As a business owner, providing a positive customer experience is crucial to success. After all, customers who have a positive experience with your company’s customer experience technology are more likely to return and recommend your products or services to others.
Today there are so many buzzwords floating around. It can be hard to distinguish between Customer Experience Management (CEM) and Customer Experience Technology. You might be wondering, what’s the difference? Which one is more important for my business?
Don’t worry; you’re not alone. Many business owners face this same dilemma. In this article, we’ll break down the key differences between CEM and Customer Experience Technology. This will allow you to make informed decisions about improving your customers’ experiences.
5 Differences Between Customer Experience Management and Customer Experience Technology
When delivering a great customer experience, there are two critical areas to consider. The first is Customer Experience Management (CEM). The second thing is Customer Experience Technology.
While both are essential to creating and maintaining a positive customer experience, they have different approaches, goals, and outcomes. Here are five fundamental differences between CEM and Customer Experience Technology:
1. Definition:
It is important to understand the differences between CEM and CET. To do this, it’s essential to start with the definitions of each term.
CEM is a comprehensive and all-encompassing approach to understanding, managing, and improving the customer experience across multiple touchpoints and channels. It is a holistic strategy that uses data, processes, strategies, and tools. With these key items, it provides personalized and consistent experiences throughout the customer journey.
Now let’s talk about Customer Experience Technology. This refers to the variety of software, tools, platforms, and systems used by businesses. These items are used to analyze, measure, and optimize customer experiences. It focuses more on the technical solutions that can help organizations provide the best possible customer experience.
To better understand the differences between these two concepts, let’s look at some examples of each:
CEM:
Let’s say a customer is struggling with an online order they recently placed. They contact the company’s customer support team, who can quickly and efficiently resolve the issue. After the call, the customer receives an email thanking them for their business. They will also receive an apology for any inconvenience caused by the problem. A few days later, the customer also gets a personalized email with recommendations for other products. These are products they may be interested in based on their previous purchases.
CEM, in this scenario, involves a combination of different strategies, processes, and technologies working together to provide a smooth and personalized customer experience. The call center representative may have received training on how to handle customer issues in a way that is empathetic and efficient. At the same time, the email campaigns may have been created using data-driven insights into the customer’s previous purchases and interests.
Customer Experience Technology:
Now let’s consider a different example. All companies are looking to optimize their website’s user experience. This helps them reduce the number of abandoned shopping carts and increase overall sales. To achieve this, they use a variety of technological solutions. These solutions include website analytics tools to track user behavior, A/B testing software to compare different versions of the website, and chatbots to provide real-time customer support.
In this case, Customer Experience Technology is focused primarily on the technology and tools used by the company to analyze, measure, and improve the customer experience. The company’s ultimate goal is to provide a better end-to-end experience for its customers. That being said, its focus is mainly on the technical aspects of achieving that goal rather than the broader strategies and processes involved in CEM.
CEM is a holistic approach focusing on all customer journey aspects. At the same time, Customer Experience Technology is more narrowly focused on technical solutions. These solutions can be used to optimize that journey.
2. CET Scope:
When improving the overall customer experience, it’s essential to understand the scope of Customer Experience Management (CEM) and Customer Experience Technology. While both are vital components in businesses looking to create a great customer experience, they differ in scope.
CEM involves a holistic approach to understanding, managing, and improving customers’ end-to-end experience across multiple touchpoints and channels. This means that CEM covers various organizational activities, including strategy development, employee training, performance measurement, process improvements, and feedback collection.
CET Scope Example:
For example, a company that wants to improve its customer experience might start by surveying its customers to collect feedback on their experiences with the company. Based on this feedback, the company might identify areas where it can improve its processes or employee training to meet the needs of its customers better. This might involve developing new employee training programs, implementing new techniques for handling customer complaints, or even redesigning its website or mobile app to make it more user-friendly.
On the other hand, Customer Experience Technology refers to the various software, tools, platforms, and systems used to help businesses analyze, measure, and optimize customer experiences. Customer Experience Technology focuses on providing technical solutions to support the activities involved in CEM.
For example, a company might use customer analytics software to track customer behavior on its website or mobile app. The software could provide insights into how customers interact with the company’s products or services and how they move through the customer journey. This information could then improve the customer experience by making changes to the website or app that better meet customers’ needs.
3. Functionality:
The functionality of Customer Experience Management (CEM) and Customer Experience Technology may overlap, but these two terms differ significantly in their approach to enhancing the customer experience. CEM involves developing long-term strategies that enable businesses to improve their understanding of the customers’ needs and preferences, which can help them create an exceptional overall customer experience. In contrast, Customer Experience Technology is the set of software tools, platforms, and systems that assist businesses in analyzing, measuring, and optimizing customer experiences.
