Two CXs you have to deal with

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The Two CXs You Have to Deal With — Customer Experience vs Customer Expectations

You're probably having a CX problem. You may not know it or want to admit it, or may not know how pervasive it is, but you definitely need to find out if you want to make any improvements in it.

Dots. Consider that opening sentence again. " You have a CX . problem …”

However, if not both, is CX being affected by your tracking? Customer experience and/or Customer Expected ? These two CXs are very different but inseparably related.

What is Customer Experience (CX)?

For any organization Customer Experience consists of:

Advertising to consumers

The content they use

Digital experiences they interact with or observe

Non-digital experiences they interact with or observe

Contact information from the company

Representative of the company they contact

The products and services they buy

The customer service they get

Friction or no friction throughout the customer journey

Brand Reputation and Expectations

In a nutshell, it's the sum total of all the interactions a customer has with your brand.

Customer experience is not just a set of actions. It also focuses on feeling. How do your customers or potential customers feel about your brand? At every customer touchpoint, you can improve — or destroy — how your customers perceive you. – Oracle CX

What are Customer Expectations (CX)?

Other CX, Customer Expected This is a completely different topic, but it is inextricably linked with customer experience and relationships.

Let's say your customer places an order with the expectation that it will be delivered in 5 days. When it arrives in three days, your customers are amazed and delighted. Customer expectations were surpassed and all went well.

But if that order arrives after seven days, customer expectations are not met, which can lead to disappointment, dissatisfaction, less than excellent ratings and reviews, and even anger if the delivery such delivery is time-sensitive to the recipient. In no case will the packaging, presentation or performance of the ordered item be affected — in this case, it all depends on the date of delivery.

And unfortunately, that Saturday delivery may have nothing to do with your operations. Delayed weather, labor shortages, cargo ships being piled up at ports, a lot of things can delay delivery after the product leaves your warehouse.

This goes much deeper than delays in shipping. Customer Expectations can be thought of as the balance between what your customers expect to happen and what will happen (other CX). In that simple statement there are two huge problems.

Issue 1: Customer Expectations Change from Customer to Customer

You'll see below a list of 10 key factors that often affect or determine customer expectations. But an individual's exposure to each of those items can result in a very different level of expectation.

Not only are your marketing and operations moving towards one moving target, you are targeting a range of different targets and to varying extents.

In your own experience, consider something as simple as waiting in line, no one's favorite pastime. How long do you wait before you become edematous, then agitated, then angry? At what point do you just leave the line and cancel the quest?

Consider how long you would wait in each of the following situations:

The checkout counter in a grocery store

Tickets to a popular show or event (are people still waiting in line for those?)

A dinner table at a casual restaurant

Department of Motor Vehicles

In the small clinic at your doctor's office (I walked away after waiting 45 minutes.)

You will have your own answers to each of those and each will also be completely situation-based. And so do others because we all have different levels of patience and expectations.

Issue 2: Customer Expectations Are Not Totally In Your Control

Good communication can help customers set long-term expectations. But it can't go all the way in every situation.

Your messaging should be true and consistent throughout the channel review, for initial advertising awareness through written return and warranty policies. The message of expectation should permeate every customer interaction point from the brand's social media posts to the website to the call center scripts.

An inconsistent expectation message is a bug that will disrupt the customer experience. Make sure to check all your expected messages.

With the best, clear, and consistent expectations message firmly applied, you're still dealing with people whose expectations have been shaped (or distorted) by some other factor, at least is 10 to be exact.

The 10 Primary Factors That Set an Individual Customer's Expectations

From the list of 10, how many can your company control?

Yes, maybe half… maybe. Let that reality happen for a moment. Realize that if half of the factors that influence customer expectations are beyond your control, then It will be doubly important that you fully define the factors that you can control. That effort is what will manage and eventually close the gap in expectations.

Harmony between Customer Experience and Customer Expectations

The entire book has been and will be written or customer experience so for our purposes, let's agree that it's the necessary jump between marketing message and action. (We will include the actual product or service as part of the operation.)

Summary of what we have mentioned above:

Much, but not all, of the customer experience is in your control

About half of your customer's expectations are in your control

Do this:

Looking for continuous improvement throughout the customer experience, start with the worst touchpoints first. Formalize process improvement and measurement methods against established goals. Set deadlines for measured improvements.

Check the expected message for all your customer touch points.

From your audit findings, improve the accuracy and empathy of your clients in their communication about what they can reliably expect to happen, that is within your control. Friend. Be true to your promises — you will keep them.

Collect data on customer experience and expectation gaps. Include as part of your customer satisfaction process questions regarding expectations and experiences. When you see patterns that appear or are easily resolved once, target those gaps for improvement.

Be realistic with what you can actually offer on a 100% platform.

Safe Bets Always Promised and Over-Delivered

We all have memories of customer experiences that didn't measure up to our expectations. Some are forgettable, even forgivable, and some are strongly remembered and have changed buying behavior.

There is one particular cruise line that I will never patronize again. That story doesn't interest you, but that experience changed my buying behavior forever.

Make sure you're aligning the customer experience with their expectations to permanently reinforce their buying behavior with your company, and never consider the competition.