Today, every company strives to improve its customer experience (CX). It is a challenging task regardless of the industry you operate in. As new technologies have emerged and consumer expectations changed, the concept of CX has been evolving into something new. As a result, it is hard to pinpoint what CX means today. Also, companies often do not have the resources to make CX improvements on their own, so the question of what customer experience services can bring to the table becomes important as well.
We prepared a comprehensive guide for you that answers these and more questions, providing real-life examples along the way. The guide will cover the following:
- What Does Customer Experience Mean Today?
- Why Customer Experience is More Important Than Ever
- Types of Customer Experience Services:
- Full customer services experience development
- Enterprise UX services
- Customer mobile experience services
- Stand-alone solution for specific touchpoint
- UX & UI design services
- Can UI & UX design and development services involve the latest technologies?
- Customer experience examples in services of top brands
- F. A. Q.
Let’s start.
What Does Customer Experience Mean Today?
Customer experience is how an organization interacts with its clients over the course of their relationship, online and offline. Every CX is comprised of touchpoints — moments when a company interacts with a customer. A touchpoint is any type of interaction with a client, whether it is answering a question at a store, a call to confirm delivery details, cash desk service, or an outdoor ad.
As customers demand more from companies in every industry, the concept of customer experience has expanded beyond commerce. Companies like Google build their campuses approaching employees like retail stores approach customers, that is, aiming at high retention and satisfaction rates.
Where a retail chain would put up a sale, a tech company company offers its employees entertainment, recreation zones, and other bonuses. In this case, customer experience bears the name “employee experience.” Governmental organizations adapt as well, digitalizing and simplifying governmental services for citizens. As a result, more and more subtypes of CX emerge in different industries, indicating that both commercial and other types of organizations give more attention to catering to their customers than ever before — terms like hotel/guest experience, patient experience, event experience, are now the new normal.
Why Customer Experience is More Important Than Ever
It’s not just naming for the sake of naming. According to a sweeping report on customer expectations by Salesforce, 67% of customers said their standards for good experiences are higher than ever, with 51% noting that most companies fail short of their expectations for great experiences.
Salesforce
Every industry is inherently different, so customer experience is different, too. As a result, companies and organizations across industries look at how they interact with clients and improve the experiences based on the nature of the industry, client feedback, and customers’ specific needs. In other words, every industry dedicates more resources to building industry-specific CXs.
For example, hotels do not simply provide a generalised customer experience that rests upon a website, guest services, and a manager who will address guests’ concerns — they think about the big picture, from booking to branded hotel app to new ways to amaze their clients in the face of competition from market disruptors. A generalised customer experience becomes a well thought out hotel experience.
Creating a solid customer experience brings substantial benefits to any organization:
- Strengthens brand/image of a company/organization
- Increases revenue
- Attracts new customers
- Boosts customer loyalty
- Improves customer retention
Most companies do not build customer experiences on their own, more so if they involve the latest technologies — they enlist digital agencies or software and technology companies who offer customer experience services. As the field of customer experience design has been expanding over the years to address the ever-changing customer demand, more services emerged.
Let’s explore them below.
Types of Customer Experience Services
Customer experience services can encompass everything from building a next-generation retail store to creating a mobile app that would converge all services in one place. So CX is as much about building an Amazon Go type of experience as it is about mobile app UX and UI design services.
End-to-End CX Design (Full Customer Services Experience Development)
Every company has a customer experience, but if you aim at meeting customer expectations at every touchpoint, you need end-to-end CX design. One of its main goals is creating a seamless connection between a company’s physical and digital experiences. End-to-end CX design usually encompasses everything from creating intuitive websites and mobile apps to connecting all the company’s systems.
Amazon is a great example. Enabled by the decision to make an Amazon account the heart of the experience, everything in the company’s CX is simple. Whether you want to buy a product, read a book on the device of your choice, shop at an Amazon Go store, watch a TV show on Amazon Prime — everything is interconnected, simplified, and only a few clicks away. A user only needs to register an Amazon account and provide basic details.
Amazon uses virtually every technology available in its CX, from IoT to deep learning to robotics. Still, a comprehensive CX does not have to use everything to achieve solid results, even if it operates on a large scale. For example, a bank can transform its branches with web and mobile, a CRM system, embedded software development, and by redesigning the physical space itself.
Enterprise UX Services
If CX in commerce deals with improving the process of buying goods/services from a company for its clients, enterprise UX development services focus on enhancing enterprise operations so that the company’s employees would work more efficiently and comfortably. A good example comes from Boeing, whose employees now use AR headsets in the wire assembly process instead of continuously consulting manuals. Results are staggering: assembly speed has risen by 25% while errors are down to nearly zero.
See the video below:
Customer Mobile Experience Services
This type of services involves creating a mobile-driven CX where a company’s application is front and center, converging all its services in one place.
For instance, Sweden’s leading insurance provider EuroAccident transferred its insurance process to a simple mobile app. The company’s clients can manage every step easily, from setting appointments to managing insurance for their children. Getting a refund is paperless — a user only needs to make a photo of the check, fill out a few fields, and press a button. The app is also integrated with the country’s most popular booking service, the most widespread banking account authorization system, as well as the company’s IT infrastructure.
