For any business, the goal is to continue attracting new customers and retain existing ones, all the while ensuring increased customer satisfaction and revenue (not always in this order). Customer experience, or CX, is a crucial part of that; and my has it changed. Rather than a “one-and-done” model where a customer visits your store, website, or app, customer engagement is now ongoing and dynamic.

There are innumerous touchpoints where customers can engage with your brand-website, app, social media, chatbots, and calls centers—and their CX opinions are impacted and formed based on the sum of those parts. As a company, you are likely wrangling questions around customer acquisition, retention, loyalty and lifetime value, and churn. Customers also are influenced by peers, social media, and the way your services and apps are reviewed online.

CX entails tactile experiences (like, was the customer’s need/issue resolved on a call with the contact center?) and it also entails the softer side of humanity (think perception and emotion here). It’s important to address all those feelings so you can better understand your customer and, in turn, make a more delightful experience for them.