The basic idea behind Customer Experience Management is to create a personalized and consistent experience for customers throughout their journey with a brand. This includes creating strategies and processes that allow businesses to collect and analyze customer data, such as their preferences, pain points, behaviors, and feedback. With this data, companies can create relevant and engaging customer experiences based on their individual needs and preferences.
Functionality Example:
For example, a hotel chain might adopt CEM strategies that analyze customer feedback to identify common pain points or preferences. If the feedback suggests that customers prefer fast check-ins and check-outs, the hotel might invest in technologies that streamline these processes and make them faster and more efficient. They might also train their employees to be more attentive to customer needs and preferences, such as offering room upgrades or special amenities to frequent customers.
On the other hand, the prime focus of Customer Experience Technology is to provide technical solutions that help businesses implement CEM strategies. Customer Experience Technology includes many tools, such as automation software, analytics platforms, personalization engines, and communication tools.
For instance, a business might use a chatbot to provide instant customer support without requiring them to wait on hold. It might also use analytics tools to track customer behavior, such as the pages they visit on the website, the products they purchase, and the time they spend on the site. Using this data, the business can optimize the customer experience by offering personalized recommendations, promotions, and discounts.
4. Integration:
Integration plays a crucial role in ensuring a seamless and unified customer experience. However, the approach to integration differs between Customer Experience Management and Customer Experience Technology.
Customer Experience Management typically integrates various organizational departments, such as marketing, sales, support, and product development. For instance, suppose a customer contacts a company’s support team with a query. In that case, the support team should have access to the customer’s purchase history and interactions with the marketing and sales departments to provide personalized and practical assistance. This cross-departmental integration ensures that customers receive a consistent experience and reduces the likelihood of miscommunication or frustration.
In contrast, Customer Experience Technology typically pertains to integrating specific technologies within an organization’s single department or area. For example, a company may use a CRM system to manage customer information, an analytics tool to track customer behavior, and a chatbot to automate customer interactions. While these technologies may operate independently, they should integrate to provide a cohesive view of the customer experience. This can help businesses gain insights into customer behavior and preferences, identify pain points, and optimize their processes.
It is worth noting that both approaches to integration are critical for delivering an exceptional customer experience. While cross-departmental integration is vital for ensuring consistency and reducing friction between different touchpoints, integrating specific technologies can provide valuable insights and enable automation, personalization, and other capabilities that enhance the overall customer experience.
5. Skill Requirements:
One of the most significant differences between Customer Experience Management (CEM) and Customer Experience Technology (CXT) is the skills required to implement them effectively. While both require some technical expertise, CEM requires a more comprehensive set of skills, including strategic planning, behavioral psychology, and collaboration with other team members.
Strategic Planning Skills:
CEM requires a strategic mindset that understands the customer journey and can develop suitable strategies to optimize each touchpoint. This includes building a comprehensive understanding of customer needs and preferences through surveys, feedback, and other data sources. The goal is to identify areas of improvement and develop strategies that address them.
For example, a restaurant chain may implement a loyalty program to incentivize repeat visits. The program could offer personalized deals and promotions based on their previous orders and preferences. Providing a seamless and customized experience makes the customer more likely to become a regular visitor.
Behavioral Psychology:
Understanding customer behavior is crucial in developing effective CEM strategies. A deep understanding of customer psychology can help businesses identify specific pain points, preferences, and behavioral patterns that influence their buying decisions. This knowledge can then be used to design personalized experiences that resonate with their needs.
For example, an e-commerce company can use data analytics to look at customer behavior and identify patterns such as abandoned carts. With this data, they can develop strategies to address the issue, like sending personalized follow-up emails or providing a discount code to incentivize the purchase.
Collaboration:
Effective implementation of CEM requires collaboration between team members with diverse skill sets, including marketing, sales, support, and product development specialists. Each team member brings different expertise and insights, making collaboration essential to building a comprehensive and effective CEM strategy.
For example, a healthcare provider may bring together a team of doctors, nurses, and patient support staff to create a seamless patient experience. By collaborating across departments, they can identify potential bottlenecks in the patient journey, develop strategies to alleviate them, and ensure that the patients receive high-quality care.
Customer Experience Technology:
While CEM requires a broad range of skills, CXT focuses on specific technical skills, such as using software tools and platforms to analyze data and make informed decisions about optimizing customer experiences. This requires expertise in data analysis and interpretation to effectively use the technology.
For example, a retailer may use data analytics to track customer behavior and preferences when shopping online. By analyzing this data, they can tailor the shopping experience to each customer, displaying products that they are interested in and offering personalized deals and products.