EuroAccident
This is service is often offered as part of mobile UI / UX design services, digital transformation services, or UX/UI design and development services.
Stand-alone Solution for Specific Touchpoint
Say, a retail company has everything covered: mobile and web are interconnected, the company gathers user data to better cater to customers, employees at physical stores can anticipate what shoppers might need, and so on. Still, the company wants to strengthen their image and improve their sales further with something fresh.
Emerging technologies provide a solution. A company can opt for creating an Augmented Reality (AR) kiosk for the store (we will explore an Under Armour example below) or install beacons that would be connected to a mobile app, delivering personalised offers at the right place and time.
These services can also be referred to as customer experience IT services, as they involve both software development and sophisticated technology solutions.
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UI & UX Design Services
These are typical UI & UX design services you can find on the websites of most software development companies and digital agencies. They include web design, cross-platform design, mobile app design, and so on.
In the context of customer experience, common UI & UX design services play a secondary role. A company may need them when it already has a solid CX in place, but, for instance, needs to add a new mobile product to it.
Other UI and UX services might also be useful. Say, a big retail company has built a tablet app for their warehouses themselves, but it does not work properly. Turning to a software development company for UI and UX consulting will provide a solution.
Can UI & UX design and development services involve the latest technologies?
Yes, common UX and UI services can involve them. A company can create a website with a virtual reality (VR) feature in mind, or a mobile app with augmented reality. For example, a hotel can set up website-based VR tours of their locations, while an event company can create an AR app allows visitors view immersive AR installations on events’ grounds.
Customer Experience Examples In Services Of Leading Brands
We briefly explored real-life examples of CXs across industries above, but more of them will give you a better idea of what CX is and what shapes it can take.
Full Customer Services Experience — Oasis
The U.K. fashion retailer Oasis has merged its website, app, and store experiences into one seamless CX. Whether customers shop on desktop or a smartphone, they can enjoy the same experience, and it extends further, to the brand’s brick-and-mortar stores. The stores’ sales representatives are armed with iPads, enabling them to give customers accurate product information on the spot, as well as use the tablets as cash registers. If an item is out-of-stock at the shop, the sales representative can book it online and order delivery to the customer’s place of choice. The company’s flagship store also incorporates eating, drinking, and beauty areas.
Oasis’ Flagship Store
Enterprise UX — AF Gruppen
One of Norway’s biggest construction companies has transformed their core processes with the help of mobile, geofencing technology, and ERP software. As AF Gruppen is often tasked with massive projects like building roads, it often needs to set up the necessary infrastructure in the middle of nowhere. Managing the flow of materials as well as numerous partners is also hard.
The solution helps to tackle all these issues. With the mobile app, drivers record the process of loading/unloading materials. Geofencing technology helps monitor the movements of the partners’ representatives at a project location, enforcing security, as well as track time of AF Gruppen’s employees. All the data is synced to and consolidated in the company’s project portal, giving it a bird’s-eye-view of any project.
AF Gruppen
Stand-alone Solution for Specific Touchpoint — Under Armour
For one of its stores, Under Armour created an AR kiosk that lets users apply signature objects of sports stars to their photos: Stephen Curry’s mouthguard, The Rock’s headphones and sunglasses, and other. Plus, users pose alongside a 3D animation of the chosen star and can share the photo on social media right away. The solution refreshes the in-store experience as well as helps Under Armour learn more about their shoppers.
Start building a seamless and engaging CX for your business.
F. A. Q.
What is the difference between customer services and experience design?
A customer service is what a company offers to customers (insurance policy management, package delivery, etc.), while experience design deals with how a company should offer its products or services to customers at every touchpoint (implementing an AI-driven chatbot in an insurance company’s app for customer support, ensuring managing package delivery on desktop is as simple and quick as possible, etc.).
What are customer experience IT services?
Customer experience IT services help companies cover any software and technology needs related to their CXs. This could be anything from a CRM to tablet app for warehouses to AR storefront.
How can I find a fitting partner for UI / UX design or customer experience services?
If you need UX and UI design services, choose between a digital agency and a software development company. The first option will give you more expertise in marketing, the second in software development. Still, an agency can have solid software developers, and a software development company the required marketing expertise, acquired in completing projects similar to yours. As you will be focusing on expertise and completed projects to select the right partner for UI / UX design services, you can search among both.
If you need customer experience services, seek out companies that focus on CX, not simply offer it alongside many other services. This could be an IT/software development company or design agency.
Whether you need to find a partner for UI & UX design or customer experience services, you need to carry out a comprehensive research, especially if you plan a major overhaul of your CX — not too many companies offer end-to-end CX design. You can find fitting companies on websites of consulting companies and research firms like Clutch.co, they rate and profile services providers regularly. Asking your business partners or people you know about a potential partner can help you in finding one for UI & UX design or customer experience services as successfully as in any other case where you need a 100% reliable partner.