Try not to confuse customer experience (CX) with user experience (UX), quite a number of people are under the impression that they mean the same thing. For those that may not know the difference between the two, here is a quick summary before diving into the main reason for this article.

CX concerns itself with how customers perceive the sum total of all interactions they have with a brand across every touchpoint. It is how they feel about your brand as a whole because they have encountered your customer support team, engaged with you on social media or unwrapped your product from its packaging. Usually, CX is measured by looking at satisfaction levels, the likelihood of customer advocacy or brand recommendations, typically factors that reflect how customers feel about your brand in totality.

UX on the other hand, is a subset of CX focused on the interactions consumers have with your products, services or systems i.e physical products, websites, apps and more. Usability (the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use) is a core aspect of UX, hence why UXers use task completion rates, time spent on task and abandonment rates as key success measures. Here you would usually encounter more designers, engineers etc.

So CX is much broader and envelopes UX, but the common denominator in both cases is the customer and the idea of building around them.

Now back to the subject matter. Marketers must transcend the limited version of their role in an organisation to thinking more about customer experience and carrying the rest of the organisation along.

Customers are demanding more

Not that customers ever demanded less of companies but with more empowerment comes higher expectations. The internet and technology have empowered the consumer with choices, access to information that was once asymmetrical, a larger voice to complain in a way that is more amplified and likely to have a bigger impact on your organisation.

With this comes the trends around instant gratification (consumers wanting things at quicker speed), consumers demanding more personalisation (wanting to feel like their individual needs are being met) and convenience (the ease and seamlessness of processes and more). It is likely that if you fall short, there are alternatives in the market for them.  Companies are already leveraging digital in transforming experiences (e.g. using the interplay between mobile apps and beacons to personalise a customer's in-store shopping experience) and eliminating unnecessary processes in the customer journey.

This is a wake-up call. The consumer has never been more important. The cost of customer acquisition keeps going up and more than ever to truly compete you should be able to garner loyalty and advocacy. Businesses such as Apple, Nike and Disney have been able to hone CX and are a testament to why this works. Customers keep coming back and advocating for brands when they know a company is guaranteed to deliver and excite.

Marketing must go beyond the ‘4Ps’ (product, price, promotion, place) to ensure every single brand interaction leaves the customer satisfied.

Take Apple, for example, they are obsessive about customer experience. This includes the sleek product usage experience, the delightful store experience, the concierge-style product support at the Genius Bar and the friction-free in-store checkout. There is a certain level of simplicity, fluidity, excitement and consistency to the experience that keeps customers coming back and has fashioned millions of brand advocates around the world. If every company is as obsessive about each customer interaction, we just might have a million more Apples. It is in the process, the packaging, the advertising, the whole works.  

Steve Jobs understood the role Marketing played in getting the Apple brand to where it is and how it goes beyond one encounter with the customer. It is a continuous investment in ensuring that each experience reflects what the brand stands for in the customer's mind. Some have even called CX the new brand, but this is just a reminder that how a brand is perceived does not stop at the company logo but every point you get to make an impression on your customers matters.

It may take a village to get CX right but Marketing is equipped to lead the charge

To elevate CX, the whole organisation must get in line, front line and C-Suite included because the way you think about the organisation must change. Once you are thinking about CX as a whole journey the customer takes with you, you will be looking to make changes in almost every element and that means it requires all possible organisational support. It is a cross-functional effort but it is one that starts with the customer.

Marketing is particularly tasked with being an expert on the customer and the nature of the role makes this possible. A quick google search on marketing’s role in an organisation and you might see them being referred to as, promoters, communicators, customer relationship drivers, ‘revenue drivers’ according to Peter Drucker; however, the key reason marketing exists is to be the go-between the organisation and customers. Their central role is anticipating and meeting the needs and wants of customers, including using research and data to contribute to product development, delivering on the brand promise and ensuring that businesses are listening to customers and improving.

When you think about most of the channels through which customers interact with a business, there is usually a marketing team member present or at least assigned to manage it; from social media to e-commerce sites. Marketers are increasingly becoming the custodians of most of the customer data and analytics that hold a lot of the answers to the questions organisations ask and they are already using this data and tools to improve effectiveness across channels. Marketers also often have consumer psychology knowledge, meaning they are likely to also have answers to the ‘why’ behind the data. They have the sensitivity to customer groups and how they differ in their goals and expectations and how indeed determinants of customer experience will vary from group to group, at different points. Armed with all these, who better to lead the charge?

Then again, it also depends on how your organisation views Marketing as a function. Does your organisation view the function’s core responsibility tactically, so dealing mainly with communications channels or are they seen more strategically as the ‘customer whisperers’ ensuring every function understands the customer and can meet their expectations.

The problem with no one owning CX is accountability. Owning CX does not mean it happens in silos, it means it is someone's job to get everyone in line. Maybe we should make this clearer in the CMO’s job description. They must become the customer whisperers amongst the C-Suite and ensure that all functions have the customer information and sensitivity they need to deliver on CX because information sharing is a big part of moving this forward. CEO’s may also choose to own CX and push the customer agenda from the core of the organisation’s culture but it still doesn’t take away from the fact that Marketing would be the crux to getting this right. They have the data, they deal with the customers and they probably know the customers best. It is now about getting everyone in the organisation to start thinking about the customer first.

If you would like to learn more or would like help with your CX strategy, please get in touch with us at studio@thethreadgroup.com

Oyin Awosika is a Director at The Thread Group. With her Retail and FMCG background, she focuses on Marketing and Customer Strategy, helping businesses leverage data and craft solutions to meet the ever-evolving needs of their customers. She is also guiding clients on their journey to transform brand interactions and experiences with the design-led Studio team.