User Experience and Customer Experience: What’s the Difference?

While user experience and customer experience may sound like different terms for the same thing, nothing could be further from the truth. There’s a distinct difference that marketers and businesses should be aware of when targeting audiences, particularly where web design is concerned.

A good web designer knows how to bring in the wider context of the customer journey into their work, considering each stage from research through to purchasing a product or service. But they’ll also need to incorporate features that enhance the user experience as well. Here are the key differences between user experience and customer experience.

What is User Experience?

User experience focuses on the overall experience that someone has with a product, whether it’s a website, an app or something else entirely. For someone designing a product, this means looking at the visual impact of it as well as how easy it is to navigate and use. It also encompasses factors such as page loading speed and interactivity.

These vital signs form part of the page experience ranking signal that has an impact on search engine rankings. The overarching goal of user experience is to ensure that the user has a positive journey from start to finish.

What is Customer Experience

The scope of customer experience is much broader than user experience, as it extends beyond just using the specific product. It encompasses all channels and touchpoints that the customer has with a brand, from customer service to the sales process, advertisements, product delivery and more. In order to influence a positive customer experience, all facets of a brand’s strategy need to be aligned.

How UX and CX Work Together

A great example of seeing how UX and CX work in conjunction is an online retailer that sells spectacles. The user experience side of this process would involve the potential customer creating an online account – the navigation and visual layout of the site impacts how easily they can do this and whether they are able to fulfil their objective.

But perhaps the user finds the process of inputting their prescription and size details confusing and complex. This is where customer experience comes into play.

The user then speaks to a customer service assistant who can tend to their issues quickly and provide a positive experience through explaining the process, even offering a discount for their next purchase.

This is an example of negative UX but positive CX, but of course, the situation can easily work the other way around as well. For any business, consistency is key and it’s important that both UX and CX are carefully considered for a positive brand reputation.

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How Can UX Be Used to Improve CX?

User experience has enormous influence over customer experience and there are strategies that brands can employ that will help them ensure that all customers have a positive user and customer experience when dealing with the business.

Firstly, it’s important to ensure that users have easy access to contact details. This includes plenty of clear and visible calls to action, easy contact forms that are quick to complete and live chat options, as well as prominent contact details so people can get in touch.

It’s also vital that users have a quick route to purchase and a streamlined journey that makes it as simple as possible to research the product or service they need and checkout.

From an online perspective, quick page loading speeds, visual stability in the form of consistent page features and mobile-friendly websites all contribute towards a positive user and customer experience.

You want to ensure that customers are able to interact with your brand as easily as possible, not just online but also in person as well, so that they have a stress-free interaction without any frustrations.

Final Thoughts

It’s important to balance both user experience and customer experience in all areas of your business. Not only does this help influence your brand’s reputation with audiences but it’s also important to SEO and page rankings as well. Having a combined knowledge of SEO, UX and CX makes a massive difference to the success of any marketing strategy, so it’s well worth investing time into.

At Artemis, we are specialists in both customer experience and user experience and we would be happy to help you optimise your site for both. Get in contact with us today to learn more.