter, and ends with the satisfaction of a well-made beverage. Airbnb created detailed journeys for customers and property owners to map out stages and connections. These success stories inspire confidence in the potential of our proposed strategies. 

Similarly, Tesla has reimagined the car-buying journey, from initial online research to in-person test drives, software, charging stations, and post-purchase service. This journey is designed to be seamless, with no 'disconnected points' or areas of dissatisfaction, ensuring a consistent and positive experience. These examples show that we can reinvigorate our customer experience.

Moving from touchpoints to journeys

These three key efforts can help us move from individual customer touchpoints to understanding and improving the entire customer journey:

1. Observe: Step into your customers' shoes. What do they see and experience? This exercise helps organise and mobilise employees around customer needs, giving us empathy when making business decisions. In addition to identifying and understanding the customer's journey, you'll need to quantify what matters to customers and define a clear aspiration and common purpose.
   
   
2. Form: When we design customer experiences, we can reshape interactions into different sequences, such as the order in which a customer interacts with our products or services. Even if our action starts small, it can quickly expand and involve digitising processes, reorienting company culture, and agile refinements. This transformative potential should inspire us to innovate and transform our work.
   
   
3. Act: Pushing the change to prioritise journeys is a journey in itself. It's a marathon that takes time and requires in-depth concentration from everyone in the company, from leaders to the front line. This dedication and perseverance are not just essential; they're the key to the success of our customer experience strategy. It's a long journey, but one that we're committed to seeing through.

Comprehending the core components of CX

These critical components can help create a best-in-class customer experience for our business. 

• Customer centricity: It all starts with understanding our customers. We need to make the customer the centre of everything we do by deeply understanding their needs, preferences, and pain points. This understanding connects us to our customers, allowing us to empathise with their experiences and needs.
  
  
• Emotional connection: Humans are emotional creatures, whether we belong to B2C or B2B. A solid emotional connection with our customers is not just lovely; it's critical. It makes them feel valued, understood, and appreciated, fostering a sense of loyalty and trust.
  
  
• Seamless journey: A cohesive and consistent experience is the key to creating a seamless and enjoyable customer journey. Focus on eliminating friction points and ensuring a consistent experience across all products/tools/services.
  
  
• Personalisation: Our customers/partners are humans, and humans love personalised experiences. So, empower customers to personalise their experiences based on their preferences, behaviour, and history.
  
  
• Proactive service: By anticipating customer needs and providing solutions before they even ask, you show our customers that we care about their experience and are committed to meeting their needs.
  
  
• Consistent quality: Be resistant to consistency and quality. Deliver consistent, high-quality experiences every time.
  
  
• Leverage technology: The future is bright when we use technology to enhance customer experiences and streamline processes. Let's embrace this opportunity to improve our services.

CX is a vast topic in itself. I hope you had some takeaways from this article. If you are interested in CX or have any questions about CX or this article, feel free to reach out me :)