What is customer experience (CX)?

CPE matters especially for tech companies. This is what separates good from truly lovable software. As you might expect, fully achieving a CPE is not easy — it requires an enterprise-wide effort. But as a product builder, you are in a unique position to influence your colleagues to help create an exceptional customer experience.

Jump ahead to the sections in this guide:

• Why does customer experience matter?

• What contributes to a positive customer experience?

• Who manages customer experience?

• Mapping the customer journey and building a better experience

Why does customer experience matter?

If you want customers to care about your product, you need to care about how they feel. It is not enough to provide a good product at a competitive price when so many other factors impact how you gain and retain customers. You also need to think about how your product is discovered, delivered, and supported.

A quality customer experience can become a key differentiator — helping to distinguish your product from competitors and build a strong relationship with customers over time. For example, you might choose one product over another similar one because the company is better known for its exceptional customer service.

Over time, a sustained investment in customer experience can result in increased revenue, greater brand loyalty, lower churn, and long-term business growth.

Here are a few statistics that help to show just how much CX matters:

• 81 percent of businesses currently or plan to differentiate by customer experience

• 13 percent is the average price premium customers are willing to pay when provided with a positive customer experience

• 32 percent of customers would stop buying a product they love after one bad experience with the business

It boils down to this — when you think holistically about what you offer and focus on improving the entire experience, customers are more likely to feel appreciated, understood, and respected. In turn, these positive interactions are more likely to turn customers into loyal advocates.

Related: Major trends shaping the future of product development

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What contributes to a positive customer experience?

Outstanding customer experiences are created when you can successfully deliver all seven CPE elements — marketing, sales, technology, supporting systems, third-party integrations, support, and policies.

When everyone works together to create a CPE, customers enjoy a more seamless experience. Doing this requires each team to look beyond the specific touchpoint(s) they are responsible for and adopt a more holistic view of your offering.

Here is a closer look at the different aspects of CPE that help to improve the customer experience:

1. Marketing is how potential customers learn about your product and determine if it could help solve their problem. Common marketing methods include digital ads, online reviews, social platforms, and company-published content.

2. Sales interactions help customers decide whether or not to make a purchase. As they evaluate your offering, customers might read reviews, speak to a member of your sales team, or sign up for a trial.

3. Technology refers to the core set of features or services that customers will pay for and use. (For non-tech companies, "technology" could refer to another type of product.)

4. Supporting systems make it possible for your company to deliver your product or service (e.g., billing, logistics, analytics, and more). Customers will rarely see these internal systems but they still impact your CX.

5. Third-party integrations enable customers to seamlessly incorporate new products into their existing workflows and toolset.

6. Support is everything that helps customers achieve something meaningful with your product. This could mean answering customer questions, providing training and self-help resources, and understanding what customers want most out of your product.

7. Policies govern how you do business and how team members should act. For example, you could have a flexible, no-questions-asked return policy or more strict guidelines with fewer exceptions. Policies like these can impact CX positively or negatively.

It is important to note that performing well in each area is not enough to achieve a CPE — you must also ensure consistency between touchpoints. For example, the values and messages you share in the marketing stage should be upheld by the support you provide. Otherwise, your CPE will fall apart. Transparent communication and frequent collaboration are key to keeping everyone aligned.

Related: Marketing messaging templates

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Who is responsible for managing the customer experience?

Everyone in the organization is responsible for delivering a complete offering that delights customers. But of course, some functions are more closely involved in CX than others. (The elements of CPE will give you a hint.)

In many organizations, managing CX is a cross-functional effort involving marketing, sales, support, engineering, and especially product management. These core groups have the best understanding of customer needs and wants and the deepest investment in the success of the product.

Related: What is the role of product management in enterprise transformation?

However, some larger organizations hire dedicated CX leadership roles. Some also create CX teams that focus exclusively on building customer-centric experiences at scale. This is most helpful for companies with vast product portfolios where the CX may become disjointed across many teams.

Here is a quick overview of some CX-specific roles:

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