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Building a Modern Day Contact Center: Where UX meets CX

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There has been plenty of hype around experience – User and Customer in the business circuit. More so in today’s digital age. These are the times of using omnichannel technology to deliver a holistic customer experience. The business-customer interactions have evolved and are no more limited to just a call or an email. Now, everything is available on either a website, mobile or social media. Unlike in the past, customers today are well informed and a lot more empowered. Keeping up with that, brands are also working on delivering a holistic experience for both, their employees and the customers.

Truly successful brands are the ones who are able to strike the right balance between the needs of the employees and demands of the customers. But first, we need to understand what do customer experience (CX) and user experience (UX) mean. Thereon, we will illustrate the differences between the two. Lastly, we will close the discussion by chalking out the map for a modern-day contact center which successfully delivers a great CX and UX.

What is User Experience?

UX is the consumer’s experience with a brand’s product. It could be, a website, software or an app. User experience is the includes the interface design – its usability, ease of navigation, architecture, visual hierarchy. Abandonment rate, error rate and clicks to completion, etc. can be some of the measures to quantify UX. The target of the UX designers thus is to ensure product designs are in accordance with the need of targeted buyer persona to provide an enjoyable experience.

What is Customer Experience?

CX is the new kid on the block and that too a popular one. CX is the perception of the customers about their interactions with the brand. The importance of CX is further highlighted in a Forrester report, stating,

“84% of companies aspire to be CX leaders, only one in five deliver good or great CX.”

CX is more of an umbrella term, including the general or overall experience a customer has with a brand. It can be measured by, net promoter score, customer loyalty, and customer satisfaction.

Differentiating Between CX and UX

CX and UX are both similar and interdependent. Yet, there are some differences between the two. CX involves the overall consumer experience. Including all the products and channels of the brand. Whereas, UX tends to focus on a specific product – app or website. Also, traditionally, CX as a term was used extensively in the service industry as hospitality, to map the customer journey and identifying key touch points whereas, UX is about the digital products.
Have a look at the following illustrations to better understand the difference.

Bad CX and Good UX

Suppose you buy a software to improve the operational efficiency in your company. Once implemented, the interface is easy to understand and use, the navigation is smooth. But, you encounter some glitch while scaling up the operations and contact the software providing company for customer support. They don’t pay much heed and thus, there is a quite a delay in problem resolution.
While you were satisfied with one aspect of the product, the other went horribly wrong. Bad CX could not compensate for a good UX.

Bad UX and Good CX

Due to lack of time, you decide to book a flight ticket via the Airline’s website. But you soon realize what a big mistake it was. The website is non-responsive, hard to navigate and the booking instructions are confusing. Somehow you are done with the ordeal and decide to never book from this Airline’s website.
Though, once you reach the airport, the story takes a different turn – a positive one. The ground staff is very helpful and you got a priority check-in. The in-flight service is excellent and the crew is warm and friendly.
In this case, also, the information architecture was chaotic, leading to a bad UX. But, the other aspect such as priority check-in and helpful staff led to a great CX.

UX meets CX: Contact Center for Agent Experience and Customer Engagement

Businesses are acknowledging the importance of delivering a great CX and UX. An efficient and effective way to achieve that goal is by establishing a sophisticated Contact Center. With them, organizations can ensure high levels of employee engagement by providing them with a customer insight knowledge base. Similarly, they also help in delivering excellent omnichannel customer support.
Since the agents are the face of the brand and the first point of contact for the customers, they need to be empowered with appropriate training and tools to deliver desired customer service. Their systems should be easy to operate and be intuitive to ensure fast and efficient problem resolution. One way to do that is by involving the agents in the system design process. They know their systems best – what works and what doesn’t.

Organizations seek to meet the increasing demands of the customers by improving the operational efficiency. For this, they need to empower the employees with the right systems and information to deliver a fast, consistent and connected customer experience. Thus, the first step towards that is to improve the user experience for your contact center agents.

Conclusion

Although customer experience and user experience are different, they are interdependent. They need to work in tandem to delight the customer and build long-lasting relationships. If CX experts join hands with UX Designers, there can be a true amalgamation of user-friendly design and customer satisfaction.
The fundamental goal of any organization is to build a digital product (website, app, software, etc.) that collaborates well with the needs of the customer and differentiates the brand from its competitors. Giving due importance to CX and UX in your business strategies will make the brand stand out and loved by the users/customers.
Want to start a contact center where smart business meets excellent design? Check out FusionCX platform to empower your agents to deliver excellent customer experience and build better customer relationships.

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