Importance of customer experience design (CX)

In today's highly competitive market, people have a variety of brands or entities to turn to when they need a product or service. For a company to stand out and build a lasting relationship with its customers, it must offer the possibility of living an entire experience during the purchasing process. 

• What is Customer Experience (CX)?
• What is CX Design?
• Why is CX Design important for companies?
• What tools can be used?

What is "Customer Experience"?

The relationship between a company and its customers is based on different types of interactions through different points of contact, whether physical or digital. Depending on the quality and the experience lived in each of these moments, customers establish their level of satisfaction with the purchasing process.

When we talk about the "buying process" we refer to the different stages involved in the Customer Journey, from the moment a need or problem to be solved arises, the different existing options are researched through search engines, and the list is filtered, until finally the purchase decision is made and the transaction is carried out.

Thus, the customer experience is a set of moments in which the consumer and the brand come into contact. Now, that experience can be positive or negative, depending on the strategies that the company has, and that is where it is important to consider the Customer Experience Design.

What is CX Design?

"Customer Experience Design" is a strategic process carried out by CX designers to optimize the customer experience and ensure maximum shopper satisfaction. This requires understanding processes as well as people to align strategies, actions, and technology with customer needs.

Why is CX Design important for companies?

Nowadays, people have informed consumers, they have information just a couple of clicks away and this gives them access to various options quickly. If a user has a need, he will seek to solve it in the shortest time possible, in his way, and hope that the chosen brand meets his expectations, otherwise, he will look for the next option.

At an accelerating rate, more customers are prioritizing experiences over everything else when it comes to choosing a brand, which means that providing a good customer experience puts the company ahead of the competition.

Therefore, it becomes critical to understand customers; their process, motivations, frustrations, emotions, desires... to adapt the company's process to the customer's, generating memorable experiences that will make people choose the brand over others.

• Buyer Persona

This tool is used to represent a semi-fictional character created according to the business objectives. Buyer Personas are ideal customer profiles and are built based on demographic and attitudinal characteristics.

The use of this tool allows companies to understand the objectives, needs, behaviors, and expectations of ideal customers, i.e., it is the basis for creating any marketing, sales, or service strategy.

If you want to read more about it:

A three-step guide to building your buyer persona

Buyer Persona: the key to the success of your business strategy

Make your buyer persona memorable for your team.

• Customer Journey (Map)

It is a methodology that allows understanding the buying process, physical and/or digital, of each Buyer Persona. By applying it, the stages of the process, objectives, motivations, pains, and emotions of customers are identified, and then an analysis is performed to define opportunities for improvement of internal processes.

In addition, the Customer Journey Map is the visual representation of this process.

Read more about it:

Improve your customer experience through the Customer Journey

Customer Journey in the Retail Industry