Customer Experience Vs. Usability

I spend a considerable amount of time researching the topic of Customer Experience. After just a little bit of time, it becomes clear that the area is confusing and a bit amoebic in nature.

So, I thought it might pay to spend some time distinguishing between two terms that seem to get intermingled:

Customer Experience vs. Usability

Customer Experience = Value + Customer Service + Usability + Emotional Engagement

By this equation, I mean that the Customer Experience is the aggregation of the value a customer perceives, the interaction with the brand and how the brand makes them feel emotionally. Different brands leverage this equation in very different ways...which is exactly how it should work. Each individual company needs to look at the overall equation and determine how to apply their strategic formula - recognizing that the formula can vary across customers.

Conversely, Usability refers to how easy it is for a customer to interact with the brand. Recently, this word has been most applied to the usability of a web application or internet interface. However, it should be used to describe the accessibility and usability of the customer interface, regardless if it is web, call center, store, mail or telephone based. Customers have needs and they want to engage the brand. Usability describes how easily the customer can engage the brand to meet their needs.

I'd like to distinguish that usability IS an important part of the customer experience, but only a finite and limited part. Usability does not equal Customer Experience. No amount of usability reengineering can solve your customer experience problems. Usability is only one step in a long customer experience process that, when viewed holistically, includes the customer attraction (before), interaction (during), and cultivation (after) processes. I'd suggest taking a look at Clearbrick's free quick reference guide to get the big picture of the total customer experience process and what it entails.

In short, usability may be used to describe an attribute of a single customer touch point whereas customer experience is an aggregation of actions, perceptions, and emotions that are invoked when a customer passes through all phases of the customer experience.

Customer Experience in the Air

Over my career, I've spent a significant amount of time in the air. In fact, I've probably averaged 2-3 flights per week around the country and internationally over the last 10 years. That's a lot of frequent flier miles!!

In an age where competition is continually moving away from production and toward the customer experience, I find it interesting that the airlines industry has moved the other way. Largely, I have found that the large carriers have moved away from elements of the experience that differentiate and have moved to commoditize themselves.

There are, of course, a few exceptions. I'd call out Midwest Airlines, Southwest, JetBlue and Virgin Airlines as providing unique and differentiating customer experiences. In fact, recently, these airlines have consistently outperformed other airlines. Interestingly though, they find unique and different ways to differentiate. Southwest is bare bones, but consistent. Midwest gives you supreme service, first class seats, and my favorite...chocolate chip cookies.

See the Airlines Customer Satisfaction Scores Here

I find that the airline industry is an ideal industry for evaluating the customer experience and how companies can use the customer's experience to create a competitive advantage. The big airlines are prime for ClearBrick's Customer Experience Solution.

Age of the Customer

I was thinking recently about the transformation of the retail market. It may be obvious to others, but isn't always apparent. Over time, the demands on the retail market have changed dramatically. In the 1950s, variety was the spice of things for retailers. Consumer products were being introduced to meet a wide variety of needs and retailers were growing by making more items available in more locations - offering variety.

In the 1970s, the age of the department store emerged, with single stores that would offer a very large variety of goods, taking advantage of the small mom and pop, narrowly focused competition.

Then in the 1980s and the 1990s, the age of supply chain. Wal-Mart emerged as the behemoth that drove prices down through scale and supply chain efficiency. Many in the press wrote about 'The Wal-Mart Effect' and that Wal-Mart would rule the world. However, now, there is something else emerging, and that is the age of the consumer.

You can see that the competitive landscape is shifting to focus more on the consumer and differentiation in their mind. Take Target for example. They were once thought of as an also-ran to Wal-Mart, yet today, they have a very vibrant business that is clearly differentiated from Wal-Mart on the point of Customer Experience.

I project that Customer Experience will continue to be the new battle field of retailers, small and large alike. And, further, I project that the lines between retailers and consumer products companies will continue to blur, making Customer Experience a topic that companies up and down the value chain will need to deal with.

If you are interested in more information, I'd recommend downloading Clearbrick's Customer Experience Quick Reference Guide. This is the initial component of Clearbrick's Customer Experience solution.

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ClearBrick will target a growing do-it-yourself trend in the business industry. Small and medium enterprises are increasingly relying on resources available on the internet to improve and grow. In addition, larger businesses have been building their internal capacity to do work that was traditionally handed to consultants. As a result, businesses are increasingly seeking proven advice and tips to support their internal business improvement projects.

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