Shep Hyken’s recent article titled, “We All Know What CX Means, But What about EX, WX, DX, UX, and More?,” is a tongue-in-cheek look at how customer service experts like to label everything as some kind of experience to manage. On this blog, we usually discuss the Customer Experience (abbreviated CX), but the others Hyken mentions are important as well: these include Employee Experience (EX), Web Experience (WX), and Digital Experience (DX). He even amusingly comes up with some others, including Nap Experience (NX) and Procrastination Experience (PX) to poke a little fun.
All of these terms—the real ones, not the ones about naps and procrastination—probably evolved from User Experience (UX), a term coined in 1993 by Don Norman, a cognitive psychologist and designer working for Apple Computer. As he put it, “I invented the term because I thought human interface and usability were too narrow: I wanted to cover all aspects of the person’s experience with a system, including industrial design, graphics, the interface, the physical interaction, and the manual.” But the concept goes back even further to Bell Labs pioneering “human-centered design of interactive systems” in the 1940s with telephones, according to the Nielsen Norman Group.
This holistic strategy of considering every element of a person’s experience with a product (or, indeed, with the company that sells it) is the foundation of all these experience-philosophies. Beyond mere labels, these ideas should inspire us to be thoughtful about, well, everything. While we prioritize the customer experience, we should remember this includes components like our web presence (including on social media), what it’s like to visit our businesses and interact with our employees, and how they use our products and services. This includes our employees’ experiences as well, as a staff that is challenged but not overwhelmed, empowered but not unmanaged, and supported but not untrusted, is going to make everything better for everyone.
Striking the correct balance and accounting for all of these components takes thoughtful consideration. And lots and lots of data. As powerful as instincts are, no business owner or manager should ever be so foolish so as to not verify his own assumptions.
We at The Brandt Group use a number of tools to effectuate the whole experience. These include mystery shopping, feedback surveys for customers and employees, as well as leadership training. We help our clients evaluate their physical locations, their web presence, and even their over-the-phone service. (According to Salesforce, the customer relationship management software firm, nearly three out of five consumers still prefer to call for immediate support!)
We’re able to do what we do so well because we care about all of it. No aspect of your business’s relationship with its customers or employees should remain unexamined, and we’re here to empower you to take charge of your CX, EX, and every other kind of experience that matters. If you’re ready make every aspect of your business a priority, let’s have that important conversation today.
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